March 3rd and the Aprilia is all done!

Yeah!  Will take it for the inaugural ride to Florence (and lunch at a great Mexican restaurant).
Round trip should be about 140 miles.

March 2nd...tank is on!

And the reassembly continues.   This afternoon the gas tank went back on, all connections made. Other assorted pieces are lined up to follow.   Photo of Stu this afternoon praying to the motorcycle gods!    (Or also could be viewed as him bolting this to that ;))

And anyone who had back surgery...we assure you that this isn’t bending, lifting or twisting since those activities are prohibited after surgery. ;)

Feb 26th. And Plan B worked!

Plan-A was a total and complete waste of time, as expected, so out it came this morning and we waited for plan-b regulator to arrive.  By 4:30 the new regulator was installed and it works perfectly.  Photos below show the happy story of 14.48 volts!  

So reassembly starts again tomorrow!

Feb 25th regulator update

All work stopped on the re-wiring extravaganza while Stu waited for a new regulator.   He returned the “bad” regulator and today it’s warranty replacement (called the new plan-A regulator) arrived.   Also, with the expectation that this new regulator will perform just as poorly as its mate, he ordered a different regulator from a different company (called plan-B).  It arrives tomorrow.   So tomorrow am, he starts the bike with the plan-A regulator and sees what it is doing.   If the voltage is too high, it will go into the trash and we will await the plan-B regulator :).  Photo below is of the plan-A regulator, all wired up and ready to be installed.

Tuneup amd reassembly

Although a new regulator is not yet here, Stu is doing all the rest of the reassembly and tuneup.   So far, he checked the valves and installed the throttle bodies and air cleaner case.   Today he added all the rear seat, hand holds and trunk pieces.   Looks like a bike again. :)

Weekend update: it lives and runs!

After connecting all the bits, Stu pressed the start button and nothing happened ;(.  So that unhappy event started a small bit of problem solving which led to finding one disconnected wire (neutral indicator).   Once connected, we tried again and it started and ran beautifully!

Stu then checked the regulator voltage.  Weeks ago, due to a failure of the regulator, he had installed a new one.  At the time, the new one was showing voltage that was too high.   Aware of the wiring harness issues, he postponed figuring out the regulator issue until he replaced the harnesses.

Fast forward to yesterday...the bike runs great but shows 15 volts at the regulator, the right answer is 14.5.  He swapped out another regulator to make sure the “new” regulator was the issue, rather than the wiring.   The other regulator shows 14.45....so the “new” regulator has to be removed.

He is now on a mission to find a new regulator.   Nothing is simple with this beloved motorcycle :)

I can’t upload a video but trust me when I tell you it sounded marvelous when it started up.

More wiring harness progress

Today the ignition harness, completely inspected, issues corrected and swathed in electrical tape, was partially installed.   Photos below.  Rumor has it we are in the home stretch :)