Kickstart Motorcycles Port Talbot

[Cupid Stunt]

Last rideout I had a problem with my clutch...
At first I noticed that I was having to pull the lever in futher than normal to disengage the clutch, after a while of riding I stopped and couldn't pull away again, no drive at all.
I let the bike stand for a while to see if it just needed to cool down but that didn't work so I adjusted the clutch cable (had to do it at both ends) to the maximum, this worked but then when i got up to speed I noticed it was slipping
From there I rode it home very gently with no acceleration

Next day I stripped it out to see what was wrong

Crickey, there was debris in there like I've never seen, most of the friction plates appeared OK but one of them had been stripped right down and beyond the metal

The only cause I can think of for this is that one of the friction pads had come loose or broken away, leaving debris in between the plates, this would explain having to pull the lever in further than usual (the opposite of worn plates due to debris between them making them thicker)
The debris then caused the break down of the plates either side.
I spoke to D+K which is where the bike was originally bought and they were very friendly and said it would be covered under warranty but of course they are hundreds of miles away, I was already very much aware that my local Aprilia dealers do not have a good reputation (previous experience with my Caponord and local knowledge) but I though I'd call them anyway
No surprises there, they held onto their local reputation with much gusto, firstly by telling me I had to get the bike to them, OK fair enough but I don't have a van or trailer nor do I have home start etc, so I asked if I paid could they collect it ?, "Oh sorry we can't do that, our van isn't insured to carry motorcycles" WTF !, "but you're a motorcycle dealer, doesn't that cause you problems" I said, knowing damned well they were telling lies
"Has it been used off-road" he say's, here we go I thought, he's looking for a get out clause, "No" I said, "all the places I ride are roads, some may not be metalled roads but they are indeed roads and on the definitive maps and list of streets, besides, have you seen the Aprilia Video advert for this bike ?, it's all entirely off-road, are you telling me that the bike is not fit for it's intended purpose ?"
"I'll speak to Aprilia" say's Charles (the son of the owner) of Kickstart Motorcycles in Port Talbot
True to his word he phoned me back, though whether he actually spoke to Aprilia or not I'll find out tomorrow
He claimed that the clutch is not covered under warranty as it's a consumable part WTF (again), I told him what I thought of the Aprilia warranty if that is indeed the case and also told him that neither he nor Aprilia would ever see one penny of my money again as long as I live.

How dumb and short sighted are these people, don't they realise that nowadays when you give poor service or reneg on warranties that you risk tens of thousands of people hearing about it ?

OK here's my take on the warranty issue..
The clutch plates were and are not worn through normal wear and tear, one of them only has completely disintegrated, there is no scheduled replacement for the clutch plates in the service manual, therefore it is not a consumable part like a tyre/oil/brake pads etc
The bike has done less than 4000 miles, it has been serviced at the correct intervals by an authorised Aprilia dealer and has been kept very clean and never left wet or dirty, lovingly protected with copious amounts of siicone spray, never thrashed or abused

Moral of the story
Make damned sure that you have an Aprilia dealer with a good local reputation on your doorstep before buying one, if you live anywhere near Kickstart Motorcycles in Port Talbot South Wales then don't buy one as the next nearest dealer is in Worcestershire more than 100 miles away

In total contrast the Yamaha dealer Mounts Motorcycles not half a mile away from Kickstart have been very helpfull and friendly, so if you are considering buying an Aprilia round this way, think again and go to the Yamaha dealer instead

[fazerjane]

Oh dear. That's dreadful.

Mind you, with my Buell, the dealer did agree to collect it when I had a puncture . For £20. Then, after charging me around a million pounds and taking 10 days to replace the tyre, when I went to collect it I was just about to ride away when my other half noticed a big scratch on the wheel. Further investigation revealed both wheels gouged to b*ggery and the bike carefully positioned to make it as hard to see as possible.

We complained, and the service guy said "we can touch that up for you" (bear in mind this puncture happened on the way home from fetching the bike when I bought it). To say my husband was displeased would be putting it mildly. The service guy had to run and hide and the boss came out, promised me 2 new wheels under warranty and would I please remove the violent angry man from his showroom as he was deterring other customers....

It turns out the damage was done by ratchet straps when they fetched the bike. They somehow wangled a warranty claim by saying the paint had faded! That strikes me as dishonest.

They refunded my £20........... I'd never go there again.

[keithc]

Just been to the shop that supplied my Strada. The rear brake light switch has packed up. No problem, they will arrange a time/day for the new switch to be fitted once it arrives.
While I was at the shop the workshop manager came to seem me to tell me that the bike details also flagged up the recall on the TPS, so he will get that job done at teh same time
I think things really do depend on the dealer you use.
I asked him about clutch plate while I was their. He commented that the manufactures like Suzuki often look at clutch repairs suspiciously, after all the clutch may have been mis treated.

Keith

[alunj]

I havnt had any problems with KS. (yet)
But I agree that your problem sounds like wty, however I would be very suprised if you can persuade aprilia to take any responsabilty esp if they knew you stripped (as in disassembled) it yourself.
Keep us informed as to what they say and best of luck !

[Frodo]

Sorry to hear about your problems, first with the bike, second with the dealer. Seems to be one of the first significant failures in what otherwise appears to be a reliable motor.

Cheers

[Frodo]

Originally Posted by keithc

While I was at the shop the workshop manager came to seem me to tell me that the bike details also flagged up the recall on the TPS, so he will get that job done at teh same time

I thought that the TPS recall only applied to early bikes - I note that you have a 2007. My bike still has a residual problem of surging a bit on a trailing throttle, although it is much better with the PCIII. I have thought that this could be due to a faulty TPS. Where do you find details about which bikes were affected by the recall?

[keithc]

Hi

I brought the bike unused in May 2007, but its a 2006 model. The Aprilia database showed that the bike was subject to the recall.
What I found unusual was the dealer volunteered this information.
Not to sure whether to let them go ahead though as my bike doesn't seem to suffer from surging. Thats unless my style of riding doesn't show it up.
People local to Basingstoke will find it this service even more amazing as the dealer is called Motts Motorcycles. They used to have a terrible reputation in the area, but seem to be trying hard to turn this around.

Keith

[Clotted Cream]

Originally Posted by keithc

What I found unusual was the dealer volunteered this information.

Too right. Great dealer. Well done.

Kev

[RobinKTM]

Talking of Dealers - Luckily I have only had to visit my local dealer (The Rocket Centre in Blackburn) once since owning the strada and this was the day after buying the bike. I bought the bike second hand from a relatively small non aprilia dealership in lincolnshire - approx 160 - 170 miles from where i live, and rode it home through what I can only describe as the closest thing I have seen to a monsoon! I had given the bike a good check over at the dealers and everything worked fine, but by the time I got home the tank flap would not open. I checked the voltage going to the cable actuator (relay type thingy?) under the seat and this was fine, so I decided that the actuator had been drowned during the ride home. Due to the distance from where I bought the bike and the fact that it wasn't aprilia, I decided to visit my local dealer first to see if he could verify this and maybe order me a new one that I woulkd pay for, but when he took my chassis number he told me the bike was still under warranty for the next fortnight so it would not cost me. I had thought the 2 year warranty was finished when I bought the bike so this was a bonus in itself. Then he told me that the system had flagged up a recall on the TPS and he would order one of those too, and book the bike in for it to be fitted and set up, all good. Well the tank flap actuator took almost a month to arrive and the TPS a fortnight, so aprillia parts service was typical, meaning I had to continue removing the seat and pulling the tank flap cable manually to fill the bike, but that didn't really worry me. The main thing was that the dealer was sorting the problems. When the actuator arrived he gave it to me to try before completely removing it from the bag, (by poking the connector through a small hole) as he said once you have removed the packaging the part cannot be returned, and aprilia will only supply one delivery of parts for each warranty claim or something?! Anyway it did work so i fitted it on the car park and gave him my old one back and that was that, all in a 10 min visit. He fitted the TPS about a week later, and spent a good half hour or so setting the CO etc to get it running smoothly - which it has done ever since, and all FOC. So if anybody up north needs a dealer, from the experience I have had I would recommend The Rocket Centre in Blackburn with no hesitation!

[Cupid Stunt]

Well as it turns out the dealer had NOT even attempted to officialy raise a warranty claim on the Aprilia system, though as a customer I cannot attempt to raise a claim myself as only dealers have access to the tech phone number, Aprilia would not give me the phone number for the UK importer/Aprilia UK claiming they didn't have it (yeah right )

The Yamaha dealer, Mount Notorcycles have been very helpfull though in ordering the parts required

It's a nightmare trying to get all teh crap out and after flushing through twice with cheap oil it still didn't get much out from around the clutch basket area so I've had to remove the basket too and manually clean out as best I can, I will now put it all together (when I've got all the parts) and run it for a couple of hundred miles and do another oil change

LOOK OUT..
For the tab washer on the basket, it's made of toffee, so if you're going to remove teh clutch basket make sure you've got a replacement ready, ALSO the casing location pins are hollow and incredibly soft, not kidding, one of them litterally fell in half and dropped on the floor and nobody was anywhere near it at the time, it hadn't been under any stress at all ?????

To do the job you will need:
Friction plates £62.00
Platters £35.00
Oil (2.7L) £20.00
Tab washer £???
Oil filter £5.50
Gasket £forgot
Possibly two locator pins £???
5 litres of very cheap oil to flush it through

A 30mm socket (for clutch basket nut)
Plus two strong friends, one to hold the rear brake down and another to put all his weight on the rear rack whilst you undo the nut (bike in gear also)
Don't try to clamp the clutch basket with anything as it looks far too brittle and will cost a small fortune if you break it

Kickstart and Aprilia suck donkey dick but at least I know this job will be done exactly right whereas reluctant dealers are likely to just slap it all together probably without flushing it through thoroughly

[Frodo]

There's a lot to be said for doing stuff yourself. Due to the warranty, an Aprilia dealer has to do the 1000km and subsequent 10,000km services. At the first service they overfilled the oil by a pint. At the second service, they kindly sprayed all of my bike with oil to make it look nice - including my brakes. For some reason they turned my Scottoiler onto "prime" (I had installed it myself) so it dumped a full load of Scottoil on the rear chain in a few km and then all over the back of the bike. Believe me it was a slippery and scary ride ride home.

Given that the last service cost $320 (about £120) and I changed the oil (that was one concession), I'm seriously consdering doing all my services, even if the warranty is compromised. The good thing is that the warranty services are only every 10,000km - I service the bike myself in between these intervals.

Mind you... A friend of a friend just took his new Kawa KLX450 to the dealer saying it was rattly. He had done the first oil change himself and as it turned out had put the oil filter on back to front. $1600 worth of parts. The labour is still to come!

[Cupid Stunt]

Don't break the tab washer or the case locating stud
Why ?

Well they're only available to order in packs of 10


PS
Anyone wanna buy a tab washer and some studs ?

[keithc]

Hey Cupid, we have something in common. I often mis spell the word `the', I often type teh instead I know use a spell check most of the time as it really get to me

Keith

[Cupid Stunt]

Originally Posted by keithc

Hey Cupid, we have something in common. I often mis spell the word `the', I often type teh instead I know use a spell check most of the time as it really get to me

Keith

Yes it is damned annoying but you know a spell checker won't pick up on using "know" instead of "now" you know

[Cupid Stunt]

Right
Thanks to Mounts Motorcycles Port Talbot (and no thanks to Kickstart), I've gott all my parts, it would have been a much faster fix had I ordered all required parts at the same time but I failed to inspect the platters properly and didn't anticipate needing a new tab washer or location pin
Lyn of Mounts was very kind as I had to buy ten of each of the pins and tab washers, I offered to just take two of each and leave the rest with them as they are more likely to need them than me but he decided to charge me less than half price for them and I kept two sets for myself

So opefully if I can get motivated the bike will be up and running tomorrow