TBH It’s barely touched the tarmac. Bad year for me unfortunately, hardly ridden at all either track or road. Bikes in for a 550 transplant over Christmas so next year hopefully should be better.
may next year be much better bud!! hopefully my track bike is sorted and we can catch up for a few gigs!!
The 450 is a good engine, linear power delivery. The 450's were used for racing so all the bikes were the same. I'm not racing it and I can't help but tinker and change things so thought I'd give the 550 a go. Quite different engine characteristics so I'm told. Should be around 80 (ish) bhp at the rear wheel, the bike itself is a hoot to ride and something a little different to what's usually on track. Weighs in at around 118kg.
Is there still a fair supply of spare parts available? I would be worried they are from the old aprilia days, were availability was a little touch and go. The idea of a lightweight track bike is very appealing. I’ve been looking at the KTM RC390 cup bikes. But there seems to be an alarming trend of the engines self destructing!
lots of the parts are from an sxv/rxv which are still available. Engine parts are getting fewer and fewer but personally I haven’t had an issue. Cal550 has rebuilt my 450 and he’s also built me a 550 race engine. I keep it well serviced changing the engine and gearbox oil every track day, Cal said I can ease off a bit on the fluid changes. All the parts from the RRV conversion are still available from Ian Newton but I’ve never needed to get anything. It took a while to find out what parts were from what bike, all up it’s a bit of a Bitsa.. Some parts from RS125’s, some SXV some Custom made. Bodywork was made by Hifibre, again never needed to buy as I had the old stuff repaired Cal has engineered out most of the old engine weaknesses I can make a list of what the bike is made up of if you like
