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If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try, try, try again.  At least that is what I had to do to take official ownership of MY ‘01 Aprilia Futura.  I actually received the bike back in mid-February of this year, but it failed emissions badly. 

I tried  couple other times without success.  I tried the local Aprilia dealer called North Valley Honda, and they could not work on the bike because the dealer servie tool was broken…twice.  Then I went across town to Arizona Superbike.  They sniffed it and found everything OK and said to try again without shutting off the bike.  At the Arizona MVD station (state owned and operated) you have to shit iff the bike while they hook up the equipment.  Since the bike has an enrichening fueling program for when the bike is first started, that was thought to be the culprit.  Nope.

I then tried on my own with the TuneBoy software and a laptop.  I first uploaded the “01″ map which was thought to be very lean.  The “01″ is not to be confused with the model year, but its the mapping revision number.  Anyway, I passed for hydrocarbons, but still not CO output.  I then reduced the idle trim number and tried again.  It reduced the CO, but not enough.

I finally tried NVH one more time and they had the AXONE 2000 diagnostic tool fixed.  The Futura and the Caponord do not have fuel misture screws.  It must be done electronically (read: taken to the dealer).  It took some fifteen minutes to electronically dial down the HC and the CO settings and FINALLY I passed.  The next day I took legal ownership of the bike…even though some 3000 miles got mysteriously racked up.

Total cost to get the bike in my name:

• Transportation cost from NorCal - $500
• First round of emissions testing - $19 for two tries
• AZ Superbike - $50
• Second round of emissions testing - $19 for another two tries
• NVH work - $35
• Third round of emissions testing - $19 PASSED!
• AZ MVD fees, etc. - $102
• TOTAL = $744!

I should have just waited for my original dealer to get their tool back, but I wanted to get the thing legal because commuting in Arizona in the spring is a very nice transportation method.  Both dealers pissed me off for different reasons.  Yeah, I lit a match to a couple of bucks but I’m a little smarter now.

NOTE:  Back around April 1st I bought a BMW 528i.  Since then, I have been trying to get that damn thing in my name too.  There was a duplicate title issue from Texas that needed to be straightened out. And of course at State entity speed, it only took five-and-a-half months!  I had a temporary plate - the paper ones that you stick in your rear window.  I managed to only get pulled over once.  I did have a laugh with the MVD guy behind the counter though once both titles and plates were in my hand.  I think I’m going to avoid buying a motor vehicle of any sort for a while.