K4/K5 quality drop?

I could be way off but isn't a similar noise down to head bearings being loose?

A mate has a K5 at work and he mentioned exactly the same thing to me today at lunch, over medium bumps it clonks, he is going to get the head bearings looked at, so I thought I'd mention his idea here.

think you will find most SV650's clunk when hitting a big bump in the road, something to do with the damping rods?.

Ah and corrosion - budget bike and crap salt the councils are using. It isnt just SV650's...i have today taken in a 3000m R1 and a CBR600RR and both are corroded to bits....i reckon the new synthetic salt they are now using is like acid.

[steveg]

my k5 broke down after 200 miles , however fingers crossed 600 miles now ,
Have wound up the front preload to max and added some to the rear shock , helps however def needs spring & oil .
Build quality is ok ish not honda quality however you do get what u pay for , I use my bike every day & accept that it will suffer ( also can't be arsed to clean bike every time I use it ) its my main transport so just live with it .

Reason I bought a sv was it was cheap to buy , cheap to insure & cheap to run .Bonus is it is great fun to ride .
It has enough power to be fun on the road , and to sort out suspension is cheap.

To be honest don't think its worth spending money to increase power , just going to mod front suspension & fit a can .

Don't like the dunlops , did manage to get some heat into them after a blast round the twistys , however lack feel , to be honest the weather is so sh#t at the moment most tyres would struggle , normally use Bridgestone BT020's in the winter & something stickier in the summerBT014/diablos.

Keep it a year or 2 and then get a Falco or SV1000 However the little SV is growing on me.

Cheers Steve