RiderSite.com - Motorcycle Forums

Took my fairly new to me Falco for it's MOT the other week. Passed with flying colours On the way home managed to run over a piece of a broken coil spring with my rear tyre. Tyre went straight down, luckily I was only doing about 20 mph. The piece of spring embedded itself in the tyre and then destroyed my hugger So that cost me £250 all in for a tyre and hugger. This week I decided to give it an oil change as I wasn't really that confident about whoever had done the job previously and if they had done it properly. This was due to having to syphon out 800mm of oil from the tank when I first got the bike!! Went to undo the drain plug and it went with one hell of a crack and was still fairly tight all the way out. No crush washer and looks as though the drain screw had been glued in. Thread in the tank is gubbed So I've removed the tank, drilled it out and tapped it to 10mm. Thorough flushing afterwards. Just waiting on some 10mm crush washers coming. Hopefully it'll be fine. I've ordered a second hand tank off eBay just in case. Fingers crossed I'll get back out on it this week. Not long fitted a Forza chip and what a difference that has made to the fueling at low revs. No chugging around mini roundabouts now

Sounds like your Falco had the infamous 'previous owner from hell'. I've had the oil drain plug strip the thread when using a torque wrench to tighten it up, so they do seem to be a weak point. Drilling and tapping to the next size up is a good move. The other alternative is a Helicoil or Time Sert.

Bad luck with the spring, tyre and hugger. Probably no point in doing the lottery this week...

Took your advice and didn't bother with the lottery 10mm repair and crush washer worked a treat. Also replaced the clutch fluid as the reservoir fluid was pretty black. Don't know if it has been the clutch fluid change, the oil change or both but gear changing seems a lot more positive. Almost every time I rode the bike I would get a false neutral at least once. Tested it out today and not one. Happy days

Good stuff - the black clutch fluid seems to be an inescapable part of the 'character' of these bikes. It seems to turn black fairly quickly no matter what you do. Do you still have the rubber clutch hose, or have you changed it for braided stainless?

It still has the original rubber. Does a braided line make any difference?

del_tl1000r wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 10, 2024 12:06 pm

It still has the original rubber. Does a braided line make any difference?

Not really. I have braided lines for everything and the clutch fluid still goes black. It just takes longer than it did with the stock rubber hoses.

V.

Re: Black Clutch Fluid
I once had an MOT advisory for ‘black clutch fluid’. And I replied ‘and’…. Aircraft hydraulic fluid is red - what difference does the colour make?
Even Griff doesn’t know the whole reason the fluid goes black.

Surely that would suggest an issue with the master cylinder then?

del_tl1000r wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:40 am

Surely that would suggest an issue with the master cylinder then?

Folks report that it still happens with aftermarket slave cylinders and non-OE master cylinders. It's Aprilia's very own Bermuda Triangle mystery...

mangocrazy wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 12, 2024 10:53 am

Folks report that it still happens with aftermarket slave cylinders and non-OE master cylinders. It's Aprilia's very own Bermuda Triangle mystery...

Has anybody replaced the seal in the reservoir? Could be just the black rubber leaching colour.

Not sure - there's also the rubber hose from remote reservoir to master cylinder...