Riding an SV

Originally Posted by NeilfromPeel

Good advice from all fellas. And possibly gals who knows.



I kinda wanted to get a classic airhead to fettle but ended up with the SV I’m not regretting it.



I think I will change the bars as I already bought the kit, and I intend to go naked I despise the fairings and twin lights... purely aesthetic reasons



Maybe leave sprockets and ride it like I stole it, I have plenty if bikes and I’ve raced short circuit for a few seasons in my time and certainly this bike is enough as stock to get anyone into trouble



I really want to make it look cool, well cooler, I’ll provide photo evidence damning or otherwise

It would be nice to see some photos of your project.

I think you are right, leaving the gearing alone would be a sensible thing to do. I have just checked mine, and it does indeed have a 16t gearbox sprocket just as the original owner said it did:



... and I can’t really say it makes all that much difference from standard. The bike still accelerates as it should and the bike returns 52 MPG, which is exactly average for a K6 era bike, so I think tinkering with the drive ratio for road use is a waste of time.

Good fortune with your project.





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[Dave20046]

Neil, don't be afraid to rev the bike. I used to like the naked gearing but have since gone back to 'S' gearing, there's nothing wrong with it and it gives you more top end.
6-6.5k to 9.5- 10k the bike will pull, it might just make a lot of noise doing it!

Don't go below 3k, if in 30 or 40mph zones and just holding a constant speed you can sit at 3 or 4k depending on the gear (probably 3rd and 4th) but you may find accelerating sharply out of it is boggy. If you anticipate having to accelerate or over take stay at 6k then when you crack the throttle open you'll find power.

[SV650rules]

Naked gearing on todays roads is definitely the way to go, what is the point of having a bike that will do almost twice national speed limit, especially with mobile speed traps and average speed cameras springing up all over the place. Makes overtaking easier and get away from lights quicker, bike just feels more lively, and not so fussy about being in 'wrong gear'. Unless you spend a lot of time on motorways think about lowering the gearing, because for all other roads the lower gearing is better.

[Toooldtodie]

Originally Posted by SV650rules

Naked gearing on todays roads is definitely the way to go, what is the point of having a bike that will do almost twice national speed limit, especially with mobile speed traps and average speed cameras springing up all over the place. Makes overtaking easier and get away from lights quicker, bike just feels more lively, and not so fussy about being in 'wrong gear'. Unless you spend a lot of time on motorways think about lowering the gearing, because for all other roads the lower gearing is better.

To be fair, it's still pretty quick compared to all but supercars, in standard trim!
All the extra acceleration can cause is the rear lighting up or astonished car drivers and pedestrians who will not thank you...
We are still the fastest accelerating thing on the roads, even falling objects are slower!

Originally Posted by Toooldtodie

We are still the fastest accelerating thing on the roads, even falling objects are slower!

... not on a SV 650. 60MPH is a bit under 27m/s in 3.3s which gives about 8 m/s^2. I take your point though, there will be road bikes able to accelerate at a bit more than 1G (0-60MPH in 2.6s or less).






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Having checked that my K6 is a bit higher geared than most (16t gearbox sprocket) I did some testing today to see what how it affected the bike (although I don’t really have a control sample to compare it with as I can’t remember exactly what the K3 owned in Germany until 2004 was like).

100MPH on top gear equates to 7,000 RPM, I suppose the corresponding speed for a standard 650S would be 7,500 and for 650 it would be 8,000 RPM. I didn’t try it, but I suspect the top speed would remain the same for all 3 setups because 75 HP will not be enough for more than 125MPH whatever the gear ratios (certainly not with my 6’2” and 95kg frame attached, if one was 5’ and 8 stone that would make much more difference to the SV’s performance than changing the gearing).

At 80MPH my engine is turning over at 5,500 RPM, and again I suppose that must equate to about 5,900 and 6,300 RPM for the 650S and 650 respectively.

As far as acceleration goes I suspect the extra tooth on my bike will make no difference whatsoever to the 0-60 time because it will (just about) do it in first gear, whereas the standard and naked bikes will both need a gear change and thus have a short break in drive.

The 6 gears are quite widely spaced, and the SV650 has lots of mid-range torque, so most of the time the only difference will be selecting a different gear to ride in, although I’ve heard some others say they sometimes look for a seventh gear (that doesn’t really happen with a 16t gearbox sprocket).

The different sprocket does not seem to affect fuel consumption as my bike does a little over 52 MPG, which is exactly average for a K6 era bike. Again this will have more to do with me being 6’2” and 95 Kg than anything else.

What do I conclude from my not very scientific (in that I don’t have a control sample) test: that because of the SV650’s engine characteristics there isn’t much point tinkering with the final drive ratio. If I ever needed to change the chain and sprockets (which I probably won’t - the set on the bike will be good for quite a while) then I’d probably go back to a standard set up (15/44), but only because the kit would probably be a little cheaper than buying a non-standard sprocket.

Good fortune.


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[Toooldtodie]

It's true that you can feel the difference even when the fuel load goes down, as I know it's going to be time soon to re-fuel when it feels more "frisky"! With the limited HP of the SV the biggest difference is always going to be the load it's hauling.
Standard setup is a good compromise between acceleration and top end/cruising and fuel economy. Best left alone IMHO.

Originally Posted by Toooldtodie

It's true that you can feel the difference even when the fuel load goes down, as I know it's going to be time soon to re-fuel when it feels more "frisky"! With the limited HP of the SV the biggest difference is always going to be the load it's hauling.
Standard setup is a good compromise between acceleration and top end/cruising and fuel economy. Best left alone IMHO.

I’ll second that; Mr Suzuki got it just about right.
Alan


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