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Now that I have raised my bars over the top yoke, I can comfortably use my old Wolfman tank bag on the Falco. So, as it was hot and sunny today, and finding myself unmotivated to do anything useful, I decided to hop on the Aprilia and head over to the Black Isle to the Cromarty brewery and pick up some supplies. Felt a bit like TE Lawrence riding from Sleaford to London to pick up some chops for his tea.

Looks good. I recently moved mine too. I've yet to have a proper run on it but it feels a better riding position.

Over the yokes is where the bars on these bikes should be IMHO, unless you ride 10/10ths all the time, in which case buy a Mille. Moving them has absolutely transformed the bike for me.

Excellent stuff. Once winter sets in I'll be doing something similar myself. Those certainly look like 'essential supplies'...

And that's some exceptionally pretty stonework on what I presume is your house. A real work of art.

No my house, the brewery shop!

Hi, curious to know if the raised bars is an easy mod. Presuming it's just a case of dropping the yokes enough to fit the original bars over the top. Does it foul the fairing or tank? Do the cables etc. reach ok? Thanks

I think mine had been raised by previous owner (holes drilled in yokes for the small bolt to lock them into position a give away) , so I can't comment on the brake line lengths, but all the wiring fits just fine. I didn't need to relocate the brake master cylinder reservoir as it clears the fairing fairly comfortably, but did need to modify the lock stops as the switchgear was just kissing the tank.

I used a paddock stand that located in the underside of the steering stem and dropped the forks without removing the top yoke. I needed to drop the yokes to about 4 notches to mount the bars properly. Easy job.

185 mile round trip for pies? Why not?

250+ miles to John O'Groats to pick up a couple of beers from the brewery there? Makes perfect sense to me!













On the way back, the world's shortest street: Ebeneezer Place in Wick



Phew, made it.

Good work, never a bad idea to go the extra mile (or 250) for a decent beer

I'm interested in doing this, how do you find the handling? Obviously raising the forks through the yokes will quicken the steering at the cost of reducing stability, is it still plenty stable enough?

It's my view that the Falco (as standard) is a bit of a slow steerer, so dropping the forks through the yokes a couple of notches can only be beneficial. I've got mine dropped through a fair bit more than that, and the bike is still super-stable. So I'd say there are no downsides to what you're thinking of doing...

Oh joy, a reply! I was starting to worry this forum was dead

Thanks mango. I see now that the forks already protrude through the top yoke a few notches, so as you say it's just a couple notches more, not a huge amount.

I'm new to the Falco. I picked one up a little while ago, bit of an impulse buy (seemed cheap) and didn't see it in the flesh before it got delivered. Bodywork looked good, mileage around 24k and it had an MOT, but it came with no service history and when I got the V5 I was disappointed to find it's had a lot of owners. Far from ideal, a bit of worry did set in.

First priority was to check it over mechanically to see if it's a keeper before spending the money on doing a full service, general tidy up and some upgrades. First step yesterday was to strip it down and check the valve clearances - I've got one slightly tight intake valve but the rest are good, and luckily the tight one is on the rear cylinder. I also checked the compression and both cylinders are good. Happy with that, and slightly relieved!

Will continue the project as time allows. Though will be nice to get it rideable asap, haven't ridden it at all yet!

Perhaps I'll start my own thread if there's still a few of you knocking about on here. I'm gonna have plenty of questions.

Hiya Sprag,

You'll find the Falco will sound like a bag of spanners, but that's just the Rotax engine and all those mechanical bits doing their job. They are super-reliable and there have been a number of high-mileage bikes around.

Drop the forks a couple of notches, get the suspension sorted (yellow-spring Mille shock for the rear, rebuild on the front) and track down some Oz racing wheels. Best improvements you can make to an already awesome bike.

Cheers,
V