CURRENT POSTINGS  FOR  AUGUST  2000 

I saw a picture on your images archive page 1 that I will attatch.. The email that is next to this series of pictures is a dead email. Im wondering if you have any information on where I can purchase this front fairing? You have several pics of this fairing in yor images archives, so Im really really hoping you can help me out. 

Here's the mystery image

Steve, many have asked about this fairing and I've been able to find out nothing. Once again, if anyone can help identify the manufacturer of this fairing please get in touch as there have been many enquiries about it....thanks.

The SV650 site is a great resource - only just recently discovered it. I noted that in the FAQ/how to, with rejetting carbies there seems to be a whole heap of information on shimming carby needles. This perplexes me somewhat as my SV needle has a clip with 5 slots. In standard form the clip was in the middle position on the needle.

After installing a Yoshi pipe, I just had to drop the clip down one slot, no need to add shims or whatever. This is what I have done for the past 30 years in adjusting low-mid range jetting. My only thought was that perhaps only the Australian (SV650S E-24) model has a needle with an adjustable clip. Can anyone confirm this? Ummm...I can't, can anyone else??

The SV service manual even shows the needle with a clip & alternative positions. I have attached a scan of the page from the manual which shows the SV carby - this may of help for the FAQ pages.

The SV is a great bike - however the front forks are nothing to write  about. My next project is re-valve the forks.

btw: the yoshi pipe + adjust the needle transform the SV - it just goes - awful hard to keep the front wheel on the deck!

Image 1

We have some good springs , shocks and steering damper kits for the SV650

Image 1

Contact:

Hyperpro Suspension Technology
Flevolaan 13
1382 JX Weesp
the Netherlands
Tel: +31-294-418500
Fax: +31-294-480192
www.hyperpro.com

Wanted, Front wheel for SV650SY - (2000). Front tyre as well if fitted.

This is a thank you from me to Jorge, Tomko, John, Alan, Ozzie and all the others I've not named for the day spent at the factory on Monday. It was great to see the place where it all happens and meet some familiar and not so familiar faces. My twin low level looks even better today and I've been out this evening as I was getting withdrawals after only a few hours! 

It was also good to meet Hammy, Andy, Alison, Vladimir, Zico, Robin, Paul, Mike - I've bound to have missed a few people...sorry if you're not included.

I'll be posting the notes I made from the day within the next few days along with images to illustrate. For now I've just posted most of my images from the day in the Images Section with no corresponding text. 

Once again thanks Jorge and keep up the good work!

Please could you make a note that all the parts on my posting dated 18/8 are sold! I've been amazed at the response - one guy emailed from Denmark! Thanks again,, and please feel free to quote me when I say that the SV site is "better than MCN!!" I have!

i am just about to renew my insurance, the only problem being i have a dr10 (drink driving) I was caught in morning going to work DOH!!! does anyone know ant cheap insurance firms i would be grateful. i have a yellow sv 650 and i dont want to get rid of it because the insurance is too high.

Yes, Helphire are scum. 

My father had dealings with them a few years back, but from the other perspective. He dented a car door while he was reversing out of the drive, and he left his name and number. He got an awful lot of threatening letters from Helphire saying that they would take him to court and sue him if he didn't pay their bills. His insurance company advised him to throw their letters strait in the bin, don't even bother opening them. He eventually got so pissed off with HH that he sent them a letter saying this, but they still kept on at him. Eventually it was settled by the two insurance companies. Whether HH ever got any money I don't know, not directly from us, that's for sure.

I am american sv rider. Just want too let you know I love your site and my bike. My question is about a picture that you have in catalog 6. its of a black sv with duel headlights. I would like to do this to my sv to make it look different than most. If you could would you Email me any info that you might have.

oh how much is the renegade duel exhaust in american money. see http://www.sv650.org/sv_renegade.htm, go to the Renegade site http://www.renegade-exhausts.com/ and look up the price for the kit you want, then use the currency calculator http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html to translate the price.

Units 2 and 3 
Clearways Business Centre 
West Kingsdown 
Kent 
UK
TN15 6ES 

Image 1     Image 2

There is a scary and heretical proposal from Bristol feet forward motorcycle (Quasars et al) enthusiasts on www.shockwav.demon.co.uk/bff/futuresv.html

Worth a look, but hide the hacksaw first. lol

I have a '99 SV650S, bought new last April, from Ontario, Canada. I've been following the site for a while, great job.

Here are some pics of my new front signal lights. They are only fastened with tie wraps, but they seem to be okay and they just barely cover up the stock holes.

Image 1      Image 2      Image 3      Image 3

Just a question...how the hell do people see you turning with signals that small?? I don't think I'd last five minutes on UK roads with them, it's bad enough as it is with full sized BS-marked and approved signals...

I was unlucky enough to have a bash on my SV a few weeks ago. Since it was a rear-ender and I was the recipient of an Astra's pointy end I enlisted the help of a 3rd party recovery service, namely Helphire UK.

I suffered a similar incident in 1996 when my Citreon BX was 'lowered and stiffened' as they say in Max Power by a mobile crane. Then I picked up the phone and a nice man dropped a new car round for me, took the bashed one away and I didn't hear a peek until they turned up 3 weeks later with a settlement cheque and took the car back. Perfect, I thought, if they can help me this time all will be well. 

I have 6 witnesses and a short commute to make each day into the City.

I now wish I had not bothered. Firstly, they insist on selling you an 'insurance policy' that costs £10 and is supposed to indemnify you against any costs should they be unable to recover 100% of hire charges, legal fees etc from the 3rd party. I though this odd, since none of the car hirers I called in 96 mentioned this. I checked the policy and the wording seemed reasonable so I collected the bike.

The problem has arisen from the fact that Helphire now want to invoice me directly for the time I was away on a long weekend and also queried why I needed a bike when I had a car as well ! I pointed out that I don't sleep on the bike, that I cannot park in the City and that I also have a pogo stick and would they like me to use that ? lol I also added that I am quite prepared to counter-sue heavily, that I will seek maximum counter-publicity via MCN, MAG, Watchdog etc as well as formal complaints to all trade bodies and ombudsmen.

In short, I would be very wary of using these people at all. The hire rates they quote are 70 + VAT per day for a Fazer, which is extortionate and the policy accompanying the hire (from Angel insurance) is of dubious use if it can be invalidated on the simplest premise.

If you do then brace yourself and take a look. (at least it's something to do while the Forum is down...) 

For those of you new to this site Jorge & John run Renegade, the most excellent producers of exhausts and systems (amongst other things) and me, I just keep this site going.... 

There is currently a problem with the Forum section of this web, it is being investigated. 

Please be patient and service will be restored as soon as possible.....many thanks.

18/08/00 - the problems remain ongoing...thanks to all who've emailed me with the problem error messages (I can't reply individually to all..sorry)

You may or may not remember (probably not, seeing as how much info comes through here) (oh yes we do...see here) that I had a problem with my starter motor at the beginning of June, The bike was popping 10A ignition fuses every time I hit the starter motor, I took it into the shop and they checked it out, cleaned up the terminal, and all seemed ok. 

Well about a month ago it stared happening again, so back to the shop, and they said I needed a new starter motor, fine. They ordered me one, and when I left they told me to keep the 15A fuse in, that didn't blow, but the 10A did. Anyway, I carried on using the bike, but it got worse and worse, the battery was getting flat after 2 starts,
maybe 3 if I was extremely luck that day, so I phoned them up after a week and was told Suzuki have no starters in stock.....hmmm, so I have to charge the battery every night. 

One night I went out, and had to push start her at 3am, after a fairly heavy night....not happy.....another time, stalled in traffic (stupid yes, but it happens once in a while), have to pushstart....grrrrr. Phoned MCC (motorcycle city) still no motor. I'm pissed off now. I'm not surprised!! So I take the bike home a strip it. I found a REALLY bad 
connection when the Datatool alarm had been connected to the ignition circuit, so I re-did it, and connected everything back, and since then it has been perfect, but Mcc phoned me the other day to say my starter was in, so I'm having it put on next week anyway. They said I need a new one, so I'll have one thank you very much.

So if you are having bad battery symptoms it might be something as simple as that, I have done some 13k miles on my 2000SVS, with loads and loads of starts and stops, my ride to work is 7 miles every day, so not that much charge gets put back in and my battery is fine, and my lights are on all the time, the only problem was the alarm guys dodgy workmanship.

Keep up the great work on the site, it has been a great source of info for me, and I'm sure loads of other people out there in the big wide world.

Once again thank you for a great site. Here is a link to my site about my experiences with the SV. Thought you might want to have a look at what we get up to on the other side of the world.

A couple of pages about trips, track days, what mod I've made and just general comments. Nothing fancy. Just like to add the New Zealand has awesome roads for riding on. Keep up the excellent work. 

If anybody from the lower North Island see's this and wants get together for a ride drop me a line.

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~toadstol/

Made by "Ortlieb." Good bags, hose 'em off if they get dirty. I got more compliments with these bags on my bike in like 3 days than I had received in the entire 4 months previous. (The bags are open in pics, the roll closed but, you can see how much room you have to cram stuff in there. I'll try to get ya some pics with them closed.) 

Boy, I sound like a frigg'n sales rep huh? yeah.. Well I ain't. I just dig my bags. You can get 'em in black as well. 

www.aerostich.com     see actual images above

Great site for a great bike! Fault found.

Last week I decided to check my bike over (SV650SY) and whilst checking the air filter I noticed that the air box was very loose. On further investigation I found that is was in fact the carbs that were loose. I noticed that the clip that holds the carbs to the inlet manifold had the screw missing. Luckily it was still resting on the V of the engine block.

After about 10 mins (very poor access) I managed to refit the screw and tighten it up. The rear carb clip was very loose as well. I don't know how this would have effected the performance / reliability, but it surprised me that it could happen after only 4000 miles. 

Has anyone else found a similar fault?

After seeing your recent request for an SV650 FAQ, I decided that you have helped me so many times in the past that it's time I returned the favor. thank you

I have set up an account on GeoCities with the address http://www.geocities.com/sv650faq/ for the purpose of a to-the-point website for SV questions. However, I will
need your help and the help of your large number of readers for questions and answers you would like to see posted. 

I won't put anything that I think is trivial, and have no plans for any other bikes. I plan to model the site after http://www.geforcefaq.com/, a web site dedicated to GeForce graphics cards because it is so informative. I doubt the page will grow that big, but then neither did you, Kevin. I remember when I got to 3000 hits and thought I was doing well !

E-mail suggestions to sv650faq@hotmail.com.    

Darren - for a start you can take and link to the small F.A.Q. I already have.

All other readers - send Darren some F.A.Q text and do your bit if you've found this site useful in the past. Please keep the text concise and to the point, please include URL's and email addresses where further information can be found if applicabel. I don't mind where the information comes from but please don't blatantly rip off other web page information, instead link to them. It's only with all your help that the F.A.Q. will grow...lets all help Darren!!

I suffered the same problem with my first SV (RIP - written off at 7 months by stupid male driver changing lane without looking/indicating etc etc) when it was only 4 months old. After riding it every day to work and back (about 40 mile round trip) during the week plus about a 10 mile ride on the Saturday, after only the Sunday in the garage, with alarm on, the battery had drained almost completely. Thankfully my Optimate trickle charger managed to re-charge it over a day. But a few days later, with no alarm on and no lights left on, the same problem occurred.

My dealer - Premier (absolutely excellent blokes) - came and picked the bike up and took it away to investigate. They couldn't find any fault with the battery doing the usual tests, but fitted a new battery under warranty anyway, no hassle. The second battery was fine (well, until that stupid male driver did what he did......).

But it's interesting that Nick Hall's dealer wouldn't give him a new battery under warranty. Shame on them. Tell Nick to change his dealer to Premier (High Street, West Wickham, Kent, 020 8777 8040) if he's within range of them !

I am now blissfully in love with my new SV, care of the car driver's insurance company, which is exactly the same as my old one except for new additions of a Baglux tank cover and map holder (which are excellent by the way - the map holder is very useful and saved me getting lost on a recent week's holiday in Scotland !). Tank cover cost about £75 and map holder was about £20. Worth every penny though - the colour-match is pretty close (yellow).

Here are some pics of my SV here in Michigan, U.S.A. I bought it about 2 months ago in Canada.

Mods are: Micron high level full race exhaust Carbon-Kevlar canister
Dynojet jet kit (stage one)
Lower spoiler (bellypan) from Eurobikes
Custom gages in MPH

Please post these pics on your site

Image 1      Image 2      Image 3      Image 4

Anyone who's owned their SV longer than 6mos & who is willing to do minor maintenance themselves will likely want to balance their carbs. Suzuki makes this a maintenance nightmare, by virtue of where the vacuum lead for the front carb lies.

I made a modification that entailed buying about $2 worth of parts that will make future carb balancing a 15-minute operation instead of the horror Suzuki envisioned where you have to remove the airbox, drop the radiator & fan, etc. just to get at the vacuum spigot. Those parts are some copper tubing (hardware store, 1/4", so the existing little plastic condom from the vacuum spigot will fit) and some rubber vacuum line to fit (car parts store; cost me $.85 for a foot, which was about 2x as much as required.)

Attach vacuum line to spigot, zip tie or spring clamp in place. Make a nice bend in the copper tube to follow the line of the radiator overflow & stuff it into the vac. line. Zip tie or spring clamp in place. Try fitting the airbox back on, discover that you need to make a 90deg bend to bring the end out between frame rails on side of bike; zip tie 
copper tube to overflow tank to keep from rattling about. Put plastic condom on end of copper tube.

If you do this job as part of the more involved tasks of shimming the carb needles or drilling out the blanks over the idle air adjusters, you're looking at adding maybe 1/2 hour to the total job time (if  you're mechanically inept like myself. Less for normal people...) 

Having this in place will make balancing the carbs a simple matter, which means it gets done more often, which means you get better mileage and ridability.

Vacuum_spigot      carb_mod_parts      carb_mod_in_situ

After noticing more than one person complaining of the battery in the SV, I looked into it a little further:

The standard Yuasa battery doesn't seem up to the job, and mine started developing an annoying habit of going flat very quickly (no alarm, and no parking light left on...).

It spent the whole of last Friday in the dealers, and they could find no fault. I tried to persuade them to give me a new battery under warranty and they refused. They also refused to strip down the bike and look for wiring faults. Reason stated was that Suzuki will not pay for investigative work unless the bike is displaying a fault - and mine
wasn't...........six hours on a battery tester and a full check of the charging system showed no fault found. 

Well, pissed off with a bike that was losing my faith in starting, I decided to purchase a battery anyway as I was off to Brands for the WSB. Total cost £77 - ouch!! The bike proved flawless at Brands, even after multiple restarts whilst waiting to get out of the bike park (read: large field with one exit). I have now researched the battery issue via Yuasa's excellent web site http://www.yuasabatteries.com/grt.asp hoping to find a battery of 10 - 12 Ah that I think would do the job. Here's the findings:

1) The same battery is fitted to the TL1000R and is rated at 9.5Ah, .......my 1974 Norton has a 12Ah battery - and no electric starter.
2) You have to fit a GRT (Yuasa-speak for sealed and non-spillable) battery due to the 30 degree angle the battery sits at in the SV. This limits your choice of fitting a higher rated battery.
3) It MIGHT be possible to fit an up rated GRT battery. The only issue here is that the YTX-12BS (10Ah) a YTX-16BS (14Ah) have the same width and length measurements, but are higher. This might mean the relay/fuse tray would not fit under the seat. The standard battery is 105mm high, the higher rated batteries are 
130mm and 165mm high respectively.

So, if I hadn't forked out such an extortionate price for a standard battery I'd be looking to upgrade it. 

Any SV riders out there with the same problems might want to investigate a little more.........

If anyone can contribute more to this subject (with specific details) please do as I know quite a few of you are experiencing similar problems....

in ref to other electrical posting mine also has fault!

the problem i had has similar occurrences to these postings. the problem is the 4 pin connector plug which plugs into the starter relay on the off side of the bike next to the battery. please note only 3 pins are used.

the pins on mine have corroded away causing serious misfires and engine going dead. all instrument lights go out and rev/speedo read very strangely. mine is getting fixed on monday.

i would all check yours if i were you and would advise you to waterproof the connector (mines a feb 2000 model now that didn't take long to corrode). 

on a different note its not a good idea to put larger fuses in any electrical device other than the stated one, the reason is the fuses are there to protect the cable from burning out. now you'll have problems when you go out to ride your bike and find you've had an electrical fire and your sv is no more than a black burning mess ! 

I've been following the site for a long time now and have shared all the trail and tribulations with all of you. The bike is fantastic but we all know it has a few 'quirks' which can be easily addressed. Wouldn't it be great (yes) if someone who has read through the archive and has had their bike long enough to draw up a specific FAQ with all of the faults found thus far and  remedies, even inlcuding the recall info....just so people can double check...especially those who may be buying their SV second hand...this would be a great source of information.

Great idea but asked for someone to do it in the past and got nowhere, I don't have the time so it's upto you lot......if someone does one then I'll post it with your name in lights...first one to let me know they'll do it gets it  (as I stand back waiting for the rush!!)

I would like to donate some interesting drawings ....Enjoy

Image 1      Image 2      Image 3      Image 4      Image 5      Image 6

Here are a few pictures of the NWS hugger in GPS black.

P.S no point doing a stages set of pictures as these should be self explanatory and it's a doddle anyway.........

Image 1      Image 2      Image 3      Image 4

After reading so many encouraging comments from others, especially on Kevin's SV650 site I decided to take the plunge and booked my baby in at Renegade. 

I went for the twin, low-level, oval, titanium system. This seemed the best option for someone who often carries soft panniers and I didn't want the system to look too obviously 'aftermarket'. 

I spent a very enjoyable day with Jorge and the rest of the Renegade crew. They truly love their work and know that they have an unbeatable product. I chatted to staff, other customers, helped Jorge with his PC and even took customer phone calls when Jorge felt they needed to hear about the product from 'the horses mouth'! 

I finally left at around 5pm, the proud owner of the very first twin low-level system for a Suzuki SV650SY. I can only echo what everyone else has been saying for ages. Forget the rest, get a Renegade system and do it NOW - you won't regret it!! 

Other modifications on the bike include:-

From MPS (www.thefastone.co.uk)
Airflow Screen
Front Mudguard Extenda
Carbon Look Tank Protector
Mini Carbon Look Smoked Rear Indicators
Flush Aero Smoked Front Indicators 

From M&P (www.mandp.com)
Undertray (a complete ba***rd to fit!)

From Pyramid Plastics (www.pyramid-plastics.co.uk)
Carbon Look Hugger

Plus a Scottoiler and Sola Alarm under the front seat.

Image 1      Image 2      Image 3      Image 4      Image 5      Image 6

Ran across this in a magazine. www.rocketlocker.com. It's a tail pack that replaces your pillion seat. That's all I know at this moment.

I'd just like to thank yourself and everyone who has contributed to the site in helping me to become an SV rider. In fact, I'd never even ridden a motorbike until 7 weeks ago so taking delivery of my Blue SVS yesterday was pretty good going. It was your site that prompted me to get biking and I only came across it while random surfing at work...Anyway, got bitten  by the bug and realised that it's something that I should have done 16 years ago (I'm 32 years old now). 

There is no other bike dedicated site like it...Over the past 2 months I have read everything on the site, even the archive stuff. I got to know all of the eccentricities (not faults) (no...honest...they are faults! lol) and so on so that when I first heard  the fork clunk I was ready for it and I'd already added foam beneath the wiring loom to prevent the chafing before it left the garage and so on.

A couple of recommendations which might be useful. I can back up the guy who mentioned Humbergrove insurance...I 'phoned 20 companies and got quotes up to £1995 F/C. Humbergrove managed £340 TPF&T which was the lowest by far. Sounds a lot but I'd only got 1 weeks experience, live in an Oldham post code, have zero bike ncd, 2 car SP30's and had a minor claim in the car 18 months ago...the only thing in my favour was having a garage. Bennets do it slightly cheaper if you want to pay all up front.but lose out if you want to pay monthly 

Colin Appleyard of Leeds supplied the bike...a reasonable deposit and a bit of haggling got me 0% finance and they do a nice line in ground anchor/chain deals...I did my direct access with Motorcycle City in Manchester who tailored the training to the rate at which I was learning and managed one-to-one for 3 of the four days.

Anyway...thanks once again to you and everyone else who has contributed to the site...I've not stopped grinning...I even had a chuckle when I accidentally nudged the engine kill switch at traffic lights then waddled the bike to the side of the road wondering why it wouldn't start again. 

Thanks for the kind comments and I'm pleased you enjoy it so much, I only started motorcycling late and wished I'd started sooner.

On your last point it happens to us all. I went for 50 mile blat and could feel the bike not running 100%. It had been standing in heavy rain the day before and I thought about water in the fuel. I thought about it quite a bit and wondered what to do. As I rolled up in the drive after the rideout I realised I'd left the choke on!! Arrgghh. Oh well, at least there were no problems after all.

I've copied this in the August postings from July because it's important that you check your rear wiring loom (or have it checked) as discussed below...

I thought you might want to pass some of this info along. yes, I do...

We just got back from our 2nd trip to Europe with our 2000 650SVS. Again, the bike proved to be a very worthwhile tourer, we put about 2800 miles on the clock in 14 days. (France, Switzerland- snow on the passes- pretty interesting on a motorcycle- Austria and Germany). The only problem experienced was an electrical failure on the autobahn in Germany. 

While cruising at about 75-80 mph, the bike stopped dead. There was no spark to the engine at all, but the lights were fine. Pulling off to the side of the road we found the 10 amp ignition circuit blown. We put a spare 10 amp fuse in and it blew immediately. Having seen previous postings regarding the problem (I think it was John Tapley who told me about this originally) with the seat holdown screw chaffing the wire loom on the left hand side, we checked this (I had looked at it previous to the trip 
also) and could not find anything apparent. After about a half and hour of looking, probing and scratching our head, we put another spare fuse in, 15 amp (last one) and it held. 

We subsequently took it to a Suzuki dealer near Koblenz who checked everything over, cleaned all the contacts, etc. etc. and could also not find anything wrong. (This dealer was excellent- he took us right in, spent about an hour with the bike, cleaned it and charged us nothing). The problem had obviously 'fixed itself', or had at least gone away for a while. 

It got us back to the UK with no more problems, but not being convinced that all was really well, I took another real close look at the wire bundle on the left hand side under the seat. I pulled the black tape away from the bundle where the wire passes against the tab that holds the seat hold down screw. (You have to cut the factory zip tie and pull the wire bundle down a bit away from the frame to do this). Upon closer inspection, I could see where one of the wires had a very small black mark where in had chaffed through and arced, shorting out against the metal tab for the seat screw.

I taped the bundle again with electrical tape, and then put a section of bicycle inner tube, cut to size and slit down the middle, around the bundle then taped it again to offer greater chafe protection. I then zip tied the wire bundle both forward and aft of the seat tab to the UPPER rail. This pulls the wire bundle completely away from the seat tab, as the wires  on my bike were resting against this tab. Even tho there appears to be no movement, there obviously is as mine chaffed through, just barely but 
enough to put us on the side of the autobahn with cars whizzing past at 100+. I don't want to do that again....

I really think Suzuki should put a service note out about this or something, as I would think just about every SV out there is a candidate for this to happen.

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