SV650 - Pretender to GS1150's throne?

Apologies, it's a long 'un

Just got in from an interesting ride. I was up in Manchester and needed to get back to southwales. Having had enough motorway miles recently (and wanting to put some curve back on my squared off tyres) I decided to put the GPS to navigate home the shortest route, rather than the "quickest" (IE motorways). I reasoned that I'd find at least some fun new roads. I wasn't disappointed!

At one stage it told me to go straight on, seemingly down a track to a farm. The road got more and more covered in mud, till eventually it was just mud and gravel. I've ridden my SV on worse, so I carried on. I came to a gate across the road, but it was open. Concious, however, of not wanting to be one of these clowns who blindly follow their GPS into impossible terrain, I stopped and spoke to the farmer (who was stood nearby) if I could go down this road. I suppose I was really asking "can I make it down this track on a bike", and, in hindsight, I think he was actually saying "certainly, I don't mind you going down there" (I imagine he thought I was asking for permission, rather than advice).

So, I carried on down the track only to come to a ford (the river crossing, not the car). Now, I've driven through a few in cars over the years, but had never until today done one on a bike, unless you count riding in a couple of inches of sheet water on roads in america. It didn't look deep (about 8-12 inches) so I carried on through. How wrong I was. It got deeper and deeper and the bike was skidding about on the mud on the bottom of the river. I'd like to say I stood up on the pegs like a Dakar God and nailed it through, but the reality was I crawled (and wobbled) through at about 5mph, slipping the clutch and giving it lots of revs. I did put a bit more of my weight on the pegs (my feet were by this point underwater) which helped calm things down. Now, I'm sure this next bit will sound like exaggeration, but I can only give my word it's not and hope my modesty with regard my riding skills of getting through it make it more believeable. The water came up to just below my front indicators (the 'wave' was breaking over them) and I became aware of the (admittedly mild) current of the water. The water was, at its deepest point, up to my knees. It's a miracle (and credit to hein gericke and altberg, respectively) that my trousers and boots didn't let a drop in. If they had, it would have been a miserable ride home for the remaining 140 odd miles!

After clearing it, I pulled over to check my tailpack wasn't wet, no sticks/weed was caught in the chain, etc. and I saw quite how high the "water level" was on my bike. The radiator was dripping an awful lot of water and until I saw the colour of it, I wasn't sure it wasn't holed and it wasn't leaking coolant. Presumably the fins held a fair bit of water between them. The front fairing also holds a fair bit of water! The engine was understandably steaming all over, but I was baffled as to how water hadn't gotten in and fouled at least one of the plugs. I can only assume that the front plug was protected by the grease I applied around it, as well as a fender extender (which by this stage was obviously underwater). What can I say, belt and braces pays off sometimes!

There was a horrible moment when I wasn't yet halfway through and it was still getting deeper when I realised I couldn't stop/turn round (as by that stage it'd inevitably end up with flooded engine)

With hindsight, I was extremly lucky I was using my tailpack rather than panniers otherwise my clothes and more importantly, my work's laptop would have gotten "a bit wet".

I was chatting with a car enthusiast (SW Surfers- Terry at Superbites van on the Veranda in Brecon) and he knew the road. He was most surprised I had been along it on my bike- last time he went down it, he was in his Toyota 4x4 pickup!

Anyway, I was surprised with how well the bike coped with and touch wood, the 140 odd following miles were great fun with no mechanical hiccups, so it looks like I got away with it. My engine and frame are bit dirty mind.

ha ha, thats one great thing about the GPS things,

i did the same, essex to plymouth avoiding motorways, toll roads, toll booths, and shortest route,

took us down some of the darkest roads in dartmore, took us 2 days (we camped in new forest) and stopped at every nice view worth looking at.

Strangely I've been reading a fair bit about people offroading their SVs in stock condition. I'm very tempted by the adventure-riding side of things, but after a bit of research it seems SVs can hack more than we give them credit for! I'm going to try a few fire roads soon to see for myself
Good post

Hehe, quality post! Sounds like you were near to getting swept away if you'd have stopped, I would have been quite scared! Bit like the Long Way Round and the road of bones!

know how that feels!!coming home from my first ride out on Sat (beaulie bike show) passed a sign saying 'road liable to flooding' wasn't bloody wrong either! straight thru i went, high revs low gear, water coming over the TOP of my fairing!! didn't stop, neither did my bike, great machines these SV's rode the 50 or so miles home soaked thru but the bike was mint!

Coor blimey - I'm amazed that the bikes weren't breathing water in on some of these river crossings.

I have real wet weather plug problems so I'm in trouble with wet roads. That said I did do some pretty big and deep puddles at a speed I really shouldn't have recently. My SV however stalled in teh 2nd one but thankfully started on the thumb before I'd had to stop. My feet were absolutely soaked though (Sidi Vertebre - not noted for being waterproof).

If I were going to try adventure riding on an SV, which sounds rather fun, I think I'd rather it was a naked with some bars on it.