Shopping list (of mods)

Right, I am hoping to pick up a cheapish curvy soon with the intention of throwing alot of toys into it. I enjoy track riding and have found that I prefer a smaller bike on the track, but would still like a bit of top end for tracks such as Snetterton with long straights, my current Thundercat gets wee'd over on the straights and is too heavy for outbraking to be comfortable. (plus it seems to like to throw me off! )

So, and I apologise for asking stuff that has already been gone over and over here before, here is what I want advice on.

Front ends. What forks work best versus cost?

Rear wheels. I see that one member here has a bandit rear wheel to allow bigger tyres. How has this helped/hindered the bike. One of the things I love the SV for is its turn in ability and mid corner stability. Bearing in mind my next question!

I want to fit a big bore kit. I am thinking 750. I understand someone on here can help me with this, who is it I need to be talking to?

Other than that general stuff like does the gixxer fairing allow headlight fitment as I would also like to try and keep the bike road legal.

Zorsts, rearsets, clip ons, rear shock. What has been tried and tested?

Alot to learn about the bike before I go out shopping, but I have a dream

Help.

[northwind]

GSXR SRAD 750 bolts almost straight into a curvy,and you should be able to sell the curvy parts for more than they cost Not the best forks in the world, but they're a great combo of price vs quality. Or, if it's only for the track, then you can fit all sorts of more recent ones- the K6 GSXR600 and 750 forks are absolutely brilliant out of the box, one ofthe best production forks ever. They all drop the front a bit as standard, but that helps make the bike faster to turn (mine has the rear way up and the front down, and it's actually quite hard to keep on line as it changes direction so easily)

You can make the stock forks work brilliantly, but it's expensive, personally I ask why bother, unless for insurance reasons.

No need for the fat rear unless you like the feel, really... It's mainly a cosmetic mod, but some folks do prefer the roll-over of a fat tyre. Others feel that they sacrifice turn-in speed and some even prefer a 150 rear.

Big bores? 750's a bit big. 700 is a good option but it does potentially sacrifice some longevity and reliability- extra weight and power is harsh on the bottom end. For really long duration, high revs (ie, spending nearly an hour almost constantly over 110mph on the M6 until you nearly run out of fuel, as I heard someone did on the way home from the annual rideout last year ) it's not so clever, or for a long-life motor, but for a track engine? Fairly cheap power, what's not to like? Deck the heads too. My approach would be rather than try to build a bulletproof motor, build a cheap one- bit of a gamble but it's cheaper to build 2 slightly less safe motors on stock bottom ends than to build one stronger one on a modified bottom end, so if it does blow up, you're still ahead.

But suspension's where to spend the money IMO. And cams.

Thankyou, you are a star.

Hmm. Cams.

TBH am now wondering about chopping the TLS in for a TLR

Are JHS the only place around that are good for tuning needs?

You now have me wondering about forgetting the big bore, and just going for stage 2 tune. The heads would be skimmed and flowed as a matter of course anyway.

Out of interest, what sort of (reliable'ish) bhp can I expect to get out of a 650?

My main reason for wanting to track an SV is because I ride one to work every day, so would be extremely confident on track with one, whereas my TL is a plaything and I'm not as intune with it, plus it just doesnt feel as good track daying on a big bike, for me anyway. I'm no Rossi and would rather have a bike I can cane, rather than one that canes me

[northwind]

Speak to SV650Racer off this forum re tuning... I've a feeling she might know someone who can help

By all accounts there's not a lot of benefit to basic flowing of SV heads... Worth giving them a tidy up when they're off of course, but personally I wouldn't get too into it unless you want to change valves. I spoke to Cylinderhead Shop about this and they said "SV? Nah, we won't take your money, we've got a rep to consider"- they did a couple and the gains were low.

How much power depends on how you get to it, really... Obviously big bores add moving mass so add more stress, for instance, while the (popular in the USA) Busa piston swap doesn't give any boost by itself but reduces mass and works well with high comp...

Mine is a street bike, and needs to be reliable, so I've set a fairly conservative limit- I plan on keeping below 85bhp (rear wheel, dynojet numbers, I can only think in DJ ), and shooting for usability not peak power, and I'm steering clear of big bores for now, as well as keeping stock carbs (try starting a bike with flatslides that's been sat in the snow all day!) But you can push a bit further past that, especially if you get into bottom end work- but like I say, I think that's going a bit too far with the SV myself

But I don't really have any sort of track/race perspective so take that as it comes

Thanks again.

After your comment, and reading THIS my head is now spinning.

I could quite easily end up spending shed loads here. Need to have a real good think.

Busa pistons, high comp eh? Sod having a turbo cut in half way round clearways!!!

Just found a TLS with a few trick bits on as well....

Watch this space.

[northwind]

Yup, all too easy to spend too much Hell, I've spent too much and I've not got half the motor Rob or Sarah has. And you do rapidly hit diminishing returns. Race bikes have different rules since taking tenths off a lap isn't worth spending much on for most road and track bikes, but makes the difference between wasting money and not wasting money if it gets you a race result. That's why I try to stay off the subject, I can't make the maths work

But there's cheap gains. You could, frinstance, take a layer or two out of the base gaskets (one is safe, 2 is less so, unless you check clearances) stick in carbed model intake cams on the exhaust side from a blown up engine, fit a cheap used exhaust system, and jet accordingly. Total cost, could be under £400 if you DIY, total result around 80bhp rw with decent mids and a long peak. I do believe I could sell you some cams

But there's a really good argument for just leaving it alone... An extra 10bhp on top doesn't turn an SV into a raging animal, after all. A £500 trackday CBR will still take it in a straight line. And if I stuck my engine etc onto a stock SV chassis it'd be slower than my chassis with a stock engine in it.

http://store.58cycle.com/SearchResults.asp

ten pages of cheap sv goodies from the us!

The price of the full systems are amazing! cheap as chips compared to uk prices!

If i were you i would get

A 04 r6 throtle foe 9£
a dynojet stage 1 kit and k&n Filter or the stage 2 from jhs is better..
a full system.
Progressive springs.
Zx10r shock from ebay.

it wont cost you £1000 and your bike will go well and turn well what more do you want?

[northwind]

DJ stage 1 kit's rubbish IMO... If you have a full system and decent filter all teh jets are too small, so you end up having to buy more, and once you do that you may as well have not bought the kit in the first place. The needles don't justify the spend. Fork springs are a great simple mod but a bit basic, and can work out more expensive than a whole front end swap without the brake improvements as well... They have their advantages obviously, but not so much for a track bike.

as for the zx10 rear shock, is it a straight fit? I also seem to remember reading that a gixxer thou shock will fit, will it?

[northwind]

Gixxer thou will fit but it's a bad job, Just Say No Too short, too soft. 636 and 10R are decent options really. I'd far sooner spend the money on a quality shock than on big engine work, myself, but this is a matter of taste. Oh, hey, I have a Busa shock in the garage which'd fit I think, only any good for the larger gentleman though

I hear- though this isn't a definate- that the 05 and onwards 636 Showa shock fits the SV. That'd be a fine option, it's a good length, not too bad spring rate, and generally higher quality than what went before. The 636 KYBshock was shoddy when it was in a 636, so it's a bit marginal in an SV