Aprilia Parts Availability in North America

[Britt]

Can anyone share their experiences with the current state of parts availability from Aprilia in North America?  I have a Caponord on my short list for my next bike, but while researching it I see lots of mentions of waiting for months for parts...

I see that AF1racing is a good source for ordering parts online, but in reality, as of 2011, what is it like for an Aprilia owner to fix a bike that needs parts?

[Reddog*]

So far all I have needed is standard wear items, and AF1 had that in stock.

[fxrbill]

Ordered from AF1 yesterday and had my tracking number the same day.Parts were for a Falco which was only produced for three years.Parts were needed due to rider error,not a stranded breakdown.

[Britt]

I went ahead and bought myself a Caponord.  It's a 2002 with 2500 miles on it and it came with Aprilia panniers.    


I'm working out which common "problem" parts I should replace up front.  The AF1 forums talk about all of these things, and it seems that most owners on the forum report problems with these components, but a small number do not.


These are the things I'm deciding about:

Metal fuel quick connects for sure.  

Voltage regulator?  

Clutch slave cylinder?

Starter relay?

[Croak]

"Brown wire" first, that's an almost guaranteed failure point.  

Fuel quick connects second, those tend to survive longer, and they should have been done on recall (lots of makes had this problem in the turn of the century, all sourced the same connectors, so it's not just an Aprilia problem).

Slave cylinder is an option, if it's not leaking.  Some folks don't like the stiffer pull of the factory one, swap out for a 15% reduction in effort, but they trade off some "feel" when doing that.

Voltage regulator is cheap insurance, but it's not a VFR, i.e. they do fail on Aprilias, but no more often than they do on many other brands.

Starter relay is also cheap insurance, if you go with a Yamaha part.

[topsy_t]

AF1 seems to be very good ...

[Britt]

Yes, I've spent more than a few dollars at AF1 already since buying the Capo