Re: This...

[TBone]

Very nice bike, n00b!  


I like the naked style.  

[Mr.Black]

Nice.

For how long?

[County Tar]

everyman's bike.  great engine.  

[Mr.Black]

You shut your filthy mouth!

I'm no longer doing the "will this bike be fun and good for 2-up and not have certain characteristics that my pillion may or may not love and still be under a price point and provide...." dance any more.

So, there's this. The Breva's quirks and recent "issues" got to be more than I felt like tolerating any longer. Cool bike, a little too much soul for my liking.

Il est bon de vous revoir mon ami.

[DosEquis00]

That is a fun bike to ride  

Enjoy your new ride Chris.

[Akumu]

Grats, man. Certainly better than the huge diatribe I wrote about buying my bike recently.  

[KodiakRS]

I have come to the conclusion that 650 twins are the way to go for a fun street bike.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it.  

[mxvet57]

I have come to the conclusion that 650 twins are the way to go for a fun street bike.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it.  

I don't know. Tripples can be a lot of fun to.


Nice ride

[scott19]

Hooray for naked SVs!

[Frankienuckles]

Them sv 650's are really nice bikes!  

[Cheddarhead]

Congrats on yet another new to you ride!

I was jonesing for an SV...but the ergos (seat -to- pegs) just didn't work.  I'm sure I could have made the seat -to- bars work...but messing with both the bars and the pegs seems to be too much of a "forced" fit.

Guess I'm just an "upright" kind of guy...


What did you do with all the snow?  

[Rincewind]

I can hear the Guzzisti's gnashing his teeth.  

Nice SV.  I think I saw that in Cycle Trader this weekend, at a Chad's Ford dealer.  I made a similar move with my Street Triple - stopped looking for the best pillion bike and instead got the best bike for me.  I'm quite happy that way, and it seems my wife will get her own now anyway.

[Cablebandit]

Now go out and rev the snot out of that Suzuki twin.  What a fun little machine.

[antvq]

Bike Whore.

[Fourstring]

So, there's this. The Breva's quirks and recent "issues" got to be more than I felt like tolerating any longer. Cool bike, a little too much soul for my liking.

Care to elaborate?  I know you weren't a fan of the leaky bags.


Nice bike!  I had my eye on Hickey's listing but lacked garage space to make it happen.

[Cablebandit]

Now call up Rich at Sonic for some front springs.  I'm sure that thing is WAY undersprung for you. Toss an Elka on the back and you'll be good to go for not much scratch.

[motormike]

Yeah, the suspension definitely needs attention.

Does the suspension need attention for agressive riders, heavy riders (above 200 lbs), or both?


I'm looking at buying my Brother-In-Law's 2005 SV650s and I'm probalby at least 25 lbs heavier than him...but I'm a new rider so I can't imagine I would be riding very agressively.

[County Tar]

Congrats on yet another new to you ride!

I was jonesing for an SV...but the ergos (seat -to- pegs) just didn't work.  I'm sure I could have made the seat -to- bars work...but messing with both the bars and the pegs seems to be too much of a "forced" fit.

 

Then you buy the 650 Strom.  Same engine.  Upright stance.  Ugly.  Like mine.  

[falcofred]

Yeah, the suspension definitely needs attention.

I bought a 99 SV650 Standard in the Fall of 99, had Traxxion Dynamics fix the forks with Race Tech Emulators and springs, installed a Progressive Suspension shock and rode it for 19,000+ miles.
Never touched the engine, only moved two small washers that were on top of the carb sliders to under the carb sliders to richen the mixture. That's it, no exhaust mods, no intake mods, just rode the hell out of that bike. Only 68 HP, but I used every one. It was a great bike.
I got the bike itch and sold it so I could finance some thing else.

[Scratch33]

I bought a 99 SV650 Standard in the Fall of 99, had Traxxion Dynamics fix the forks with Race Tech Emulators and springs, installed a Progressive Suspension shock and rode it for 19,000+ miles.

Did the same with my '02 SV650,  rode it for a couple years then sold it to a friend.  I missed it so much picked up another '02 last year.   I just bought a lightly-used rear shock from a ZX-6 off Ebay; for the front end I'll go with Sonic Springs and Ricor intiminators.

[Rincewind]

At the risk of angering the euro-folk, sure.

Look, first of all, great, fun, enjoyable, well-mannered bike. Awesome bike to ride.

• I got tired of putting the key in and having a whole "pot luck" chance of the thing powering on. I thought I'd found the electrical issue and yet... No. Every time this happened, I had to unhook the battery and kind of reboot the bike.  \
• Every time it got wet, some new and exciting - often unexpected - thing would arise. At the National it was my four ways. Recently it was the ignition. Bike would lose spark when wet. I chased these issues and never found any concrete problems, so either EVERY place water gets in has some inherent need to f with me, or the centralize stuff was way too finicky.  
• It recently developed an oil leak, which depending on RPM would be VERY significant, at the block where the jug meets it. There was a crack.
• $12 each for inner spark plugs? Really? And look a butterfly farted in Singapore, now I have to reset the TPS... AGAIN!

To be very clear - I really liked riding that bike. But I'm far more about riding than I am about stroking a bike's ego and cooing to it about its soul and awesomeness, and treating it like a high maintenance girlfriend whose tits I paid for.

The SV will run on Orange juice and a tickle, rather than hi octane, and won't bitch about it when the ambient temps get over 50*.

Blah... I liked... LOVED... the Breva, but I'm not about quirky bikes.





That's the one, yes. I laughed at their $4000 asking price ($3699 + $300 recon/prep - LOL). SVs are great bikes, but a 10-year old one with bolted on silly bling and a few rough spots for $4k is just insulting. I offered them $2650 OTD on their eBay classified ad and they accepted. The bike is in overall great shape, but the PO made some... interesting... choices on the thing. I have since removed most all of them and made the bike look less cobbled together. It was definitely a diamond in the bolted-on-rough, as seen at the dealer.

The service icon for which I don't have the service number to reset, and the oil leak scared them a bit, so they low-balled me on my trade after making some calls to other dealers  to discuss service/recon of the Breva. We haggled a bit. Even so, they still gave me a good deal more for my Breva on trade than the OTD on the SV, so now I be all about da pimp ca$h, y0!

Yeah, $4k for that bike (the Trader ad said "call for price") is not right at all - I hadn't seen the auction.  I'm glad to hear you came out on top.  Trading-in that Guzzi was a smart move.  

[MadMax96]

Sweet bike - I always wanted one as a second bike.  That one looks nice and clean.

Everytime I see your user name, this is what comes to mind.  Looks like perfect avatar material too:

[JamieK]

Did the same with my '02 SV650,  rode it for a couple years then sold it to a friend.  I missed it so much picked up another '02 last year.   I just bought a lightly-used rear shock from a ZX-6 off Ebay; for the front end I'll go with Sonic Springs and Ricor intiminators.

I have the Intiminators and the Ricor shock in my 08...vast improvement to stock  

[Tyrroneous]

Wait...whuuuht?  Chris is back?  I missed the memo.  


Anyway, congrats on the new to you bike, again.  My wife has a 2000 SV and I love riding that bike.  The motor is punchy and the bike is so flickable.  Her bike has stainless brake lines and braking is quite good.  We do need to address the suspension issues though.  

[motodog650]

Poor man suspension upgrades on my 03' works great for my 210ish lbs girth. Sonic springs in the front and an ebay gixxer shock / Race Tech spring on the rear. Top notch fun factor for a basement bargain price !!      

[Mr.Black]

Wait...whuuuht?  Chris is back?  I missed the memo.  


Anyway, congrats on the new to you bike, again.  My wife has a 2000 SV and I love riding that bike.  The motor is punchy and the bike is so flickable.  Her bike has stainless brake lines and braking is quite good.  We do need to address the suspension issues though.  

30 posts in 2 days. I will have to watch my six.

[MadMax96]

net-nannied here at work.  

Doh.. I attached it directly.  I now notice it goes along with your signature line also...  

[CLAY]

Welcome back Frenchie.    Love the SV by the way- "if I were a rich man..." (now the song is in my head) I'd have one in the stable.  We'll see how the XR does this year- maybe I'll trade around...

Ya know, you could probably have that thing all farkled up for a ride to Michigan in June for a wonderful cat luncheon...  

[Mr.Black]

Welcome back Frenchie.    Love the SV by the way- "if I were a rich man..." (now the song is in my head) I'd have one in the stable.  We'll see how the XR does this year- maybe I'll trade around...

Ya know, you could probably have that thing all farkled up for a ride to Michigan in June for a wonderful cat luncheon...  

foot tapping................

[jfurf]

Nice. Welcome to the SV family.

Now go make fun of a nation that didn't conquer Europe, Africa, southeast Asia, the Carribbean and Quebec, and didn't at one point help some nation called the United States gain its independence.  

[Cheddarhead]

Then you buy the 650 Strom.  Same engine.  Upright stance.  Ugly.  Like mine.  

Actually...I "was" looking for a Wee.  Used bike pricing for them seems very much out of line (vs) other marques' / models.  Then an F650 GS jumped into my remuda.

http://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,59435.0.html

Way too good a deal to pass up.

[Scratch33]

Actually...I "was" looking for a Wee.  Used bike pricing for them seems very much out of line (vs) other marques' / models.  Then an F650 GS jumped into my remuda.

http://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,59435.0.html

Way too good a deal to pass up.

I'm supposed to be delivering my Wee to its new owner tomorrow.   Think I'm gonna cry when I do.

[antvq]

So.   A twin.   Almost a sportser no?




 

[expatbrit]

Out of the box, they're a tad undersprung and the damping is pretty awful, up front especially. Truly is budget. So, the cheap answer is "both". It'll feel a little wallowy.

After doing a bunch of research, I'm going with the ZX10 shock out back. I actually have a fully-adjustable Fox shock kitted for a FJ1200 that might work out with the right mounting hardware. I'll check that, too.

Racetech springs and gold valves up front.

Girlfriend picked one up last year, low miles, with the front and rear (supension and brakes) already replaced with the parts of a Gixxer. If only I could shift it without getting a knee outside the cutouts, she'd NEVER see that bike.

I'm definitely V-Strom sized, not SV sized. Ah well.

[CosmicCowboy]

Buddy of mine keeps putting his '01 up for sale. Given that I could sell the Strom, meet his price, and have money left over for a smaller dual sport....it's pretty tempting.

[Mastros2]

Excellent find on both the bike and suspension.   Congrats!  

Now what about those track days....haha!

[Aero]

Nice. Welcome to the SV family.

Now go make fun of a nation that didn't conquer Europe, Africa, southeast Asia, the Carribbean and Quebec, and didn't at one point help some nation called the United States gain its independence.  

Yeah, and while you are at it learn about the incredible fight they put up defending Fort Vaux during the battle of Verdun in 1916.

1916 : the war is stagnant. Determined to terminate it, the Germans hope to attract the major part of the French troops in Verdun. The atrocious battle starts on February 21, 1916 at dawn, under a continuous flood of fire and iron : 300 days and 300 nights, 26 000 000 shells, 300 000 missing soldiers. On February 25, the Germans seize the Fort of Douaumont and a few months later the Fort of Vaux. From March to July 1916 Verdun is in hell. The poilus (infantrymen) in the trenches are tortured by gas, mud, fear and cold, bodies shredded, martyred, broken. However, the French regain land and in December 1916 horror comes to an end.

Upon the eventual capture of Fort Vaux, the Crown Prince of the German ruling family, the Hohenzollerns, presented Major Raynal with his sword as a sign of respect, and the captured soldiers were allowed to leave.

Such a mark of respect wasn't something that was given often by the Germans but they knew bravery when they saw it.

[Mr.Black]

Awesome.

 2) the famous ST.N sense of humor is well in tact.  

Yeah. We went on without you. I hope you don't mind.

[Aero]

Awesome. I see that 1) assumption is still very strong, and 2) the famous ST.N sense of humor is well in tact.  

Actually Chris, I was in a hurry to post that and neglected to include a smiley or something.
Looking at it now it does seem a little OTT, but it just gets me when people bang on about the French cowardice myth, and as a Brit I am expected to bait the French at every opportunity! I guess visiting Fort Vaux made a big impression on me.

No offence meant...  

[BentAero]

I just bought this '06 SVS with 9600 miles. The seller tossed in a pile of extras with it, all for $2600.
Did I do good?  

[Mr.Awesome]

I just bought this '06 SVS with 9600 miles. The seller tossed in a pile of extras with it, all for $2600.
Did I do good?  

Sounds like you stole it!  Sweet bike.  

[motormike]

$2,600 is extremely cheap!

Wow, great deal.

[Jesse]

Congrats and welcome to the sv650 family! You should stay a while  

The suspension mods will make a big difference - it doesn't take much to make it quite the canyon carver. I've never ridden a curvy and hear that the engine is really sweet, even better than the second gen. I've got a 2005 naked and love the feel of the engine, much prefer it to the wee strom version.  Of course, I'm old school and have only owned singles, parallel twins, and vee twins.... but my sv has the sweetest engine so far.

[Lakeguy556]

 Love SV's. Good buy

Keep an eye on that front cylinder drain(weep hole) that allows water to drain if it collects near the front spark plug. Pipe cleaner works great for keeping it clear.  A little Di-electric on the boot also helps.

Got caught in a nasty rainstorm one day and that hole was plugged up. No fun riding home on 1 cylinder.

[STeve3b3]

I've got an '01 that I use at the track, and I love it.  Emulators and Racetech springs up front, and an aftermarket shock in the rear.  I'd love to have one to use on the road.  I'ts got Tiger blood and Balls of steel!

Steve