Thats the thought that went through my head just before Christmas. It dawned on me that last time I heard from the owner, Chris Baker, was when he was in the process of taking the bike to it final painting.  I did some Googling and came across some photos of the finished machine, but no contact details. Luckily buried away in the Org archives was Chris's original email so I gave that a try. Chris replied

Hi John, Good to hear from you. Sure, update away. I'll send you some additional pics using my home e-mail. I sold the bike back in 2008 - swapped it for cash plus an NSR 250. Sold that, too and have been completely out of motorcycling since. Imagine that. Anyway, hope all's well and let me know when you post the update as I'd love to reminisce and see the MV/SV talked about once again. Thanks and look for my e-mail here is just a bit.

Read the full story here, plus more recent photos.

Turns out the additional item is a resistor ballast for the headlight. And it does mount on the subframe near the seat lock. Looks like it came in from 2005 onwards, why I don't know.  I suspect that it's something to do with the headlight always being on from 2004 onwards. My 2004 model does not deactivate the headlights when starting, but I know later models do. These later models have an additional switch in the starter button area which kills the lights while the bike cranks, maybe the ballast has something to do with that. I'm probably completely wrong.  Meantime I've held off installing the new loom. While in theory its just a plug and play job, getting to parts of the loom, especially in the engine space is a "loose your knuckles" job. I only want to do this once and not fail and have to put the old loom back in.

Meantime. I'm re-spraying various bits. The top yoke is now silver as I could never get any kind of black paint to cover well or actually stick to the metal. Fork lowers are also getting some fresh paint.

John

Henry asked for this photos to be added to the images section. I can see why it's a very clean '02 curvy

Some comments from Henry "despite thrashing my K2 all year round, even in frosty slushy winter, she is kept in absolute mint condition, the shot of me on the bike was taken as I headed off for Le Mans MotoGP 2008... 2,000 miles of non-stop abuse and never missed a beat! Not one!"

I finally started working on the SV. It's now minus its' clothes and parked up in the garage. Time to remove the alarm and install the new wiring loom.

Being the cautious type I thought I'd start by comparing the new loom with the old before ripping things out. I started at the headstock and worked my my way down and all was well until I got to the area near the ECU. The new loom has an extra component, looks like a high power resister encapsulated in ceramic and on a mounting plate. None of my fiches or manuals show this part, so I suspect I have a loom from a much more recent SV.

I can't workout where this bracket mounts, there are no holes nearby that match up and it's on a short cable so it has to be near to the main loom. The other concern is that this component is there for a reason and my ECU might not be compatible. So even though I could bodge a fixing, I might cause my self hassle elsewhere. Grrr! This loom was sold to me a 2004 item. It clearly isn't and it looks too clean. It must be off a later machine.

Grateful for any suggestions.

John

Hi John

Your SV650.org discount code has been amended to SV-OC-2012 and will run until the end of the year. Please can you update your post on the forum.

The same conditions apply as last time and please remember it is only valid when no other discounts are available.

Please can you confirm receipt of this email and let me know the code has been updated, thanks.

Should you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact us. 

Regards

Louise Turner

click here for more details

Time to take the decorations down, both in the physical and the virtual sense. Hope you had a good Xmas break. Nothing much to tell you about at the moment. My SV is heading for the garage any day now for the wiring loom swapout. I'm girding my loins for that one. I'll let you know how it goes.

Get any good presents? My wife treated me to a new phone, a HTC Desire S smartphone. A bit of a jump up from a Nokia 6500 and lots to explore and learn about as Android is new to me.

Happy New Year

John

Just a quick line to wish you all the seasons greetings. Enjoy the break and I hope you get some nice biking presents, as for me I hopefully have a new mobile phone under the tree.

Have a good one John

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December 14th

What news can I tell? The answer is not a lot on the SV front. Another year passes by with no news of an SV replacement. Even the DL650 has been updated and given a shiny new set of clothes.

As I write there has been a slight lull in the weather and the wind and the rain crashing into the windows has abated slightly. The SV is parked in the front garden minus it's cover, which is some houses away in someone else's garden. Still it will be moving into the garage soon for some winter TLC.

Last week was quiet interesting. We had a minor riot on the Forum caused by some the voting on the AR12 location. The AR is regarded as great social event, yet the virtual punch ups that take place just to select the location and date totally belies that. I sometimes wonder if the AR event has grown to big for it's own good and that smaller local events would be better. That way you can travel to a local event or be more adventurous and travel further afield. I've not been to an AR for some years now. I'm not a keen camper and the date set in the school holidays just kills it for me. Following this years aggravations, I've decided (with Fizzwheel and the Mods) that future events will be chosen on a different format. Think about how the Olympic venues are selected and it won't be far off that approach, but details are to be decided. So more on that later. Meantime were off to Essex in June I believe.

Meantime, be nice to each other and have a great Christmas.

 John