By Geo on Monday, December 30, 2002 - 10:46 am:

My 01 RSV has been very "lazy" at cranking since new. Last Saturday my friends came by my house to pick me up for a ride and the bike wouldn't crank at all.
Luckily one of the guys is a mechanic and he immediately traced the problem to the relay switch. The terminal nuts had never been tightened properly and it caused it to melt and fail.
My dealer didn't have a replacement, Aprilia USA shows them in back order for a long time, alledgedly they're in transit.
There's 125 dealers in the USA, the first 30 that I called didn't have one stock -I was quoted anywhere between $50 and $80 for the same part.
I got lucky again, Euro Cycles Imports in California had one in stock and was willing to part with it, they shipped immediately and I got it this morning.
It took 15 minutes to replace it (and another 15 to reset the dashboard computer).
The speed at which the engine cranked and started right up(a split second!) made me realise that neither the battery nor the starter were ever weak.
The connections to the the relay were probably loose from day one (Aug 01), if your starter doesn't crank right up you should check to see that it's well tightened -disconnect the battery first!.
The relay is the the short cylinder covered in rubber that's at the front of the computer box(on the RSV), remove the seat to get to it. It has 2 fat electrical cables connecting directly to the battery and a a plug with two thin wires. The nuts that were loose were 10mm.
It's live so disconnect the battery first...there I said it twice!  

By Befbever on Monday, December 30, 2002 - 11:24 am:

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there I said it twice!

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By Hansie on Monday, December 30, 2002 - 04:18 pm:

Isnt that the tiltswitch too?
Dont mount it upside down!

There is a country who......

Hansie 

By Geo on Monday, December 30, 2002 - 09:07 pm:

No fears mate, not even a mechanical moron like me could mount it upside down ! -when you see it you'll know why.
I very much doubt that it's the "tilt-switch" as well, since it's only connecting the battery to the starter motor (when the relay is activated)and not to the ignition.
I have the manual but I only search in it when absolutely needed, I find that Italian-English translation (and the italian love of chaos)gives me a headeache!
When I searched for the instructions on valve adjustment it took me 2 whole hours to finally figure out that the section I needed was missing from the binder, some 60 pages in all!
Anyway, she runs now so I'm happy. I'm easy that way.......