Gladius - The new SV650

[Bibio]

Originally Posted by zunkus

What if I told you that this weighs under 140Kg, would you still think it's ugly?

yes...

but i can see them selling in there masses to commuters if the price is right.

[northwind]

Yes, but... I bet you an entire pound it weighs at the very least 20 kilos more than that dry.

Thanks christ I got a pointy before the prices of used ones rocket. That is one ugly looking motorcycle, and it has a stupid name. I expect sales figures to be as good as GSR600 ones.

Nice to see they've done absolutely nothing with the two main things the SV is criticised for - the brakes and the forks. Well done Suzuki for not listening to your customer base and not reading magazine reviews.

[northwind]

Well, all it needs is the right weight springs and oil in the forks from the factory and half of the complaints will go away... And since it seems to be a euro-directed bike, hopefully that'll be the case. They've had 3 tries at the SV and got it wrong every time though

The twin spark head is a bother though... That was a total bodge when they stuck it on the SV, I'd hoped we'd see a proper redesign rather than an extension of the bodge when the next SV variant engine came along. it's got some minor changes but it's going to be the same basic lump from the looks of it. Dual spark is just daft, makes the manufacture and maintenance more expensive.

[yorkie_chris]

Nasty. Except maybe the oil cooler would be worth nicking to retrofit to a proper one, would have to look at running oil temps first though. Otherwise scrap it.

They've nicked idea of one piece tank and seat unit from an early 80's trial bike. They've nicked the heelplates from the raptor, and removed any trace of aggression. Just bleugh.

P.s The twin spark head is just to allow the mixture to be wrong enough to get it through the EU. Would work better with a set of earlier heads put on.

Based on the Suzuki SV650’s v-twin engine, the Gladius is aimed at a more novice audience.

Looks like they're just following the crowd, red and white looks ok.....on the bright side this could spell the end of newbies asking all the same basic questions as soon as they sign up to this site.

[mister c]

I like it. Not much into the blue colour scheme, but red looks nice. Looks like a direct go at the monster.
Hopefully there will be an SV750 with uprated brakes etc to compete with the Shivver.

I think it looks bang tidy.

Not sure I get the name, but fair play, numbers and letters don't exactly mean much do they?

Black looks better, and the clocks seem a quite decent redesign. With the gear indicator it could be a propular retro-fit to nakeds.