Why do you own an sv?

strange one really, my mum had a k1 from new for a good 6 years and i hated it, hated the look hated the "wana be" sports bike look

i had an MT-03 at first, 660cc single 5speed was great fun and rode like a super moto, looked very nice but it was a bit all show no go as far a power was concerned and pillion comfort was cr&p it was also actually my mums bike (in my name) so we decided to get rid of that as i wanted a bike i could really dig my teeth in to that was actually mine.

along came my cheep as chips sv. i pay'd £1500 for a k3 naked its pretty fast and looked ok, crashed it a few times and modded it.

so i suppose the reasons i own a sv are

cheep to buy
cheep to run
cheep to repair
cheep to insure (strangely for my age)
easy to mod
not stupid fast
good base to learn on

was never in to bikes as a kid, it was all cars with me, untill i got fed up with sitting in traffic, so done my cbt and got a chinise 125
i was happy with that...

untill the goverment decided to make geting the full bike licence harder, so i decided to get it done b4 the new test came in and passed first time..

so with full licence in hand and my instrutcor advising on a 600, i started tralling through bike trader on tinternet and came across this bronze "bike" the same colour i painted a mk1 golf when i was 21, (love that colour) it was called a sv650
i have no biker mates so i went to see it on my own it was the first bike i looked at
i didnt know about il4 and vtwin but when he started it up, i almost had a suituation,
its had some issues which ive been able to sort myself as i know a bit of mechanics, fixed a few cars in my time, im still learning about bikes and loving every minute of it
i use it everyday for work come rain or shine and im not afraid to take it apart to fix something myself,
i dont plan on selling her any time soon but may spend a bit money on some decent supenders,

[steveg]

I bought a sv as a stop gap after writting my last bike off and my wife writting car off on my insurance ...

The plan was to keep sv for a couple of years then get another bigger bike again once insurance NCB has recovered

4 years later still have the sv
It was cheap to buy new £3600
Its great fun to ride
Its cheap running costs
Its not missed a beat in 52k ( makes a great commuter )

Its now worth jack so will run into the ground , would be nice to get another weekend bike aswell

Cheers Steve

It would appear I'm bucking the trend. It's not my first bike and I had the okay for a Fireblade. All my previous bikes have been Honda 4s but I fancied something different. I've always like the SV ever since I tried to keep up with one on a VFR 750 10 years ago.
I bought my SV a couple of months ago, K9 Sport in black, couldn't quite kick the sportsbike habit. I think it's a great bike I'm sure it's quicker the my CBR600F up to a point. It sounds great, it looks great, it has improved my chances of keeping my licence, and it will improve my riding ability on the twisties.

I suppose I came into SV ownership by accident, I have 2 GSXR1100's in various states of dissassembly and my main road bike for a while was a 750 SRAD, which was great for flying about at 150mph but utterly useless elsewhere, so I sold it and got a VTR which had a Moriwaki tuned engine with about 4 grands worth of recepits for the motor with it, this was even more useless as it hated anything but flat out and would empty the tank in 60 miles, the 3rd gear power wheelies were fun though.

Once the VTR was sent up the road, I heard of a crash damaged SV1000 in a breakers, trouble was, one of my mates had heard about it too and was looking for a first really big bike, so I told him I would buy his SV650 at the price of the 1000, so for £1600 I had an immaculate K3, I figured that it would keep me out of trouble for a while as it wasn't mega fast and I could sell it for a profit once I got bored.

The trouble was, I really clicked with the 650, I stuck a PCIII and a K&N in it and got an Ohlins, soon I was flying about as hard as the little motor would go. Idecided a while back to try and trade it in for something different, but every dealer thinks that 28k on a 7yo bike is high mileage, FFS if you took a 7yo car into a dealers with 28k on it, they'd accuse you of clocking it! Best deal offered was the SV and a grand for a clean 99 Blade. But the blade looked ugly and bloated compared to the SV which I think is gorgeous, and I see 3 99 fireblades every day on the way to work, I don't want a bike that looks like every other. I love the SV's exhaust note, the fact that it'll rev clean to it's redline, it feels like a 125 and it'll happily get to jailable speeds and on the right road, not much will beat it.

So I've decided to keep the SV, I'm converting it to Renthals to save my back and shoulders, and I'm gonna get emulators in the forks and whack on a set of 4 pots, looks like we're stuck with each other!

So what would you change on your sv to make it better from standard and how much does it cost? I have a k3 which has had nothing changed on it at all.

[andrewsmith]

on the cheap! New front internals and transplanted shock (my route) about £250- 300 (inc labour)

whole hog: gsxr Front end and aftermarket shock from ohlins or penske around £500 for front and £800 for rear before labour

Suspension is always the first call, my Ohlins was £500, but they have a good resale value if you change bikes, the price of GSXR front ends is ludicrous these days, I can't get a complete one and all the bits was working out at something like £800!

Gonna be modified standard forks for me.

[dizzyblonde]

^^^^^ why have I been quoted with strange links that I didn't put in??? ^^^^^

Gladius,comfotable for my 6-8 hr rides,naked to slow me down after a mad 10 mins or so, brill engine and cheap, got suit helmet gloces thown in