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My Aprilia RS 457: First service & accessories including quickshifter

24th July 2024, 13:32 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

I also purchased the rear seat cowl and was initially surprised by its cheap cost but soon I understood the reason why.

BHPian SR1602 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

First service done at 1000 km

To reiterate again, the service experience was a significant concern in my head long before I even got the bike and the Google reviews for my showroom were only making things worse. However, the actual service experience turned out to be pretty good. I dropped the bike off around 1:30 in the afternoon and it was ready the next day by 4 in the evening.

The 457s get a dedicated service bay as expected which is more well-equipped than the ones for the scooties.

The total bill came to 4070, which I think is decent. This is a free service so I expect the bill to go up to 6000 with the labour charges included. I know this is an expensive bike and all but that oil filter price legitimately made me gasp when the receptionist handed me the bill.

The bike felt like a whole new beast after the service. Much smoother, much more eager to lunge forward and just feels better on the whole. I still have to restrict the RPM to 9k till I complete 2000 km but the last 1500 RPM barely have any more juice left.

Purchased a few accessories

I purchased the rear seat cowl a week before the first service itself. I was initially surprised that it was so cheap at just 1500 rupees and soon I understood the reason why. It feels decently well built but the surface finish quality is just downright poor. It has a rough matte surface that is an absolute scratch magnet. I am planning to get it carbon-dipped or just cover it with vinyl because it looks really bad when you see it up close.

I do like its silhouette though and despite not being body coloured as is the case with seat cowls normally, I think it goes well with the overall design.

Now for the accessory that I had been really eager to try out, the quickshifter. My original plan was to get it fixed with the first service itself so I placed the order when the bike had done about 800 km with the information from the SVC side that it'll be here max to max in 2 weeks. But Aprilia decided to pull off an Aprilia yet again. Despite placing the order with an advance payment of 15000 a good 10 days before the service, I didn't get it by the time the service was done.

I was a little dejected because I was eager to try it out during the ride that I would go on 2 days after the service was done but no problem. I checked again before the next weekend started hoping I'd be able to test it out this time but nope again. The service centre guys had no update from Baramati regarding the dispatch. Now I was losing patience and sent an email escalation to Aprilia that it's been 3 weeks since I paid the advance for my part and they still haven't sent it. They didn't even bother to respond to that mail for 4 days straight. Then I call them and despite clicking the number that's meant for "superbikes", the guy picks up and says the people taking care of the RS457 are different and that they'll call me back within 24 hours.

That entire week I was the only one who kept calling them every day but never got a call back despite highlighting every time that I am being told the same thing but not getting a call back. On Friday, the 5th of July, I got a call from the showroom manager himself who I am on good terms with that the quickshifter had reached the showroom and that I can get it installed whenever I want. I still didn't get any call back from the customer care team.

It took a total of 2 hours to install and is now cheaper by 8k. I paid just a little over 21,000 including labour charges. Coming to the actual usage, it only works smoothly beyond 4k and doesn't work when you are upshifting from 1st to 2nd. I did try to shift from 1st to 2nd without the clutch to see what happens and although it does seamlessly shift, it gets stuck when you are trying to go from 2nd to 3rd and forces you to use the clutch and make that shift so I am guessing it doesn't slot in properly. If you clutchless shift without the throttle open or under 4k, it gives you a little jerk but does shift.

I have never ridden a bike with a quickshifter before but I expected it to be clutchless everywhere and expected it to be a little more seamless in lower RPMs based on all the Youtube videos I have seen. When I am going full gas, boy does it feel exhilarating but this lower RPM behaviour and the fact that you can't use it from 1st to 2nd kinda left me wanting more. Please correct me if I am having wrong expectations.

More than the quickshifter itself, I am unexpectedly in love with the auto-blipper. Never did I imagine banging down the gears without having to use the clutch to carefully modulate the engine braking would feel so good. Of course, I do like to use the clutch sometimes, but I let the unit do the job most of the time now.

And the last minor accessory I got was this nifty bike cover by BykeIt. There's no way I was spending 18k for the OEM cover and this came out as a viable option. It's good quality and also has condensation vents next to the handlebar which I believe is going to come in very handy when the Chennai monsoons start.

A few pictures I took over the last month -

Ride to Mahabalipuram with some friends which was the first non-solo excursion I had on the bike.

Random construction site on ECR on a solo ride again to Mahabs.

Outside the entrance to Tada-Ubbalamadugu falls. This was a very relaxed and chill ride where I saw the best mileage figure of 28.6 kmpl throughout the ride.