SV650 Cafe Racer construction - would you buy?

[Pete7]

If this doesn't work out for you or you have to do it part time, then you know SEME is moving to Lyneham in 18 months time. Not sure how many of the Babcock Instructors are going to make that move, so they could be on the lookout for local staff. Worth dropping the CV in with them a couple of times.

Pete
Ex REME

As nice as it all sounds for a man who has that money to throw about it would be nice to have, i intend to do a cafe racer bike at some point but i'll do it my self as i kinda think thats the point of them its yours and unique.

does sound good , and as said might be a very exspensive rebuild for some one , would love to see a sv when its been finnished thow , tell you what , id give you my 1999 sv650s curvy to do for your first rebuild , for free , but i will need it back when done , free of charge , and you can take as many pics of it as you want and use them for advertising , the offer is there ,

[Geordie Mick]

Personally, I think what you're really on about is building a bespoke special/cafe racer that happens to use an SV engine, rather than a SV-based special/cafe or whatever (let's not start an argument about what constitutes a cafe racer.... )

As Bibio/others say, for many using an SV as a starting point would make it a project for themselves, rather than paying somebody to do something with it - you can get a whole range of good looking, though I accept mixed quality, cafe/specials for the sort of money you are talking about here unless you want something really outlandish. For example, buy a crashed SV, put on GSXR front end (and rear if you fancy), new headlight, polish a few bits, a few bling bits if that's your thing, paint job.. Doable for around a couple of grand net (which is what I'm doing) plus your own time, but for many that's the point of the exercise - summat to do!).

I do like a good special build, mind you - and done right, I think you could make it work. Perhaps offer parts of the service rather than a full build - a frame, polishing, sub-frame mods for different seat units and so on? Plenty of competition around for that sort of thing, I suppose

MICK..

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by mrrowley87

How much would you deem a fair price?

By the time you've made a bike "like new" then their idea of a fair price won't stack up to your idea of "feeding yourself".

Best of luck if you do manage to make it work though!


Can you already TIG weld? CAD design? Mill and lathe work? Already got any machine tools? CNC? Spraying? Plating?
Sure you can sub all this out but it all costs and it's all time.

Surely the best thing to do to showcase your work, and give people an idea of what you can offer, is to produce one for yourself. Once you've built you're own bike advertise it and the service you offer via social media and other networking methods. If all goes pear shaped and the business doesn't get interest then you've got yourself a cracking one off bike that you can either keep or sell.

The hardest thing for people to do is put value on something they can't see.

I have no idea whether your figures stack up, but if you're not going to loose your house over it and you have some cash to spend, go for it.

I like the idea. The main sticking point for me is that the SV doesn't really lend itself to the classic cafe racer look. Most good looking cafe's I see these days are based upon 1970's / 1980's aircooled Jap bikes. Ive nearly finished a BMW boxer cafe, the main commercial builder of these is kevils speed shop and Ive been told his bikes are £5.5K + Motoguzzi's also scrub up well and amazingly the Honda CX500.
Mines cost about £2K all in (with careful selling of surplus parts) so profits can be made. When you look closely at Kevil's bikes most parts are available off the shelf and there are very few genuinely custom parts, so it's pretty easy!
I have a spare SV with a blown engine which I have considered converting but I dont think I can make it into anything really desireable, easily.
Have a look at do the ton website, lots of builds on there from the cack hander to real pros. Some nice stuff going on.

SV's are a wonderfully endearing little bike but IMHO not good for these type of conversions.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

What happened to this thread? Not sure the idea has wings, SV is a budget bike and not particularly sought after, going cafe racer sounds like the other end of the market to me.