BUYING AN RSV MILLE

FROM £2,000 TO £3,500

A well looked after RSV is a very reliable bike, however they have a few irritations that if not dealt with can make them a bit of a nightmare. All pre-2005 RSVs use a 50 Amp starter solenoid, which is known to fail, so fitting the later 150 Amp and also upgrading the 90CCA battery to a 230CCA unit is recommended to help preserve the sprag clutch.

The sprag clutch is the V990 motor’s major weakness and any slipping or squeaking when the starter is hit hints at a worn unit, which will cost around £350 to replace. Other than this, the motor is very reliable, although out of balance throttle bodies can make the bike very snatchy to ride at low revs. On the chassis front watch out for damage to the swingarm and frame (always HPI check an RSV as Cat-D write-offs are common) and also watch out for a Mille made to look like an R through secondhand parts. If the bike is a pain to get into neutral, swap the clutch jet from a 0.60 to a 0.40 jet (which was standard fitment on post-2006 models) or fit an

aftermarket slave cylinder. When it comes to a non-working rear brake, use rearsets to locate the brake master cylinder vertically rather than horizontally.

A lot of owners boost the RSV’s performance through an airbox conversion, lower its gearing (the speedo isn’t affected) or fit a scavenger exhaust system, all of which are excellent and very cheap modifications. Just watch out for ex-track bikes as without a proper slipper clutch (the OE Aprilia unit is a pretty poor pneumatic back-torque limiter) aggressive downshifts can bend valves.