[Bike27]

Originally Posted by SV650rules

The Jury is still out on the performance of carburettor vs Fuel injection. Sure EFI can get emissions down ( which is the biggest aim of modern engines ) and is more convenient because no pesky choke to worry about......

Fair comment. I suppose I was just thinking back to the era when F.I. started to become more common on car engines (e.g. Golf Mk2/Scirocco 1.8 carb 90bhp / or 1.8GTI 110bhp). However, I dare say VW could have got the same power output with a performance orientated carb feeding each cylinder instead, so I agree there would have been other factors at play (as of course there always are) such as emissions / fuel economy / driveability / cost of manufacture etc. etc.

Originally Posted by SV650rules

The bike I had before the SV was a Suzuki DRZ400-SM....... that bike was a hoot to ride - but on the roads the SV is much better and you don't have to thrash it to keep up with faster traffic......

Originally Posted by SV650rules

You can get kits to raise the DRZ output to over 50 ponies - but having ridden a standard one it didn't need messing with.......

Hmmm......so on the one hand your DRZ didn't need "messing with" yet on the other you had to thrash it to keep up with faster traffic, something you presumably might not have needed to do as much, had you messed with it

Certainly once I had "messed with" my 390 Duke (by fitting a Powertronic Piggyback ECU and freer flowing air filter) it hugely boosted the mid range torque (where it ran pretty lean as stock for noise / emissions considerations I believe) and it never really felt like I was thrashing it. I remember thinking that if it had felt that good straight out of the showroom it could have harmed sales of the much more expensive 690, as people would have seen much less need to upgrade.

However much or little more actual perfomance a 390 duke can claim over a stock DRZ, I'm confident it would certainly feel faster in a straight line due to you being sat about 4 or 5 inches closer to the ground. I'm not the only one to consider that the little KTM evokes some of the spirit of the RD350LC, by being a small light bike capable of (at least) giving the impression of a surprising turn of speed, something that even a tuned DRZ is probably less likely to do on account of it not really being small in the same sense (it's that seat height again) even though it is indeed light. Whereas the 390 duke has a 125 road bike chassis, a supermoto is a somewhat different animal (I should know, as that's my other KTM ).

Certainly for me these days, I feel it is the sensation of speed just as much as actual speed that tends to help in making motorcycling a fun pursuit and a 390 Duke really delivers in that area (on the right roads).

Anyway, all that said things have moved on for me since I first commented on this thread........

Originally Posted by Bike27

I lost interest in my SV once the new bike novelty had worn off, as despite
it handling nicely and having a lovely motor I missed the fun of the KTM. However it is partly my own fault for adding about 8kgs worth of weight at the bike extremities (rear rack and crash bars). So I'm now putting the SV on a bit of a diet and hopefully I'll like it again.

I realise now that I never really gave my SV a chance to properly shine last year. The previous owner fitted a Nitron shock, but was probably a lot lighter than my 100kgs, so it was set way too soft for me. By the time I'd sorted that out, I'd already added the crash bars and surprisingly heavy renntec rack which (with the massive benefit of hindsight) was never going to help win me over coming from the super light 390.

I've put the SV on the above diet as promised, ridden it for 250 miles and yeah, I can't really fault it - it's pretty great !