Tri's 2004 Aprilia Tuono Project

The ride home from the previous owner's home was fun. His place was up in the mountains. The warm weather was just perfect. You know, the kind of weather when the pine tree smell hits the air just right. Couldn't have asked for better riding conditions. 

The Tuono is a different beast compared to my old Honda CBR 600RR. I like both, but with the Tuono I felt torn between riding relaxed versus riding with an evil laugh.

Completed:

H7 Euro to H7 Japanese wiring
Headlight modulator
Tires
Tail LED
Delkavic exhaust
Coil covers
Replace front fairing
Brake/Clutch fluid
Buff headlight and windscreen
Mirrors
Turn signals front and rear
Weld up frame sliders
Repaint radiator side covers
Infamous brown connector
Carbon fiber the heel guards
Clean n lube chain
Oil Change
Coolant Change
Buff out exhaust

06-27-2011

Sanded & painted radiator covers
Cut and soldered the brown connector from the Rectifier. The enclosing plastic on one of the pins showed signs of melting. Ended up cutting the connector and soldering the wires together permanently.

 

06-29-2011

Today, I went ahead and created the mold for my carbon fiber heel guards.

Sealed the part with molding clay
Applied mold release wax to the part. Put several layers on and buffed.
Applied PVA. Waited for it to set up
Gel coated over the part
When the gel coat was tacky, I applied 3 layers of fiberglass chop mat to reinforce the mold
Once dry, I removed the part
Sanded and buffed using 1200, 1500, and 3M perfect it III

Tomorrow, carbon fiber goes in, and I'll create the mold for the other heal guard

06-30-2011
Today, I took my broken frame sliders to Leo's Muffler in SJ and had them welded up. A quick 5 minutes later, and I was good to go. They did a great job welding it up and reinforcing the parts.

Then I got home and parts arrived in the mail. Sweet.

Mirrors with Integrated LED turn signals
Rear LED turn signals
Oil filter
Kisan Modulator

My Tuono didn't have any turn signals, well, except one funky looking rear left signal. When I took apart the rear tail, there were a bunch of mismatched wires that did not match up to the Tuono's Wiring Diagram. I traced the wiring, and it turns out the PO installed an LED relay and rear wiring harness in addition to an aftermarket flasher. So, I took the rear LED relay and harness and put that aside and fabricated a new harness for all 4 signals.

I've heard some issues with Aprilia's electronics design, but I love the simplicity of it. The Tuono's signal wiring connectors are standard Molex connectors available at Fry's Electronics. I used some 18AWG wiring, heat shrink tubing, connector crimper, and wiring loom to create a new OEM equivalent harness. Soldered everything up, and all LED signals work great. I really like the shape and form of the mirrors and signals.

Complete as of 07-05-2011