New to forum, recently bought a new Strada

[Massimo1]

Hi everyone. I stumbled on this forum during a Google search and am glad I did. I bought an 07 Strada 6 weeks ago, here in Athens, Greece. I make a lot of stops in my daily travels, so I'd been looking for a good city/work bike (90% of my riding) that I could take occasional highway trips on. My original thought was a Versys 650, but once I got on it, found it too tall for dinking around with parking and such (I am 5'9"). I was always on tippytoes. The V-Strom was just too big and ungainly. I tried a TDM, but that was pure overkill for downtown. The BMW 650 - just too ugly, overpriced, and lacked a fuel guage! Interestingly, the only bike I couldn't rent or test drive was the Strada - but the price was right, it looked great, and it had nice reviews, so I went for it. Mostly I am really glad. It handles unbelievably well. Turns are crisp. It is easy & fun to ride. Athens traffic is mega-congested, so the narrow Strada and upright rider position make it brilliant for filtering, stop and go, dealing with braindead pedestrians, kamikaze scooters, and taxis nosediving to the curbs. I can ride it around the city all day and I simply don't get tired from it. (The V-strom & TDM wore me out). The brakes are great - you need great brakes here. I can't tell you how many times people stop and ask about this bike! On the downside, finding - or rather "discovering" - neutral is a complete nightmare. I don't know if it's my bike or in general, but at least 1/2 the time it is unfindable. I sit there shifting back and forth between 1st and 2nd looking for it. By the time I find it, it's usually time to move. My Aprilia mechanic says maybe at 5000 km it'll be normal, but I see no evidence of the situation improving. If anyone has any ideas about neutral on a Strada, let me know! Mirrors: the 2007 uses the same mirrors as the Factory. They vibrate too much. A couple of other niggles: there is a blinking red light on the display when the bike is off. The dealer doesn't know what it is. The mechanic says its the immobilizer indicator, but I found nothing in the manual about it and the key looks pretty standard. Anyone know? I guess it doesn't matter, cuz if it LOOKS like it has an immobilizer, people will think it does. And the manual, god bless it, says the rear shock is set for a person of 70 kg/210 lb. I hate to have to say this, but 70 kg is 154 lb. Anyway, as Italy is on the metric system, I assumed 70 kg is right, and stiffed the shock for my 93 kg/205 lb. weight. Finally, the manual refers to the bike as a scooter. That gave me a laugh. I guess Aprilia's pubs staff apparently doesn't use search & replace on their word processors. But then again, the bike sometimes does seem like a really big scooter (I had a Sport City before this). Anyway, the Strada is a really great bike for what I need it to do.

[DonFanatico]

welcome and good choice of bike :cheers:

The more there are of us the more we can share and improve the bike,

Big thumbs up from me!


Are you Greek ? ur english is really good.

:)

[athelstan]

Welcome Massimo1. The blinking red light on the display is to tell you that your built-in immobiliser is on. I should change your dealer if he did not know this.

[Elvis]

Welcome to our small forum

About the neutral finding i have it to but you can eliminate the problem if you shift to neutral before you completely stop, when the wheels are still spinning finding neutral is easy.

as for the red blinking light it consumes very litle energy out of your battery so who cares if its blinks when you are not riding it, who knows maybe it will save your bike from stilling

[driver4]

I totally agree with Elvis, in the first week of riding it was difficult to find N but now after almost a month it is easy!

[Clotted Cream]

Welcome bud. Enjoy the forum.

Kev

[Massimo1]

Welcome Massimo1. The blinking red light on the display is to tell you that your built-in immobiliser is on. I should change your dealer if he did not know this.

I am American, thus my facile handling of the language LOL. However, I would like to stress I speak American, not British, English. So I will use words like color, not colour. In Athens... Greece for that matter.... Aprilia has a very weak dealer network. No dedicated dealers. They tend to sell a variety of brands. No dealers offer service - the service places are independent. So that's what I am up against.

[Massimo1]

Welcome to our small forum

About the neutral finding i have it to but you can eliminate the problem if you shift to neutral before you completely stop, when the wheels are still spinning finding neutral is easy.

I try that every time! And try and try and try. Sometimes I hit it, mostly I don't. Very frustrating when neutral simply isn't there to shift to. Or you go by it so fast, it may as well be invisible. In the end, I usually am forced to come to a stop and shift around until I get it. I think it is a big safety flaw for this motorcycle. I hope it sorts itself out, but after 1500km, no sign of that happening :-(

[joe bar]

I've never had this problem on my Strada, finding neutral has always been easy.

[Elvis]

I try that every time! And try and try and try. Sometimes I hit it, mostly I don't. Very frustrating when neutral simply isn't there to shift to. Or you go by it so fast, it may as well be invisible. In the end, I usually am forced to come to a stop and shift around until I get it. I think it is a big safety flaw for this motorcycle. I hope it sorts itself out, but after 1500km, no sign of that happening :-(

Another thing that can help is to adjust gear shift lever, in my last bike it helped allot.

[Panda]

I've never found a problem with finding neutral on any of the Pegs I've ridden-is your chain too tight?

[DRADE]

In Athens... Greece for that matter.... Aprilia has a very weak dealer network. No dedicated dealers. They tend to sell a variety of brands. No dealers offer service - the service places are independent. So that's what I am up against.

no dealers offer service??? are you sure? I doubt it. where did you buy your bike from? all Aprilia dealers in my city Thessaloniki offer service work.

anyway, there is a mechanic in Athens who has an excellent reputation among enthusiast aprilia owners in Athens. His name is bill (vasilis) and he is setting up his repair shop as we speak. I think in the past he has worked in Aprilia dealerships in Athens. I've never met him or had him work on my tuono as I live up North but I've heard only good things about him. If you can read Greek go to www.apriliabikers.gr and look for a forum member by the name of Bill. There you can read what other bikers and members say about him and you can pm him if you like.

[Xeno]

[QUOTE=Massimo1]Athens traffic is mega-congested, so the narrow Strada and upright rider position make it brilliant for filtering, stop and go, dealing with braindead pedestrians, kamikaze scooters, and taxis nosediving to the curbs.

Welcome to the Forum Massimo, good choice of bike. After years of regular trips to Athens (Greek Wife!) I am finally going to get the chance to have a spin around the city on my strada too. I am having my bike sent over in september so that I can ride back to the uk with my friend (GS1200). Will be in Greece for a couple of weeks before hand so plent of opportunities to join
the crazy commuters and taxi's. Every time I go to Athens I look to see if I can see any Pegaso Strada but not seen one yet. XT660's seem popular though.

[g-man]

Welcome along. This place is certainly pickin up.

[bangcik]

Welcome abroad, how do you feel riding strada so far

[PetrolHead]

This place is certainly pickin up.

Certainly is! :devil: :cool: :)

[Massimo1]

Welcome abroad, how do you feel riding strada so far

I like it quite a bit. It turns tightly and crisply. Mine came with Pirelli tires, and they seem reasonably grippy. Now that the engine and gearbox are wearing in, it's more fun than at the start. Good thrust once out of 1st. No need for ultra-speed in the heavy traffic I deal with. I feel pretty secure on it.

[Massimo1]

no dealers offer service??? are you sure? I doubt it. where did you buy your bike from? all Aprilia dealers in my city Thessaloniki offer service work.

I am sure, though my service guy will sell new Aprilias if you ask him - I guess that doesn't really count, though.