SV650 brakes and buying advice please?

[Andy B]

Hi guys,

newbie here :) been having a look through the forums seeing whats what with these things and thought its about time i asked the question..

I currently ride a Bandit 600 mk1... it was that or an SV when i was doing my DAS a few years ago now and a nice tidy bandit came up...

now ive been fancying an SV for a good while now and think im going to go for one.. i need that v-twim soundtrack in my life ;) in no rush, just as soon as i see one that i just think wow i'll be handing over the moneys...

SO... i thought i'd ask what they're like... the bandit has been hugely reliable bless it, but have had umpteen problems with the front brakes in the past 6 months or so... calipers seized bad - was cleaning them out every fortnight to no avail, knackered discs to boot, so ended up shelling out for new discs and fab'ing up a 6 pot conversion...

what are the SV brakes like? theyre still on sliders arent they? am i walking back into a minefield? is there a 4-pot conversion available?

i originally liked the look of the curvy style but after seeing the pointy, im liking that a whole lot more... it there any huge advantage of the pointy? is the insurance premium much higher?

and lastly is there any other common gripes or negatives i'd need to look out for?

Cheers for any pointers :D

Andy

[Jynx]

Andy,

Not sure I can answer many of your questions but I'll have a crack.

Reliability wise I have had mixed experience, but then I bought mine as non-runner and have spent a while ironing out the kinks. From my experience so far the bike seems to have 2 weaknesses, water getting at the front plug well and the weak regulator/rectifier. I have uprated my R/R to a CBR one and moved it which seems to have solved that one (fingers crossed). As for the front plug well, some basic maintenance or fendaextenda can keep that at bay too.

I have not had good experiences with the front brakes but I think I'm in the minority, as a result though I am now running 4 pot CBR calipers using an adapter from http://www.svracingparts.com.

The pointy is not expensive to insure at all, no matter which model you get.

Hope that helps with some of the stuff.

[dizzyblonde]

it there any huge disadvantage of the pointy?

Andy

Yeah its butt ugly. Curvy much better.;)

As for the brakes comparision between the two...both equally as plop as each other. Just keep up with the maintenance and they're as good as they need to be.

Although its budget, either is better for you than the Blandit :)