SV650 spotted on South Park episode. They're Comedy Central images, so I'm not sure if you can show them on your site or not.

-fender
 

I'm sure they'd be delighted for the exposure ;-)

Hi John

I’m from Portugal and I follow your site every month. I’m interested in buying an SV650 in the next few months, in Portugal that bike doesn’t sell to much, but because I’m new at motorcycle world my decision goes for that one, for all the reasons you must know. Well I’m writing you because at this month I read you article in the current month section and I realised that you mentioned a recent group test in a Bike magazine, could you try to put it online, it’s hard to find some good comparison group tests. Thanks and continue the good work.

Happy to help. I should have thought of that myself. Now installed in the 'articles and reviews' section

Hi John, having been a an SV rider for a year now and enjoying your great site for even longer I thought it was about time I sent in a couple of pics of my wee baby.

I have done 5 or 6k miles on her since getting her from new and in that time there hasn’t been a thing wrong. I put a Hemicad Mk2 fender eliminator on (after the first one fell apart and bounced around off the back wheel, held on with only the light wiring!). Since receiving the second version free of charge from the Hemicad boys (many thanks) which seems a lot more solid, if in my opinion not as good looking, everything has been fine. I also added a G&G Bike high level titanium exhaust which I got on ebay for £100 brand new. It came with a fender eliminator which I then sold for £55, so the exhaust actually only cost me £45! It makes the SV sound like a WWI bi-plane and in 3rd gear pops away nicely. The only other thing I have added are some LED rear indicators which were needed as the standard ones contacted the new exhaust, but look really neat so I’m pretty chuffed anyway.

I recently went on a trip to Skye on her and had an absolute blast. I bungeed my tent and a sleeping bag onto the back and went off into the wilderness for a few days, real nice. The SV was great fun on the quiet Scottish roads and was a constant source of amusement. Anyone who hasn’t been around that area, I can't recommend it enough. Anyway, I hope you can put any or all of these pics on your site. Many thanks, and keep up the great work on the site, it has been a great help to me and an excellent source of information,

Nicol Low

Looks like a great place to take a ride, nice scenery and empty roads. Bliss.

The biggest news was the week long failure (or was it longer). I guess I was waiting for something like this to happen. For those that don't know, the server is located in Georgia, US and owner by Steven Nance. Steve is happy to host this site and provides the technical support for PHP, MySQL and the OS.  I just look after the main site.  The network connection is provided by a neighbour of Steve, who just happens to have a T1 cct, so the server lives in his neighbours garage.

The recent outage proves a couple of things. Hardware will fail, especially when it is in use 24x7.  Getting access to the server when you need it can be a problem if your neighbour is absent. Finally nothing is free and all this costs money to fix.

Steve hasn't asked me for any cash, he's also talking about getting his own ISP connection upgraded (not cheap, and not as fast as the T1).  I can't stand by and watch him pay out all this money without offering some help.  A problem shared is a problem halved they say, so I propose that we all help out in some way by providing some loose change to Steven via myself. There are a lot of registered users on this site and a few bob each would soon amount to nice chunk of cash that Steve can use towards the network costs or to reimburse the hardware repairs.  If you can help, a Paypal donation to John@sv650.org would be great. Drop me a line if you'd prefer to send a cheque.

Meantime....................................

Since last month, I've been scouring the local dealers and come up with nothing to wet my appetite as a replacement bike. As mentioned last month, I've decided that the only bike that fits my requirements is an SV, not surprising considering that my requirements are much the same as they were when I bought my first SV. I started to look at ads on MCN to see what was available, both SV1000's and SV650's. It soon became apparent that SV1000's are at least a grand more expensive. Could I justify the extra expense? Did I really need the extra power, In short, no.

I soon found an SV650s, 2004 model with 4700 miles, 16 months old going for £3100. It was based in Crewe, only half an hour a way by train. Turned out to be pretty mint. A datatool alarm was fitted along with a Scorpion DB killer end can. It also had a new back tyre, Scotoiler and a Suzuki seat cowl. The owner had made it clear before hand that he'd already dropped the price from £3400 and wasn't keen on going any further, he thought the price was pretty keen considering all the extras. I too thought the price good, and it saved me the hassle of fitting them myself. So I bought it.

Riding impressions. It didn't feel anything like my SV, bearing in mind that I have raised bars on my old bike. It felt smooth and refined and the burble from the exhaust was superb. The forks felt much firmer that the older machine and the ride smooth. The fuel light was on solid, which on the older model means that there is only a litre or so left of juice, time to find a petrol station. I've since found out that the fuel light works differently and the light comes on when there's 4 litres left. The bike does feel faster than the old model, seems eager to get up to daft speeds. I think this down to the fairing, it seems to be more efficient, the wind blast is reduced and that in turn takes away some of the sensation of speed, so you think you are going slower than you really are. The gearbox is nice too. My old SV always gave a clunk when engaging first on a cold engine, it would be fine after that. The new bike just gives a nice click even when stone cold. The bike does hold a line better than the older machine, it also seems less top heavy, so that slow speed turns feel easier as the bike doesn't feel like it wants to topple in. The engine feels a little courser, but then it might be that the old machine is looser. The FI is impressive, throttle response is so smooth and to be honest most people wouldn't notice the FI unlike some other machines that have fueling problems somewhere in the rev range, although it doesn't like my old habit of opening the throttle slightly when starting, it seems to prefer a closed throttle.

Living with it. The alarm is really annoying. I didn't realise that it automatically sets itself 30 seconds after the key is removed. On the first fill up, I returned to the bike and decided to push it out of the way so I could call my wife. Of course the bloody alarm went off. Once home and having had a good read of the manual, it appears that it's impossible to just turn the thing off completely. There are ways around the problem, you can put it in 'service mode', this lets you work on the bike without the alarm tripping, the down side is that it beeps every 15 seconds. The storage space under the rear seat is tiny and having the fuses there is a pain. On top of that the Scotoiler was sited here too, right in the middle of the space and mainly under the seat latch, which made it hard to see how much oil was present and a problem to refill. It also made it impossible to get anything else under the storage space. It's hard to find anywhere else hidden for the Scotoiler to go, so I decided that it would have to live externally. I made a bracket and located the oiler inside the left rear footrest hangers. Doesn't completely hide it, but makes it a doddle to fill and adjust, plus it's easy to clean if I spill oil. I also noticed that the rear wheel wasn't correctly fitted. The lug on the inside of the swing-arm wasn't located within the slot on brake carrier. So the wheel had to come out and in again. At this point I noticed Nerg the nail in the tyre! So a trip to the tyre shop for a fix was added to the agenda. Despite the fact that the new bike had had a recently service, there was no trace of any grease on the brake pad pins. I got caught out on the old bike, when the rear brake pins corroded themselves solid. So lot's of copper slip and rubber grease applied everywhere.

Little things. There are some nice little touches that I appreciate. The clock is very useful and it's nice to have a temp gauge. Pity Suzuki didn't include a fuel gauge, a simple segmented bar would have done. There are signs of corrosion already, worst being the front left brake hose bracket. The oil rad cover is also looking dodgy. The water pump looks slightly larger and there's a little black hose coming out from under it that the old model doesn't have. The oil filer cap has been moved forward.

So now comes the hard part, selling the old machine. I've now replaced the broken mirror and it looks 99% back to where it was before my wife decked it. It's a good time to part with it, as its' clean and rust free, it would be a good cheap bike for someone starting out.

-o-

I thought it was about time that I had a model history of the SV on this site. Don't know why it took me so long to think of it. So click here to take a look. It's still work in progress, and if you've got any corrections or additions, drop me a line.

-o-

Dropped into the NEC for the bike show. Bought a few treats for the new SV. A carbon Fender extenda is on order from Pyramid and I bought some nice bobbins from R&G. I also promised to drop in on Banditmania to see John and Sarah, so Hi to them if they're reading this.  They had an SV stealth bomber on their stand with loads of trick bits. I noticed the mirror extenders and bought a set, as the new bike is only slightly better than the old for staring at your elbows. The more I looked at the stealth the more I liked it. The paint isn't matt nor silk finish, somewhere in-between, a sort of felt type texture, I've seen this before on Ducati Monster Dark.  The rear light contains red and orange LED's so doubles up as a rear light and indicators.  The radiator covers look good too, might go for some of them. The seat was also re-shaped, removing the flat narrow shape and replacing it with a more human rounded shape. The re-shape and re-cover costs about £55, I might go for that, as the new seat is even worse that the old.

I also wandered over to the Suzuki stand, to see what the 06 SV's looked like.  It seems the naked SV1000 has been dropped due to lack of sales. The 650's have only two colours to chose from and the ghastly black frame is still present. The red colour was okish but I'd take the blue if it were my choice. The blue is lighter than the usual shade we've had since 2000 but not as light as the 1999 model.  Missed opportunity I think. Maybe there's a new mk3 for next year and they couldn't be bothered to do much with the existing model.

Sorry this page looks a little thin this month, if no one writes to me then what can I do?

John