nooksack

All better

The Tuono seems to be all better again. The dealer ran a compression check, which revealed nothing bad anyway, and reflushed/bled the cooling system. They were of course a bit more relaxed about the whole thing than I would have liked, but they treated me well and fixed the problem pretty much immediately. Me thinks the Tuono needs to have a little weekend ride as a reward.

How much does this suck?

I took the Tuono to a local dealer last Saturday for its 9000 mile maintenance. I got new tires (Pirelli Diablos), a new chain and sprockets (520 conversion!), and they changed every fluid: engine oil, fork oil, brake fluid, clutch fluid, coolant <cough>. I picked up the bike today, and found out the hard way that they kinda messed up on the coolant.

Now, on a very hot day, say idling in traffic for several minutes, the Tuono's temperature might reach 204°. On a particularly hot day, I think I saw the temp get to 205° once. Imagine my surprise on the ride home from the dealer, with a brisk autumn breeze blowing, when I looked down and saw a very unpleasant 240° F flashing up at me on the dash. I nearly swallowed my tongue. It was running quite happily when I shut it down, so perhaps there's no permanent damage. Perhaps.

So, now's the fun part. Tomorrow morning I get to call the dealer and have a little chat. I so hope they do the right thing here, whatever that is. I want nothing more than a good local dealer that I can trust. I'm so sick of doing my own maintenance, and with my new job I just don't have time for it anymore.

To be continued...

Tuono '06

A little while ago Aprilia posted a bunch of pics of the new Tuono. I like everything from the front forks back to the tip of its pointy tail, but I just can't stomach the "face" on that front fairing piece. It looks like a praying mantis (in a bad way), with a derivative design that reminds me too much of a Celica GT.

Separated at birth?