POSTINGS  FOR FEBRUARY  2002 

I've removed the Tyres, Exhausts and Fairing sections buttons from the menu bar. None of these pages have been updated in a long time. To be fair, I tend to put all new mailings to me straight into the current section. The pages haven't been removed, you can get to them via the Archive data button and then scroll down to the bottom. John

I'm buying a 2002 sv650s next month, silver, and would like to know where in Massachusetts or New-Hampshire I would be able to add the lower fairings and install the race kit and for approximately how much? thanks.... Laurent. A french bastard living in Boston I've no idea is the short answer. Can the dealer supplying the bike help? Can any of our US readers assist? www.svrider.com  is US based and may have information

Hello there just to let you know about my web site www.zorstec.net any chance of a bit of a write up on your site? and a link back? regards and thanks for your time Andy. I've had a look at Andy's site and I was impressed with the number of different designs available. Well worth a look. These two shots should wet your appetites. I've left the yellow one in the large format because you need to see the detail. I'll add the site to the links page.

Q1. What polishing kit did I use? I bought my kit 10 years ago to tart up my GSX. I wanted to polish the engine casings. I got my kit from Mr Fast'ner and it looks something like this. There are three grades of mop and three grades of polish (compound) and an arbour, the cone shaped thing, for attaching the mops to an electric drill. I put the drill and mop into a workmate and bring the metal to the mop.  I rarely use the hardest compound and mop, they are designed for rough castings (or harder metals). I go straight to the medium to get a a good gleam and then to the fine for a chrome like finish.  The more time you spend the better the result. I'm no expert at this but the results I get are fine for my needs.

http://www.mr-fastner.com/     http://www.cetempolishing.com/ 

I had the gear lever tighten up a bit on the shaft but did what I always do to a bike - I drilled and tapped both gear and brake lever and put grease nipples on. About 20p each and everybody knows somebody with taps. I was a bit worried in case the plastic bush did not like the grease but after two years with no problems it is obviously OK. You will never need to strip them and two seconds work with the grease gun a couple of times a year sorts it out. Thanks Pete. I have a tap and die set and I'm not afraid to use it. Where did you source the nipples from?

Could you please add my web site to your links page. My name is Jack Aksel and my company designs and makes aluminum bits for the SV such as crash protectors rear set pegs etc. I'm located in the Northeastern US in Massachusetts.   Company name - AXLJAK Racing Products. My url is http://www.axljak.com   Thank you

John,   Got back from Oz and had to fit my new Quill Powerflow exhaust.  It's a Titanium one and I think looks the biz.  here are some pics of old / new for people to get an idea of what they look like as I have not found many other pics of it on the SV.   Also a sound clip of how it sounds, it's much louder than the original and sounds great but still road legal!!  to prove this I was involved in a minor traffic accident at the weekend (see parts reqired on the forum! Don't want to talk about it any more) and then a 5 car pile up happened after about half an hour when I was waiting for recovery right where I was waiting.  A police bike who thought I was involved check it out and was not smiling after he saw the BS number on it. sweet as....   After seeing that I have learnt a valuble lesson in NOT driving / riding / flying too cloce to the car infront.   Pete

If ever there was a prelude for things to come this summer,  I hope it was last Sunday 17th Feb. Thought it was a good day for a good ole clear the cobwebs blast.  Managed to get road born by 07:30 hrs. The early biker gets the less traffic :-).       And finally from having my sv since last autumn I got both knee's down,  WAW!  Obviously not at the same time.       ...Anyway had a good day out and felt like I was riding a side car :-P  Here's a little piccy of my right knee slider, and yes the left one is just as worn "mind you they're not that worn but for a day it's not bad.   Now I need some sparkies :-D.Btw:  Good to hear another SV rider back on the road John. I'm gonna be trying to literally get on the road this summer :-P   Cheers and good luck to all.

 Not a photo of an SV, I know but Stuart is obviously having a great time and it's something about riding the SV that brings out this in people. I just hope Stuart doesn't go too far and dump the bike in his ambition to wear out his knees.

John stainless bolt are an even bigger problem the electrolysis between stainless & ally tends to cause more problem than normal steel try using chrome plated bolts. 

I had heard this and I'm keeping a wary eye on the areas that I've used them. Also to head off possible problems I'm using a product from Mr Fastner called Anti-seize. It comes in an aerosol and sprays on like paint. I've used this everywhere I can. In the past I would have used copperslip but Mr Fastner warns that this is an absolute no-no with stainless steel for the reasons you stated. This is the copy from Mr Fastner

"This is an aluminum based anti-seize that can be used on all metals (copper based greases and sprays can have an adverse reaction when used on stainless steel) to give excellent protection against seizure, rust, corrosion, water and acid. Forms a protective coating that will not wash or burn off"

I don't believe every word that I read but so far I haven't noticed any problems. Time will tell.

I'm finally back on the road.. yahoo!  Got to work this morning with a big silly grin on my face.  I spent Saturday finishing off a few cleaning jobs on the SV before wheeling it back into the drive for a wash. Needless to say things took longer than planned. I took the right hand foot peg assembly to pieces for cleaning and greasing as I find the brake lever sticks from time to time. No real problems except that one of the kick plate screws was stuck fast and I had to drill the head off the bolt. All reassembled with new stainless screws and anti-seize. I then did the same to the left foot peg. No problems getting things apart but the lever was very stiff and I could not get the foot peg out. After much physical effort I managed to pull the foot peg free. The inside of the gear lever has a bush made of some woven nylon material and it looked a bit worn. The foot peg would not go back in even after a good clean and some greasing. I was forced to remove the bush. The foot peg now goes in easily, too easily and there is a fair amount of slop on the lever, damn.  I made a new bush out of some plastic and inserted it. The old bush also wrapped around the sides of the lever acting like a washer, in fact I thought it was a washer until I got the  thing apart. Anyhow it occurred to me that this could be the cause of the odd missed gear, plenty of people have mentioned missed gear problems on the forum, so check out the gear lever for stiction.  

Finally got the bike washed and took it out for a spin. Everything felt good, apart form the rear brake which felt really wooden and lacked bite. I've used EBC pads and I guess they need bedding in, if not I'll junk them for some OEM ones. And yes I did coat the bike in WD40, after all this work how could I not?

John:  I have just purchased a new double bubble tinted screen, upon trying to  install it I have found that I can not get it to fit properly at the bottom  of the V. Have you heard of this problem at all, if so do you have any  solutions. I can't say that I do, as I'm not to sure what the problem is. Does anyone else have this screen and have you had problems? Answers to me or Jason. John

Hi, At the end of last year I posted a request for info on fitting crash protectors to a sv650 with lowers fitted. I received a quick and useful reply from JHS with a link to their website and some pictures of the product. MAGIC! Anyway since then I have the crash protectors and they have been fitted, I have also received a couple of e-mails asking how I got on with finding them and fitting them. I thought you may want to post the enclosed photos of the fitting process etc. for others edification, now all I’ve got to do is NOT test them! Cheers Jason Hilton Brave man taking a drill to those expensive lowers..John

PS from Jason (Feb 19th)  I think it may have been remiss of me to not acknowledge the suppliers etc. May be you could add them to the entry on your site? Thanks JasH No problem

http://www.jhsracing.co.uk/start.htm & http://www.fyldesuperbikes.co.uk/ 

my new bike ,seen no silver ones. keep up good work . from old git

The thing on the dashboard is the speedo, you can see the cable to the magnet on the front disc if you look closely.. it's from Halfords and was the only one with backlight illumination.. making it legal..! also many of these speedo's read to 120MPH+ and are extremely accurate.. much more so than the standard clocks! It also incorporate 17 functions with useful stuff such as Odometer, riding time, average speed, trip, accumulated riding time, stopwatch, clock, countdown service interval reminder, the max speed you have ever reached etc. etc.. Very very useful for £42.. also can be removed easily to prevent theft... Highly Recommended.

PS. I'd say it was a useful thing to have anyway.. as well as your speedo. It seems to be extremely accurate although the speedo does take 1/2 sec to update the speed (it needs two revolutions to compute each time). The Clock etc is rather useful too. Some useful info: the front wheel on an SV 'rolling diameter' with correctly inflated original Metzler tyre is 584.2mm (as near as dammit). this multiplied by Pi (22 divided by 7, or 3.1428571) is 1836mm This is input into any computer when you have installed it. The readings are then very very accurate. There are a couple of articles on the web I found when I did a search on 'Panoram computer'. Thanks for a great site and letting me contribute. Robin.

From Neil Bowden . Hi john regarding the trip computer on the restored sv650 that was wrecked i have found this site that has info on the Panoram bike computer http://www.atvcost.com/panoram/panoram.htm  could you add this link to your comments for reference of others i am not an owner of a sv650s yet but thanks to this site and svrider i plan it to be my next bike.  Neil Bowden Brisbane Australia

I thought people might be interested.. It took me a month to do this: Before and after pics included. I bought a Y reg SV650S as a write-off from a specialist bike breakers. It was a catagory D insurance loss (i.e. cosmetic damage only, nothing structural at all). It had no fairing, lights, indicators, mirrors or clocks... also some other scratches were about and a broken hanger and a dinged exhaust finished off one sad SV. I bought it because A: I like a challenge and B: It was registered new 1/5/01 and written off 11/5/01 i.e. this bike had been on the road for only 8 days and had done just 652 miles. The previous owner was contacted for this history as the clocks were missing.. it was on the way back from it's first service when.. ''sorry mate, I didn't see you''.I made the dash and repaired all the damaged wiring myself (I'm an electrical engineer). Everything else was either sourced at my local friendly breakers, bought new or made. If you have any questions, please ask... apart from the ugly subject of money that is... What a top bike though.. And that's from someone who's last bike was a VTR1000.  Robin Maddern http://www.robmad.com

P.S. When I printed out my own dash I used the logo off this site as an emblem underneath the lights.. you can see it in the dashboard pic.. this is because of the help members of the site gave me to make this project possible.. I was sent a really good wiring diagram that made the job a lot easier. Thanks,

Nice neat job Robin, must be very satisfying. I like the little gizmo attached to the handlebars. I assume this is an elaborate trip computer? John

Hi there,   I've had the Kisan Tech headlight modulator for about a month and a half.  It seems to work great on my SV (single headlight, dual filament, US model).  Installation was very quick and easy with the Kisan part going between the bulb and lamp wiring connector.  Depending on access to the bulb, installation on an SVS should be easy as well.  Make sure they know what model bike you have.   People DO notice.  I've had cars wait for me to pass instead of turning in front of me from a side street 1/4 mile away.  I sometimes turn if off when following another vehicle for some time since it is probably distracting to see it in your mirror continuously.  Shady roads during daylight can cause the modulation to come and go depending on how much light is hitting the sensor.   In summary - no complaints, works great, highly recommend it.  Kisan claim it's legal in all 50 States, but not sure about other countries.  Ray

Similar to the restoration project on your site,  I do a similar sort of thing twice a year. I too have a 99 svs and the sheer amount of corrosion and crap the bike attracts can be daunting.  I ride about 200 miles a week for commuting plus any Sunday hero stuff (weather permitting).  One major thing I noticed was the guy wrote that he cleaned it regularly!  Now this isn't meant offensive so please may that person not take this the wrong way.   But what the hell his he cleaning it regularly with "Hot SALTY Water with a touch of Sulphuric Acid!"   I know the weather and salty roads take their toll but my bike has never reached anything close to the pictures,  and yes I'm bearing in mind that he states that the pics may multiply the visual effects shown. The only advice I would give.  "WD40" works a treat!   and a bit of the old Vaseline! "hey hey" for the bike ;-)  This used about once a week plus the occasional quick degrease and re-grease will keep the bike looking or at least protected quite well.   I've only spotted 3 small spots of rust on mine so far from this winter and that's on my bolts on the tax disc holder and the rear caliper shaft.  Anyway its 02:20am and I'm tired, plus the weather forecast for this weekend is crap,  may organise a trip to mainland Europe if this demoralizing weather carries on. On a final note cracking site and very useful, cheers.  Helped me buy a scorpion can and some braided hoses.

This email haunted me all weekend. "Am I a bad father?". Stuart makes some valid comments, I had let the corrosion on the fork legs go on a bit too long, but to do the job properly requires a strip down and I'm not prepared to do that during riding months. The previous Editor, Kev, used to drench his bike in WD40 after every wash and it's fair to say that his SV was in better shape that mine by the time he sold it.  I can't bring myself to spray the bike in WD40 after spending a lot of time cleaning the thing, it seems to defeat the purpose, but that's me. Having said that Kev's bike wasn't corrosion free and he had to have his engine paint re-touched despite all the WD40.  I spend far more time keeping my bike looking nice than my car, is this acceptable, perhaps for the cost maybe? Would car owners accept this. So what's the answer, I could cover the bike in grease for the winter, or wash the thing down every time I use it. I guess I'm trying to compromise, a bit of protection in some areas, replacement parts to a higher spec, and a different approach to Suzuki in others.

Every SV I see is different. Some owners spending all their hours cleaning their machines, others never bothering. To each his own. Meantime I'm finished on my SV work, well as finished as you can be! last installment here. I'm off to look at my fencing, toilet cistern.........and all the other jobs queuing up. I might even get time to wash the bike ;-)

Hi there John,   Nice work you're doing on your SVS. I have an idea on what you should use to protect the starter motor. Go to your nearest telecom or electricity station workshop and ask for a heat shrinkable sleeve. These are used to seal cable joints. I used to work as a jointer 15 years ago that explains my knowledge on the stuff. Just cut a piece to the required size. Get a slightly larger diameter sleeve than needed as this will shrink from the engine's own heat! Sounds like a good idea, I've used this stuff in the past for other work, I'll see how the drainpipe works out first..John  I've been thinking of installing a headlight modulator. This device seems to attract a lot of attention from oncoming traffic which helps from getting that 'sorry didn't see you mate' apology after being run off the road from some Volvo driver. After a lot of internet searching on the subject, it seems that the modulator offered on http://www.kisantech.com/path150W.htm is the most practical buy. It works by selecting hi-beam to modulate - as long as there's sufficient daylight. If you enter a tunnel or if it gets dark, the device will stop the modulation of the hi-beam and stay ON steady. Thus it can be used as a normal high beam during the night. If you or your readers have a view on th subject please contribute. Tkx.

I took another picture of the bike/me and thought maybe you would add it. Thanks

Here are some photo's of my svR. The bodywork is from 2wheeljunkie. Like your site very much.. Thanks

John,   Here is my new(ish) SK1.  this was the last day of sun down in Southampton from a while ago and it did not want to go back in the garage...   I have a Quill Powerflow that has yet to be fitted. can't wait..   Pete

Hello John, I've just upgraded my new sv650 and thought maybe you would like to post the photos for me, I've installed a two brothers full sytem, lower fairing, targa seat cowl re-jet kit and placed on a dyno etc. Its running very good now. Just need to find time to go for a ride. Anyways, attached are the photos and figured that since so many people were asking about the two brothers pipe the photos would help them make their minds up.. 

Lastest ramblings on my SV restoration. John

Came across this web site with some interesting SV images http://www.streetfightersbydesign.com/FSD.htm Belly pan looks interesting, forgive if you've seen this before. John

At last January is out of the way. There are some signs of spring starting to appear including the occasional dry road. The work on my SV is progressing slowly and I'm starting to miss her badly, still another couple of weeks and I can get my fix again. Ideas for this years SV day are not exactly flooding in, maybe the summer seems to far away to most people.  I've changed the graphic on the home page for a couple of reasons, 1) it gets boring looking at the same old picture 2) I thought it might be fun to try and find a pic to reflect the current month. If anyone would like to contribute, feel free.

Bi 4 now

John 

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