Aprilia Sl1000 Falco
APRILIA SL1000 Falco
Long-Term Wrap-Up
DARWINISM ON WHEELS
WHICH CAME FIRST, THE FALCO or the egg? Impossible to say, but over the past 18 months we watched our long-term Aprilia SL1000 evolve from a standardish sportbike to a sporty sport-tourer and, ultimately, to a track-day weapon rivaling the Mille R.
We’d been asking Aprilia for a longterm testbike ever since the company entered the U.S. market circa 1999. When we finally scored our 2000-model Falco in June of ’01, it already had a few thousand miles on the odometer. So we can’t account for its performan during those early days.
One of the benefits of acquiring our Falco used was that it had already been de-restricted-that is, the airbox inlet dam had been removed and the mysterious blue wire exiting the CPU had been clipped, activating the alternate “for racing use only” fuel/ignition map. That little home remedy takes the 60-degree Rotax V-Twin from a paltry 84 rearwheel horsepower and 59 foot-pounds of torque right on up to 106 bhp and 67 ft.-lbs. And it’s free!
But our testbike also arrived with a set of Aprilia SL Carbon slip-on mufflers and the corresponding EPROM chip ($949 total), so power had crept up to 108 bhp and 67 ft.-lbs. Nice, even if the exhaust note was too loud for friendly-neighbor status.
Near the end of our test, we sampled an airbox kit ($190 from Evoluzione Cyclesports, www’.evoluzione.net). This consists of a gorgeous, hined-from-billet aluminum spacer that -~;ses the airbox lid a half-inch, plus a billet venturi that allows fitment of a larger air filter. Together, these parts boosted output even further, to 110 bhp and 69 ft.-lbs. (Yes, we realize that the first 22 horsepower cost nothing and the next 4 bhp over $ 1100-who said performance was free? Wait, we just did... Uh, never mind.) What the dyno can’t begin to show is how much more free-revving the engine was with the bigger box.
On Evoluzione’s recommendation, we also tried slightly lower gearing, going from the stock steel 41-tooth rear sprocket to an aluminum, Mille-spec 42 ($47). This aided acceleration while reducing unsprung weight.
With those mods done, and a recall to replace an oil line addressed, our Falco needed precious little mechanical work.
Quotes from the logbook
I spent the majority of my time on the Falco with a passenger, and the bike didn’t mind a bit. The new shock and steering damper did a great job of soaking up pavement imperfections.
Mark HoyerI figured with all the effort put into making the Falco trackready, I wouldn’t like riding it on the street. I was wrong-it’s awesome! Is it a Mille? No, but it’s Mille enough for me, while being a much better streetbike.
Brian Catterson Rode the Falco 660 miles with Club Desmo at Buttonwillow Raceway this weekend and couldn’t have asked for a more willing accomplice. Even with the rear tire completely shagged, it still hooked up and wheelied off corners!
I had looked at Aprilias before, but had discounted them for various reasons. Then I test rode a Mille, Falco and Futura. The Falco split the difference—it was fast, comfortable and an absolute blast to ride. I could hardly keep from smiling. -Kurt Hadeler, Pearl River, New York
We changed the oil and filter every 3000 miles, and had South Bay Triumph-Aprilia perform the requisite 15,000-kilometer (9350-mile) valve adjustment ($360).
When the clutch started slipping at around 7500 miles, Aprilia Marketing Coordinator Robert Pandya sent us updated plates and springs from an ’01 Mille ($238), which not only solved our problem but also eased clutch pull. The only actual failure we experienced was minor, and possibly tiedown-related. The horn button, when depressed, sometimes stayed depressed and repeated rebuilds and an
eventual replacement ($33) just saw it happen again. So we stayed depressed, too.
Complaints by Falco owners with whom we spoke were minimal. Some lamented the lack of a helmet lock, and one whined that he had to pay $30 for swingarm stand spools. One problem that we suspected was ours alone turned out to be fairly common: When the bike was left sitting for an extended period of time, the battery voltage dropped to the point that the instrument panel reverted to its default settingsspeed and distance in kilometers, shift
light illuminating at its 6000-rpm break-in value, etc. One enthusiastic owner who’s created a nice Falco website (www.caplan77.com) installed a huge, .5-farad capacitor in parallel with the battery to prevent this drain, but we didn’t want something potentially explosive under our asses, so just reset the gauges when they “went metric.” Considering that Aprilia is an Italian company, and a newcomer to the bigbore motorcycle market at that, we were somewhat skeptical about reliability. But our Falco never let us down. Part of the credit should no doubt go to Rotax, the Austrian manufacturer having built rugged, dependable engines for years.
But most of the credit should go to
Aprilia itself: If our Falco is any indication-and we believe that it is-it’s no accident that the company has grown from a maker of small-displacement dirtbikes and scooters to a bonafide player in the world motorcycle market.
Talk about evolution... E3
I gave great consideration to quality and longevity prior to purchasing my Falco. I came from a BMW, and the Aprilia handles beautifully in comparison. I love it! -Chuk Starred, Austin, Texas
SPECIFICATIONS
$11,299
