New Member Introductions » New owner here

Hi all, new owner here from Savannah. Just bought a black 2020 RS and enjoying it immensely. I‘m coming from a 2016 Aprilia Tuono Factory which had been a great bike but now my 8 yr old daughter is showing an interest in riding and just feeling a need for something a little more sane, here we are.
Since we are mostly new owners I would like to see how many of you might be experiencing what I would describe as a knocking noise around 4000rpm when accelerating. It’s not all the time and I’m not on it hard since I’m still running it in (not going over 5000rpm) but it would be nice to know I’m not the only one having this going on. Only has 320 miles on it at the moment but curious as to see how common it might be.
I also have an 1998 R100RS airhead in a million pieces in my garage that I will get around to one day.
Anyway, wish the best to you all

Hey WillC Firstly welcome to the forum, secondly i have a 2020 RS in the Imperial Blue and have done approx. 250 miles on her, no noises from mine but i do wear earplugs and listen to music, so i barely hear the sirens chasing me

Next time out i will have a listen for it.

Welcome. I’ve had my 1250 since November. Only 1200 miles due to lock down but no knocking. Can you tell which end of the bike it’s coming from? But really if you are worried, take it to the dealer and make it their problem not yours.

Thanks for the welcome Doozer67! The short time I've been lurking on this forum I find it to be very relaxed and most of all funny. The Aprilia board I used to frequent was fairly serious and I don't really have time for that shit.
I spoke with my friend who has a 2020 1250 GSA which I have ridden (and what got me to buy the RS) and he says his will spark knock from time to time and might be related to the quality of fuel. I have only filled it twice and always use 93 or the highest I can get so perhaps the fuel delivery man put the wrong fuel in the tank?? I'm going to take his out for a spin this weekend and see if I can replicate it on his and report back.

Thanks again for the reply,

Will

Thanks Oscar, glad to hear you aren't having it either. Sounds like right in the motor, right at 4000rpm when accelerating. I'm not giving it full throttle, maybe half or so but I know the manual states no full throttle and not over 5000rpm. It feels like a very creamy torque curve even from 4-5k so I'm looking forward to going a lot further after running it in! Booked the first service for next thursday and since I booked it on the dealers website you can state what type of services you are looking for and besides the first service I asked for software updates and mentioned the knocking at 4k. My thinking is that at least there is a record of me asking for it to be checked out if things go bad later, right?

Will

Sorry, it a 1988 R100RS I have, not a '98

Hi again. Thinking back to when I first got my 1250 I do recall hearing something that could be what you describe. Almost like ‘detonation’. I put it down to the different engine design (came from a 1200) But either it doesn’t do it now or I don’t notice it. I’ll be interested to hear what your dealer says.

Went for a ride yesterday with my friend and his 2020 1250GSA. We left at 6:00am for a 2hr blast before the burning orb melted us, it's hot as balls around here right now! Several times I tried to get the bike to make the knocking noise and it did several times but not every time I tried. I have installed my SW Motech tank bag and that keeps me from getting low enough behind the screen to hear as well as I would like over roar of the stock screen (working on that too). Definitely did it when I had to get around a Rottweiler that was chasing us in the road but since I wasn't really watching the tach I might have just been in a lower gear too. There seems to be a distinct change in the engine right at 4k, either some sort of fuel map change, sensor input/output, shift cam actuation etc. As I accelerate from below 4k I watch the tach and when it passes the exact 4k point there is a distinct change and can either be just a tiny slight hesitation or the knocking as I described. Switched to my friends GSA with a larger than stock faring (very quiet) and spent 20 mins trying to find anything going on around that rpm area and there is nothing, no slight change, hesitation, knock, tap, ping, nothing. It could all just be down to the fact that mine is still learning the long term fuel trims or some bad gas but I have no idea and was just hoping I wasn't alone! Will update after the dealer service on the way to my mountain trip next week. Should be doing at least 1500-2000mi so I should know if its just a new bike/bad gas thing or something more. I'll be sure to update either way.

Got the first service done in Charlotte and then went up to the mountains, rode almost all of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Skyline drive and many other great roads. 2000 miles overall and what a great bike it is. Sure, its nowhere near as sharp as my Tuono was but it's much more compliant, comfortable, stable and with a sweet motor. And speaking of which, it still has the ticking/knocking sound like I had described but I'm just not worrying about it anymore. From what I've seen and read some motors seem to do it to a more or lesser degree and maybe there is a lot of people who don't even notice it, but in any case, the dealer was not able to duplicate the noise (naturally) but it is written on the service document stating the problem so I feel that should suffice if a problem arises in the future.