Wildguzzi.com
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: canuguzzi on June 03, 2016, 11:11:27 AM
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If you have experience with the late model 2015 etc Caponord, I'd like to read what you think.
I'm not trying to get into which Moto Guzzi is as good or better, I already have Norges so I'm more interested how it works for you, comfort, performance on the open roads, weight and overall as a ride.
Much appreciated for first hand experiences
Thanks
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:1:
I am interested in the Caponord, test sat a few, feels about right. Everything I have read, is generally positive, an occasional widget doesn't work, cruise control operation is vauge.
Locally, there are still new 2015's available for $ 9,995. Darn good price.
The only thing holding me back is the maintenance. Removing the cams when having to adjust the valves....I don'tknow I want to go that route.
I have the B1100 down to pieces @ the 50k mile mark, just cleaning and servicing everything I can, still a fine machine.
But the Caponord.....
kjf
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Back from a google picture search - yeah, that's beautiful.
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Not me but I've read about them on the advrider forums
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/aprilia-caponord-2014.953519/
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/aprilia-1200-rally.1045201/
I'd love to see the Rally Capo.
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Pilot.
Last year, my 2 Italian friends came and spent 3 weeks touring on Caponord's around Texas to write their article for MotoTurismo, if I recall they did about 5000 miles in total over that time. They enjoyed the bikes, but coming from shaft drive configs (Guzzi's mainly), their only real dislike was the chain slap. I rode it for a short distance around town here while the bikes were at my house, it was a comfortable riding position, great acceleration, seemed to be a very solid bike, good competitor against the Stelvio...
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To me the Cappo is completely bland and characterless. I can honestly say I've never ridden a more boring twin cylinder motorbike. Servicing is a nightmare and it sounds like someone shaking a tin can full of rice. Yuck!
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So let's get this straight. 9 years of building the Stelvio and they still couldn't get the bugs out so they killed it and brought out the Caponord with even more electronics. And you would buy it WHY?
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Here's our Capo.. So far 13,000 miles since last July..
(http://thumb.ibb.co/dvreJv/2capo.jpg) (http://ibb.co/dvreJv)
We had the NTX just before the Capo and put around 18000 on that.
NTX was big and heavy for me. I'll say that it was very spread out and comfortable, but a handful in slow speed situations.
The Capo is worlds easier to maneuver.. An example is when doing a U-turn on a county road.... The Stelvio took serious concentration to get turned around. I can just lean the Capo and spin it around without any feeling of tipping over.
The NTX had tons of torque... The Capo comes geared to the moon. Where the NTX could do anything in any gear. The Capo's stock gearing is crazy high (for me anyway). I'm putting a larger rear sprocket on her to gear her down a bit.
The NTX took more than a few "fixes" to get everything sort of working smoothly.. The only semi-needed mod on the Capo so far, was to stick a clear adhesive backed pad onto the cruise control button. That brings it out from the control module so that you can hit it easier with your thumb. Still a bit wonky though! But it works well enough.
The Capo is crazy comfortable for 2up riding. We did a seat mod (Wicked Stitcher in PA), but we've modded every seat we've had (except the aprilia Futura).
The engine on the Capo came to life when we added a SC-Project carbon can (again, something we seem to always do to our bikes). I installed the carbon can and replaced the Exhaust Servo motor with an "ESE" from Healtech. It's a tiny module that takes the place of the servo motor for the stock exhaust butterfly valve. It keeps the ECU from tossing the red triangle onto the dash. Sounds pretty darn good! She has more than enough zip for us...and gearing her down a tad should make it even better.
THe Capo suspension is decent also. I set the ADD to auto and it'll adjust the preload automatically to any configuration we have going on the bike. Although, I'd welcome a perfectly valved set of any suspension any day. That also goes for any of our bikes. We installed an aftermarket shock on our Breva, and had the Stelvio's shock revalved at one point.
The engine (as Pete said) sounds a bit mechanical, but I don't notice it when were en route.. I just had the "big" service done which includes the valves check. The bike shop I went to charged a chunk of change! After the job was done, I found a handful of quotes that would have been near half the price I paid.. The NTX service cost for valves wins that battle hands down..
All in all, we're loving the Capo so far. We did a 4 day, 1000 miles (and change) trip to Maine last year....the bike worked well for it.
Pre-Maine trip showing aprilia trunk (Shad actually).
(http://thumb.ibb.co/gES5Qa/DSCN3669.jpg) (http://ibb.co/gES5Qa)