Curvy quicker than pointy, common thing?

Hey up,

My fiancé has recently invested in a 2001 curvy and now its all running right we did a comparison of bikes. Conclusion: her bike seems quicker and smoother than my 2003 pointy.

Is this a common theme?

Also we noticed on the motorway it's running at about 500 rpm less than mine in top gear. I actually don't know but I assume the gearing on both bikes is standard sizing.

Just curious to what others have found?

[jambo]

I would guess the curvy is geared at 15/44, and the pointy 15/45.

Maybe she's just quicker than you?

Jambo
Sent from my thingie

[Sid Squid]

Whichever one is running 500rpm less is geared higher - assuming there isn't a speedo/tacho fault that is.

Whichever one feels 'quicker' is just running better perhaps, service time maybe?

I knew I'd get the she's just quicker than you comment!

Recent service carried out on both bikes, before a recent holiday to watch the gp at sachsenring, though I might stick the balances on mine and see what they read as. Have adjusted the tps on mine but the throttle response is still really on/off, whereas with hers it's a much more progressive roll on/off. I have gotten used to it and only when I took hers out for a spin I realised how bad mine is.

How much lighter is she than you? Something else to consider maybe for differences in acceleration.

The other possibility is the curvy has had the cam swap done.

[GMS]

Ah this is something that effects most of the pointy owners on here,although they will always deny it, CURVY ENVY

[aesmith]

Originally Posted by jambo

I would guess the curvy is geared at 15/44, and the pointy 15/45.

That wouldn't account for 500 rpm difference. I wonder whether the rev counters and/or speedos are out of whack on some SVs. There was quite a range of different rev vs mph figures quoted on here a while ago, and mine doesn't come out the same as the gearing web site that someone linked to. For what it's worth mine indicates 65mph at 5000 in top gear, I haven't yet checked with a GPS for an accurate speed.

Tony S

Having both a curvy and pointy in the household.... I've never compared the speed/revs thing but will agree that the curvy fuelling is MUCH smoother than the pointy, that's the wonder of old tech carbs for you over FI...

One other question... are they both either faired or naked? I've got some old memory telling me that the gearing is different between the two....

[jambo]

The gearing always used to be 15 front, 44 rear on "S" models and 15/45 on naked, but I recently found some evidence that the current pointies are 15/45 as standard, maybe they always were?

This would lead to the pointy showing lower rpm at the same speed & gear, but differences in accuracy for the tacho & speedo probably account for some of it too

Jambo

Interesting comments, and naturally being a point owner I will never profess to preferring a curvy, though they are nice looking bikes.

Agree with carbs over fi being smoother, something I've noticed with a few bikes that made the transition to injection. I wondered as well as the k3 is the first year of the pointy whether the fuel map is not as developed as the later years.

Did Suzuki do revised fuel maps? With my old triumph sprint you could just plug in your laptop via an OBD to the bike and download a revised map. I assume the sv doesn't allow this?

As for her being lighter etc, its moot point as my comments on her bike being faster is based on my experience of riding both bikes, but yes she is lighter and I guess that might account for lower rpm as her bike doesn't have a 'well padded' bloke!