Hi, first post here so I guess I should introduce me and my latest bike. I'm Chris, I have owned a few bikes, but none italian so far, and I basically have a conversation at my local road to blame for this - an older guy with a Tuono talked about how long it took him to get the right color forged wheels for his bike, so just for laughs I entered aprilia forged wheels into the classifieds - and came across this RSV Mille, 100km away from home, at a very affordable price. Researched the model, which I NEVER had on my screen before - turns out it ticks all my boxes for my next time. Wanted a V2 (on alpine roads it makes no sense to me having a four-cylinder, you want that punch at low to mid-range for overtaking) with great suspension, no modern emissions/complications, and a bit of style, as well as a reliable engine - all of which the Mille seems to offer.
 
It's a MY2000 (registered 2001) RSV Mille ME, which has rather low miles (17000km, proven by the annual inspection reports) and came with mostly Mille-R parts, except the Öhlins fork - Öhlins shock, OZ forged wheels, carbon fender and exhaust holder, plastic tank, paddock stands, loads of goodies. Not crashed, even the swingarm looks good, just a few scratches on the lower fairings - which I guess were caused in garage by the sidestand surprisingly not doing it's job. 
Previous owner (pensioner, ex-agricultural mechanic, owns 5 other bikes including some semi rare vintage BMWs and basically not shy of maintainance nor fabricating) bought it right before Covid, kept it in his dark and cool bike garage for 5 years, and wanted to use it as a sports tourer - he installed a superbike handlebar, lowered the footrests, removed all the stickers and so on. He eventually found out this wasn't quite the touring bike he had in mind, he always preferred his BMWs. I'm now in the process of turning her into a stock-plus bike and getting to know this wonderful machine, have taken her to my local rac...recreational road, Brennerstraße, a few times already.

- re-installed original handlebars and footrests, adjusted brake, clutch and gear levers, re-installed original brake lines in front, bled all brakes, even making the rear semi-functional again. 

- installed a new sidestand from a Honda VTR (fits excellent, about 1cm shorter than the original which puts the bike right where it should be, but needed a different position hole for the sidestand rotary switch)

So far, from mostly wrenching on the bike it's been a rather lovely time so far - it's full of pleasant surprises and little discoveries, all in the spirit of "so they included a freely selectable rpm light, 40-slot stopwatch, dry sump, a secondary engine mapping accessible by disconnecting a wire, and a freely exchangable, unprotected EPROM - what use case could they possibly have had in mind for this roadbike???"

Later moves I foresee for this bike are: New tires (the S22s on there still feel pretty good and have run less than 2000km, but are 5 years old), give it the Mille-R decal set, some Öhlins forks (or Öhlins cartridge for the showa units?), different exhaust (he passed me a LeoVince saying it was too loud for him - any opinion on that can?) and other lightweight alternatives (rear subframe, Li battery, aluminium sprocket?) - if the bike can go on a diet, I don't have to . Guess it wouldn't be impossible to get a Mille with 90% fuel to just around 200kg, right?

At any rate, the road is drying up, will post some photos after the ride!

They are good fun and where you live in their element with the twisters as they handle pretty damn well 

For the forks look at a valve kit and springs as will still be cheaper than ohlins and will get them set up for you 

As for the loose/tiight throttle watch one of Griffs videos to see if this helps you

https://www.apworkshops.co.uk/how-to-videos/engine/throttle-tension-tips/" rel="nofollow - https://www.apworkshops.co.uk/how-to-videos/engine/throttle-tension-tips/

Lots of other videos on the site to assist too