Aprilia Caponord - Horizons Unlimited

**andrew smith** · #1 25 Jul 2005

Has anyone got any experience of the Aprilla capnord.
They look like good value for your money but will they do the miles?

**Steve Pickford** · #2 25 Jul 2005

Met a Dutch guy recently who'd put 16,000km on his Capo Raid in 12 months. He loved it.

If I hadn't bought an 1150GS, a Caponord would have been my next choice. It was the shaft drive, ease of maintenace & longer service intervals that swung it for me.

One minor gripe - the footprint of the Capo's sidestand is tiny, the Dutch bike fell over in fron of us. It needs an extension like I made for my GS:

**AnteK** · #3 26 Jul 2005

Caponord is very god bike if you stick to asphalt; if you are more gravel oriented, stay away from it and choose something else.
Mileage will surely not disapointed you, engine is durable and reliable.
AnteK

**andrew smith** · #4 26 Jul 2005

Thanks for the info,
The savings on buying a capnord over say a gs is considerable. I have seen new capnords for 5K.
My planned trip will involve a fair amount of gravel so why do you feel this could be a problem with this bike?

**AnteK** · #5 27 Jul 2005

Andrew smith, there was a topic "any bike can do", so Caponord also can do gravel trips, but it is not made for offroad; driving in standing position is very poor, cornering is a pain, you can not control heavy bike well, stock Metz Tourance tyres are everything but for offroad use, etc. I rode it several times on gravel, comparing to my tenere 660, CN is fully street bike. If your trip assume more graveling, do yourselves a favour, buy Adv 640 or so; huge benefit offroad, same onroad, just your back will recive a difference :-)
AnteK

**simmo** · #6 27 Jul 2005

It would be big and heavy, but so is the GS, the Tiger, the 950, the dero and the TDM. All of them are fine on dirt roads. They aren't an XR or XT but so long as you ride wth that in mind they go fine. Knobbies (such as the MT21) transform them off road but dont last more than a few thousand kilometres, you can kill them in a few hundred....I wouldnt want to go places where you had to push them around.

**Steve Pickford** · #7 27 Jul 2005

The Capo I was riding with recently off road in the Alps had no problems off road. He may have had an advantage over oilhead GS riders like myself in that he had telescopic forks as the Telelever front reduces front end feel off road IMO - confirmed by BMW fitting normal front ends to their Dakar oilheads & the forthcoming HP2.

As I said earlier, the only issues with a Capo for me are the shorter service intervals (4,000 miles?), harder to service at home & spares availability.

A new Capo for £5k is good value & cheaper than a 2-3 year old GS.

**DougMaher** · #8 9 May 2006

I rode a Capo (2002 model)on a 5 month tour of europe including some off road in the Sierra Nevadas)The standard suspension is set too soft i.e the front springs are way too soft and make the front feel vague.Stiffer springs e.g Hyperpro and heavier weight oil transform front end feel.On the rear the preload is set too low and needs winding up to near max,the rear shock is also overdamped but this can be dialled out without a problem.For mild off road use these adjustments make all the difference,for more serious off road use I would replace the rear shock with a a custom made item e.g Maxton.There is also a problem with fuel consumption(the bike runs really rich standard)its worth investing in a Power Commander which really smoothes out the injection and improves mpg dramatically.Other than that the Capo is really comfy and handles well.Best tyres for tarmac,Bridgestone BT020;For trails,Bridgestone Trailwings.Hope this helps