I'm KayBee on the forum.

Last week I went on holiday biking around Wales for the week on my new SV650S (K3 54 plate) which I have now owned for a whole 5 weeks! We clocked up 1150 miles. Making a total of 2150 miles on the bike now.

I was showing a friend Viney some photo's and he thought I should send this photo into you as you might like to put it on your front page! So here it is. He thinks its arty... hopefully you'll like it too.

Please don't hesitate to contact me should you need to.

Many thanks for your time.

Karen (KayBee)

I don't know if you put ads on your site, but I am currently selling my SV and also a fuel tank on ebay. I know I struggled to find the tank in the first place, and I would have appreciated it being on the sv650 site when I looked! Cheers

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7983208081

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4558586556

Regards

Chris Penrose

I am 47 and the last Bike I had was a '73 Trident and the last time I rode that was 17 years ago, after a marriage and a fatal car accident (I was a passenger, my good friend was the one who was killed ) a year off work blah.. blah.. blah.. I was left with epilepsy, but no physical problems.

Over the last few months there has been a sort of Biker revival amongst the old men at work and I sort of got caught up in the "thing", anyway before I knew It I'd bought a copy of Bike Magazine, read it while I was on holiday and then there was a decision to make, yes I was going to get a Bike, but which Bike?

A Trident again?, maybe a Norton Commando (I had one of those as well - a 750 and Combat tuned, very nice 65 BHP at the back wheel), but I didn't fancy a kick start! And poor electrics, oil leaks.

No I think it had to be a Jap Bike, but which one?

A big Kawasaki, Suzuki, Honda, I decided I never had a "V" so, maybe a Ducati? A friend of mine had bought a Ducati 900SS many years ago and said that the handling was superb, it was fast but very poorly put together, bad electrics and paintwork so (When I checked with the insurance company I could get insurance for a big Duke but it would cost a small fortune, I'll need a couple of years NCs before I think about a bigger Bike anyway I am a bit old and it would probably knack me with that type of extreme position.

So that left a Suzuki SV650 so which model, "S" or standard.

I popped "SV650" into Google and found your excellent site and after a bit of reading up, I decided on the "S" cuz I liked the half fairing and I do like a bit of tinkering so I ordered it and am now the proud owner of a brand spanking new SV650S in a delightful yellow. It arrived on Wed night and my back and arse is now killing me, my forearms and wrists are seized up and I haven't been past 5,500 rpm, but my first impressions are very good. I can't get used to 6 gears, (I thought 4 was about right and 5 were excessive!) and the fact that the machine is gutless below 5,000, although after a look at the power curves, I do know that when I get it run in there is a lot more to come. She steers very nicely, is light, brakes well (Wow that engine braking is like a big single I used to have (BSA 440) and it is a bit awkward at slow speeds around town (On-Off throttle response)!

I have added some things already, a fork brace (Superbrace) and a Scottoiler. I must say, the back end looks crap and soon I will be getting or making a fender eliminator and I think a little undertray will look rather cute as well!

The mirrors are useless even with the extensions so I've ordered some bar end mirrors, I might be able to see behind then ( do you reckon its my age?)

I've got a Hugger to fit at the same time I get rid of the back mudguard. I'll take some Pics as soon as I start to get her put right., you won't want pictures of a standard yellow SV now would you?

I have an M4 Aluminium Can turning up soon from the states ($285 inc delivery from ebay - that's brand new) and that should make her sound a bit better and I've got some braided hoses on order from HEL (I mentioned SV650.org and I got a 20% discount!) as I need to replace the front ones anyway when I fit the Sunrisers which are out of stock at the moment, but I hope they get here soon before my wrists fall off!

I'll keep you up you date with progression back to born again Biker (either that or it's a mid-life crisis as the women at work are calling it! LOL)

Cheers

Peter

A follow up from Peter after my reply.

Thanks for those words, since then I have "allowed" the bike to rev to 6000 and I am now pleasantly surprised with the pulling power and look forward to the other 5000 rpm and more than a little bit of throttle, I think the engine is a little tight still as when I wrote that she only had 50 miles on and now its getting looser all the time and so am I! I still need to get used to "LEANING" again LoL

Can't wait for the sunrisers though!

I see that there is a little 20p woodruff key that advances the timing by 4 degrees and allows the engine to start pulling about 2,500 rpm instead of 5,000 which should help the throttle response at low revs batter. (It costs £20 with postage though!!!) - something for the winter break I think!

Anyway, I've joined the forum, so I'll try and contribute as best I can and I'll send you some Pics when I have some bits done, I have some LED flashers coming for the fairing and a new rear undertray to replace the rear "fender" that also has some LED indicators (needs a resistor to get the flasher relay flashing correctly though, I'll maybe write a how to, what do you reckon?

Anyway we may meet someday if I can ride that far ot there's a ride out in the north of England, I'm in SW Durham, a place called Shildon - near Darlington

Catch ya later, just going out for another ride...

Peter

PS I wear a black leather jacket and jeans... though I don't have long greasy hair (any more ... a little shorter and greyer LOL)

Just finished a tour of Scotland starting from York, going up the east coast to Edinburgh through Inverness, John O'Groats across the top and back down the west coast. Finished the week in Windermere for a bit of a drink up. Took us a week and we covered 1500 miles. The SV stood up well to the mileage and conditions, fully loaded with tank bag and panniers. Thought I'd send you a few of the pictures we took. Mod's include; Lower fairing Kit; Crash Bungs; Ermax Hugger; MRA Racing Screen; Hamicad Tail Tidy.

Cheers Calvin

Sorry, I know it's already in this month (June). The mirrorspacer pic is a comercial item, but shows what the bits look like. The other pics are views of the exhaust gubbins fitted to the bike.

I'll try to get things finished in future.

Cheers, Alex

This was a follow up email from Alex based on his article in last months page. The first pic is of an item that you can buy from the US at £60, ouch. Whereas Alex's solution was 60p

Jon here, i email a couple of months back with some photos of extended front mudguards off the 99-02 model SV, I am now proud to announce the new model for the K3-K5 SV. We have also developed the airbox covers for the old SV, have a look at the photos and let me know what you think.

Thanks for your time

PS We don't yet have the website up and running yet, just waiting on more photos. email will have to do for now, my new email is maddevelopments@aol.com  The triangular side panels for the k3-k5 sv will soon be available in carbon thanks

I appreciate you probably get a mountain of e-mails to wade through so I'll keep mine short! I just wondered whether you'd like to put Ginger Parts into your links page - a UK based motorcycle parts and accessories online shop. Our aim is to offer great value and where poss a next day delivery service. You can take a look at: http://www.gingerparts.com  I would offer to link back to you but don't have a links page!

See what you think,

Many Thanks

Clive @ Ginger Parts

Link added and actually it's been a quiet month for emails

What an eventful month June turned out to be. First there was the annual rideout, which I thought went very well this year, thanks to Jelsters planning and assistance from his glamorous assistants, Baldyman and Sid Squid (my apologies if I missed anyone). The marker scheme worked very well for keeping people from getting lost...well it worked better than relying on just a map and some directions. No one sent me any photo's for the main site, so I pinched a few off the forum before the thread rolled off. I've added them to my own as a permanent article.

My next planned event was the annual Red Lion run, sadly I didn't make it, as my wife managed to mangle my SV by knocking it over whilst both wheels were off the ground (I was having new tyres fitted). I thought the damage was mainly cosmetic but it seems the starter clutch has shed some teeth and I don't know why. There's already a thread on the forum if you want to know more. Once it's fixed I'm going to start looking around for a new steed. I love my SV but it's starting to look long in the tooth and this incident hasn't helped.  I don't have anything particular in mind, I'll just keep an eye out and see what turns up.

So I'm going to be bikeless for a few weeks until the new parts turn up. This is very frustrating, as the weather is reasonable at the moment and going to work in the car just goes against the grain.

Hopefully next month I'll have some better news.

John