Suzuki Sv650
SUZUKI SV650
Long-Term Wrap-Up
And a good time was had by all
I'm a 5-foot, 31/2 inch girlie biker and I love my SV. It has the agility to handle the knee-scraping fun of the twisties, and the torque for an afternoon riding wheelies.
-Kern D. Edgar, Euless, Texas
PITY THE POOR CYCLE WORLD staff. Our long-term Suzuki SV650 is no longer ours. During the last two years, the zippy little V-Twin has been a source of amusement for almost everyone under the CW roof. And as we merrily put our obligatory 10,000-plus miles on the '99 model, we all agreed that few motorcycles in our well-stocked shed are quite as much fun to ride.
Even so, the SV has seen its share of modifications. Prior to last summer's Su perbike races, we put a Targa mini fairing ($308) on the bike, which A Associate Edi tor Wendy Black then rode to Laguna Seca. The fork-mounted fiberglass screen was simple to install, and once in place kept fatiguing wind at bay.
The SV's suspension niggles, however, were less easy to reme dy. From the get-go, office fast guys strongly, if not diplomatically, suggested that the bike could benefit from a stiffer setup. This from office comedian and ExecEd Brian Catter son: "No one needs to remind me that I'm bigger than the average bear, but the suspension could use some Viagra `cause it's limp."
Since Suzuki marketed the SV as a budget bike, we decided a less costly fix was in order. Rather than spending thousands of dollars on fork upgrades and a racing shock, we turned to the guys at Progressive Suspension. In lieu of the stock steel shock, which lacked damping adjustments, they fitted an aluminum-bodied 420 Series unit ($419) with adjustable spring preload and re bound damping. As for the low-tech damper-rod fork, the PS boys hooked us up with stiffer, progressively wound springs ($67) in place of the stock straight-rate coils, and added thicker PJ1 15-weight fork oil.
The final results were a qualified success. Everyone agreed that the PS fix was cer tainly a step up over stock, but the setup re mains less than ideal. Though the SV now feels more planted in sporting conditions, a sur feit of rebound damping has made around-town op eration a bit buckboardish, even with the shock set on min imum. But the goal was improved suspension action on the cheap, and we got that.
In fact, a couple of staffers took the SV to track days, and both came away pleased with the bike's overall performance. Granted, serious racer types will probably want to investigate pricier fork mods, such as Race Tech's cartridge emulators.
Quotes from the logbook
It F BlackAt the Streets of Willow for a CLASS School, the SV650 felt nimble and light, It was as if the bike had been designed for that super-tight track.
Brian CaftersonI rode the SV home for the first time and was gen erally impressed. it'd make an excel lent first bike or first sportbike, and it's a really good buy.
Don CanetWhether it's a play-day backroad route or the ride to work, our SV still delivers loads of enjoy ment and solid performance after all these miles.
Suspension more or less sorted, we looked toward replacing the SV's lunky stainless-steel exhaust. A slip-on wasn't an option, as that requires hack sawing the stock system. So we opted for Jardine's RT-One "semi-full" sys tem ($422), which comes with a light weight aluminum canister and rear stainless-steel header, but utilizes the stock front head pipe.
Jardine also added a Dynojet Stage I Jet Kit ($63), and reported that its dyno showed gains of 4 horsepower and 5 foot-pounds of torque at the rear wheel. Our dyno wasn't as gener ous, and computer printouts showed peak numbers that were basically the same as stock.
The charts did show, however, that the pipe-and-jetting combo filled in a small dip in the midrange, which is the heart of a V-Twin's power output. Speaking of heart, the pipe's new rorty exhaust note is full of soul, so much so that on longer rides you'll probably want to bring along your earplugs.
When everything was said and done, the nimble little SV was even more fun than when we originally got it. A thousand miles or 10,000 miles, it matters not. Commuting is entertaining, canyon carv ing is thrilling and, with fairing in place, all-day interstate trolling is do-able.
I've had my SV650 for less than a year. It seemed to welcome me the first time I took it out and hap pily adapted to my riding style, while inspiring me to improve.
-Jonathan Burdon, Jacksonville, Florida
So it was with a heavy heart that we prepared to bid the SV farewell. But fate intervened in the form of CW's own West Coast Advertising Manager Libby Hartung, who purchased the bike from Suzuki. Now, if we can only convince her to let us borrow it from time to time, we'll be set.
SPECIFICATIONS
$5699
