motorcyclist — Blog

We have all come across those pictures of gorgeous machinery covered in dust, sitting slowly rotting away, waiting for resurrection. There seems to be an almost unbelievable supply of these machines, quite frankly its good to be sceptical, there have been more than a few fakes out there.

But this is not a post to destroy all hopes and dreams of finding a glorious machine longing for your touch. It is the opposite. A story of hope, happiness and fine Indian cuisine.

Once every few weeks my entire family gets together to have a meal at our favourite, local, Indian restaurant. This tradition has been going on for the better part of 15 years. About 11 years ago we started parking in the underground parking garage, and that's where this love affair begins.

I was 17, I had not even bought my first bike, the blue SV650 yet, as I said last week the RC51/SP was the bike featured on my high school locker door. Clearly I noticed the bike and walked over to take a look. It was almost all stock, save for a chopped rear fender and some shady Harbour Freight turn signals, I honestly wouldn't put these on my utility trailer, which came from HF. It was a less desirable SP1, in the most common colour scheme, but I loved it. Every month I would glance over, or even walk over. Every month more dust, more corrosion. After a couple years it just became a part of the decor. Even I didn't give a fuck anymore. Flash forward to May of this year. I saw it leaning towards the wall, away from the kickstand, and went over and gave it a good look. Someone had knocked it into the wall, cracking the upper fairing and one of the head light tabs. This was the tipping point for me. I was not going to let this thing go to waste.

The fact it had one, fairly minor, cosmetic flaw to show for the better part of 15 years of neglect was astonishing. It was in a completely unlocked, un-gated parkade, or a parking garage as the Americans might say, in the heart of a city. How it hadn't been stolen was beyond my grasp.

So I left a note.

Two weeks later I got a text. "hey you left a note on my bike?"

I wont bore with the details, but I got it for a song. It was mine. Save for my first SV I have never been this excited for, or emotionally attached to a bike purchase.

Here is how she sat.

Owned by a little old denturist...driven to work once on a Sunday.

Pulled away from the wall.  Of note, the broken headlight tab. — Pulled away from the wall. Of note, the broken headlight tab.

All loaded up.

I got the dust off her immediately.

I shit you not a squirrel ate my bucket.

Any bike that sits for this length of time is going to have, at minimum the following problems.

-All Fluids-Tires-Chain-Wheel Bearings-Tank Rust-Fuel System gremlins-shot battery-hidden body damage

This one had all of the above, but astonishingly no shit surprises. The only surprise I had was a great one. While changing the battery I heard a small piece of metal hit the floor. I figured it was one of the bolts on the battery terminals, but it made a rather suspicious high pitched ping when it hit the floor. Upon retrieving it I couldn't believe my fucking eyes. It was a gold ring, with traditional Haida carvings. After a quick call to a friend, an expert in coastal indigenous art, we concluded this was a valuable piece made by a well known local artist.

A far nicer surprise than the usual rats nest of "modified" wiring.

I wore it admiringly for about an hour before sending a text to the previous owner. He identified the ring, which was his wedding band, and was beyond grateful to have it returned. It had been missing since 2004, oddly the last time he moved the bike. I was rewarded for my good deed with a $150 GC to my favourite Indian joint.

The only tricky part of getting the RC back up and running was cleaning and sealing the tank. I have never restored a bike so it was new to me. After some online research I concluded that electrolysis was the best method for me. It was simple, cost effective, safe on paint and worked a treat.

12 dollars in washing soda, a 15 dollar "manual" battery charger, and some old fencing did the trick.

Washing soda can be found anywhere you buy cleaning products.  In a pinch you can make your own by baking, you guessed it, baking soda, for 1 hour at 400 degrees. — Washing soda can be found anywhere you buy cleaning products. In a pinch you can make your own by baking, you guessed it, baking soda, for 1 hour at 400 degrees.

A manual battery charger.  Sourced from CL to the tune of 15 bucks. — A manual battery charger. Sourced from CL to the tune of 15 bucks.

Make sure your electrode (piece of wire) does not touch the sides of the tank.  I held it in place with a yogurt lid.  Olympic Greek yogurt is my preference. — Make sure your electrode (piece of wire) does not touch the sides of the tank. I held it in place with a yogurt lid. Olympic Greek yogurt is my preference.

The electrode is slowly eaten away, notice how thin it is at the bend.

With the tank cleaned and sealed it was time to replace the chain, sprockets, wheel bearings, and all fluids.

I threw on a 520 chain, sprockets, with a far more aggressive gear ratio, and some Supercorsa SC2's. Maiden track day this weekend. I can't wait.

The almost finished product. It still needed a detail and some tires in these pics.

A bit of JB weld and a new well nut fixed the damaged headlight bracket.

I could, and have stared for minutes at this bike.

It has been seventeen years since the first curvy SV650 graced Suzuki showrooms, thirteen since the pointy bike made its debut. Two years later, in 2005 the bike had gone through a series of tweaks and been given a much sexier black frame. This bike is one of the all time great motorcycles.

I truly do not believe there is a better machine for a rider to learn performance riding on. First off, its price point was, and still is nearly unbeatable, its downfall, the price point. Simply put, everything in front of the steering head was crap, as was the rear shock, which frankly had no business being fitted to a motorcycle. We will double back to these points later.

The positive attributes are much more plentiful. Firstly, the bike is a looker, the simple round headlight and minimal bikini fairing are perfect, the gauge cluster is a balanced blend of analogue and digital. Everything you need save for possibly a gear position indicator, a non issue for the seasoned rider, but for the inexperienced it is a nice feature. The tail section is one of nicest units to ever come from an OEM. Throw on a fender eliminator, and a Suzuki seat cowl, simply gorgeous. The tank is another strong point, beautiful and slim, thanks to what is the obvious key to this simple bike. The slim V-Twin.

The motor is hung from the gorgeous pressure-cast aluminium truss frame. The first gen bikes tended to look a bit like a bloated take on the simple trellis frames coming out of Bologna, with the second generation bike that is not the case, it looks great and is immediately recognisable. The motor itself is a fucking marvel, sure it makes just 75 hp, but it is immediate and very user friendly. Fuelling is quite good from the factory but like almost any bike, an ignition module and pipe go a long long way to liven it up. Another dead simple and cheap mod is a Timing Retard Eliminator (TRE). They can be sourced from svrider.com user 92westshady for a mere $27, worth every penny.

From the factory the bike is really really good, but it fell short of being spectacular. There is really no excuse for this as Suzuki had every part required to make it so, even in 2005. There is an explanation, price, which lucky for SV Owners has only gone down. You can fix the suspension and brakes for under a grand with simple hand tools and a jack to place under the engine. To get my feet wet and my hands dirty I started at the back with the rear shock. This is a dead simple modification, the toughest part is getting the rear into and un-sprung position. This could be accomplished any number of ways, jacking the bike up from the motor, or lifting the rear sub-frame from above. I chose the later. From here its a matter of unbolting the old shock and replacing it with a model of your choosing. There are a number of popular options, from CBR600's, as well as most the Kawi and Suzuki sport-bike ranges. There is a great thread outlining compatible models and there spring rates on svrider.com I went for a ZX14 model, this decision was based simply on spring rate. It came fitted with a spring suitable for the 200# + crowd. I found mine on eBay for about 65 USD. I re used the original hardware, job done.

The ZX14 rear shock is hardly comparable to the stock unit.

Now to the front, this job seems slightly more complex, but really it is not. What does the SV need? Better suspension and better brakes, well the fix can be accomplished one of two ways, a bunch of calls to Race-Tech and Brembo could do the job, but you would still be left with a dated set of axial mount brakes.

Or you could go with the easier, cheaper, and simply put best option, a GSXR front end.

A 2008 GSXR front end. Purchased complete for 550 USD

You can source these on eBay all day long for under 1000 USD and if you really put time in, much less. I paid less than 600 for my last front end, everything save for a tire. Almost any GSXR front end, dating all the way back to the SRAD, will fit on the SV without any modification, however the 2004-2005 600/750 is the best option. This comes down to a rather simple reason, the ignition mount on the top triple is in the same location on both bikes. Make sure to get the master cylinder recalled, if it has not already been taken care of. This swap truly transforms the bike, the fork is not even comparable, but for me the real selling point is the braking power. I went for a bit of a mash up myself, using a Brembo 19X8 master cylinder pushing R6 calipers. The Brembo clearly brings more stopping power over OEM, the calipers however were simply a cosmetic choice. I also sourced some spacers allowing to run 320mm rotors.

Brembo 19x18. Sourced used with a bent lever, which was replaced with a folding unit.

The end result is some great looking jewellery if nothing else. I also chose to put on some 1.5 inch riser clip ons, but the stock units would work just fine. Everything needed to mount your bikini fairing, headlight and gauge cluster is available from various vendors on svrider.com

But I went a different route. You know that beautiful bikini fairing i talked about? Ya...fuck that thing, garbage. The headlight was the toughest part of this project for me, and all that hard work was for nothing. The lights I spent hours trying to build just wouldn't fit the bike in the way I wanted. So I settled, if you can call it settling when you end up with something so beautiful, for a MT03 headlight. It looks great.

The rest of the modifications are simple everyday, everybike mods. An OEM gel seat, svracingparts.com rearsets, Renthal grips, Pazzo clutch lever, a 520 chain conversion with more aggressive gearing and lastly Tech Spec tank grips.

I settled on a more aggressive, but still everyday friendly 15/45 combination.

At the end of the day I feel I have built the perfect street bike, it is a shame Suzuki didn't feel the same way.

A Vapour gauge fit perfectly and kept things clean and simple.

SV Racing Parts Rearsets, 530 Chain, ZX14 Shock.