We’ve been slowly turning @pricetta ‘s Aprilia RS 660 into a track bike over the winter.
We’ve installed/replaced:
- Full CRC race fairing kit
- DB Holders front subframe & air scoop
- GBRacing full engine protection kit
- Spider Racing yoke
- Spider Racing clip-ons
- Robem Engineering rectifier relocator kit
- Robem Engineering coolant relocator kit
- Motion Pro coolant recovery kit
- Akrapovic carbon fibre full exhaust system
I have been assured by a number of people that the Akrapovic exhaust system is UK trackday noise limit compliant. When I first heard it, I was not so certain 
We shall find out soon enough We are at Donington Park next week!
It’s now ready to ride. I need to take some completed photos, but some of it in progress in our cramped garage…
Original road fairings removed!
Spider Racing yoke and clip-ons installed! This gets rid of the standard setup which has the bars elevated quite high, almost like a naked/tourer bike, and isn’t as well suited a riding position for track riding. This setup allows Claire to get further over the front of the bike, and lower down to improve handling. Amazing quality stuff. I ran it on my V2.
Well this was an unexpected find. This is a hardly-used bike with no modifications before now. This shouldn’t be damaged. It’s coming off thankfully so no bother.
Aprilia route the wiring loom for the front of the bike through the air-inlet in the chassis. This is very weird and reduces/disrupts airflow into the airbox. I did my best at simplifying it and keeping as many wires outside of the inlet as possible, and the what was left, tucked off to one-side to minimise airflow disruption. I have since seen that if you are more industrious, you can, with a bit of drilling, completely re-route the loom so it doesn’t go through the air inlet.
Simplier.
The CRC Fairings nosecone fairing came damaged with a small hole in it. Unfortunately we left the box unopened over winter and so by the time I noticed, we couldn’t return them, which would have meant waiting another three months or so for them to arrive. No bother, they’ll be wrapped so the damage won’t show.
The support for the seat comes separate to the seat. You have to glue it together. Why?? It also doesn’t fit snugly in the frame of the bike. I think that could be because it’s designed to also fit aftermarket race sub-frames?
The tail fairing did not come with fasteners to attach it to frame. I had to make some up myself by bending some aluminium.
Bought some metal from a DIY store and cut/bent it into shape to make the fairing stays for the tail piece.
All this has to get relocated to the side of the engine, you can’t use the forward plastics which house the regulator/rectifier. This simplifies the front of the bike and helps protect the electronics in a forward crash (i.e. hitting a barrier).
Oops.
Test fit of the front fairings.
Test-fit of the rear unit and seat. Again, no fittings supplied so I had to make up my own. A good excuse to reduce down the tub-of-random-screws-and-bolts.
Standard front sub-frame removed, which doubles as the air-intake scoop. Use of masking tape to label connectors so I know what goes where when reassembling.
On recommendation, I bought the DB Holders Fairing Bracket & Air Duct that replaces the front subframe and air scoop, though it was absolute garbage and just did not fit. The metal work didn’t align properly with the chassis, didn’t come with fittings and the air scoop was too narrow. I had to file away the lugs to get it to mate with the chassis, and even then it did not fit snug, with air able to flow in and around the chassis inlet, wasting pressure ram-air affect. I ended up sealing it up myself with duct-tape. Not pretty, but hopefully effective.
That’s never going to fit.
Trying for the 1000’th time to fit the air scoop to the bike. Cloth in air intake as I was shaving away some of the scoop in place to try and get it to fit.
Fitted, but I am not at all happy with this. Please do not judge the fittings. I had to make do with what I had. I will replace the whole thing it if the opportunity arises.
Replacing the road coolant with some Engine Ice for better performance and less slip-risk in the event it gets spilled onto the circuit. I know, race bikes have to use just (distilled) water, but this is for trackdays and it means it can still be stored in freezing conditions which it needs to for transport sometimes.
The video shows me running it up to temperature so the thermostat opens and allows the old coolant to come out and be replaced with the new one. I think removing the thermostat entirely will be a future mod to make flushing easier and warm-up quicker. It took so many goes to flush it (much of the time was spent learning the required technique. Had not done it before).
Also swapped out the OEM exhaust for a full system from Akrapovic. This model is UK trackday compliant, noise-level wise, apparently.
Relocating the Regulator/Rectifier to the side of the engine to protect it better and avoid having to mount it into the front fairings which would make removal a pain.
Fitting a full set of GBRacing protectors. This one didn’t fit with the ECU mounting kit. I had to dremel away a bit of the top. This doesn’t seem to affect the fit or integrity in the slightest.
The OEM coolant bottle and fairing support is drained and removed. We won’t be needing that! There’s a small race bottle to go in place.
Coolant drain and OEM exhaust removed, ready for Akrapovic full system installation. Sorry, no photos, had help from @pricetta on this and didn’t have time to take photos.
Handing over to Chris and co at Two Tyres to finish the fairing fitment, as for the love of god, I could not get the front fairing to fit close enough to the tank to get it to meet the mounting points. I think the crappy DB Holders air scoop was to blame. Anyhow, they did it and did a great job.
Bye! See you next week all done. They also returned my Ducati to road-trim so I could sell it.
Okay that’s enough for now. Some recommendations - things I’m happy to recommend as part of this build:
Spider Racing APRILIA RS660 SPIDER Top Triple Clamp.
You can’t really get much better than Spider for build quality, toughness, appearance and price.
Spider Racing Aprilia RS660 SPIDER CLIP ON HANDLEBARS:
Akrapovic Aprilia RS660 2020-2022 Full Exhaust System Carbon Fibre Race Muffler. It’s hard to beat the legend that is Akrapovic:
Robem Engineering Aprilia RS660 Rectifier Relocation Kit. Shipped from the US. I don’t know where you can find something similar stocked in the UK:
Robem Engineering Aprilia RS660 Racing Coolant Overflow Relocation Kit:
Motion pro Coolant Recovery System. Smaller version of the large OEM bottle:
GBRacing full engine protection kit. Tough as nails. The standard nowadays for race bikes:
Chris and his wonderful team at Two Tyres, who helped finish the fairing fitment.
Do not recommend:
-
CRC Fairings - Long delivery times, arrives damaged, no instructions, no fittings and poor quality. Quite frustrating as they come well recommended. They’ll do for now, but if we ever have to replace them, we’ll look at someone else like King Carbon Fairings.
-
DB Holders air scoop - Doesn’t fit at all. Terrible item. No customer service.
More posts to come…
