SV650Sport front forks... Crap??

Hey Guys..
New to the forum and currently on an '06 Fazer Sport (for sale). Im hoping to change now in the next month or so and leading the list... a Pointy Sport, fully faired. I love everything on the bike, and heard some great reviews... but all come back with one crucial problem... front forks...
Noticably ill miss the power but this gets me into the bent-over-sports-bike league

Whats the story lads from actual SV riders??

Are they to soft?
What would be a good replacement and cost?


Ive heard the brakes are fairly kack too...but braided should sort that out.

Thanks in advance...
possibleSVfuturerider

[Paul the 6th]

well, I had a cbf600 's' for 6 months before buying my pointy sv in december and I can safely say the brakes on the honda are much sharper. But the brakes on the sv are still capable - i think at some point I'd be tempted to uprate them with better pads/discs & lines but they're hardly dire.

as for the forks, I've not had enough experience to know what amazing and amazingly sh!t forks feel like but one thing I do know is, I love the SV. It's got loads of character, from the handling and riding position (suprisingly comfortable for a sporty position - did 120 miles over 5 hours today & my hands only started to hurt after 4 hours... oh and cramp in my inner thigh on 20 mins before getting home...) to the torque and engine note.

PT6^

[fizzwheel]

In my experience none of it is as bad as some people will have you believe,

Yes they are underdamped but its nothing major, unless you've been at the pies then I doubt you'll find it that bad unless you ride right at the limit all the time.

Saying that respringing the front end and changing the oil to something thats more suited for your rider weight should be an improvement. But to be honest we did this with my other halfs bike and I cant really tell the difference when I ride her SV back to back with my standard one....

As for the brakes, if you keep on top of the maitenance cleaning etc, then there is IMHO nothing wrong with the brakes either. Braided hoses might make a difference but only if the standard rubber ones are past their best, I definately noticed the improvement when I went to scintered brake pads though...

In short I would'nt be put off by either of the things you mention, its not like they are fixable for a small amount of money if it bothers you that much.

[northwind]

The brakes are perfectly decent IMO, the same parts turn up on loads of other bikes. Fazer brakes do tend to be a bit above the normal middleweight standard, mind.

The forks get a slating, mainly because they're the worst part of the bike- to me they stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the package as a whole. They're certainly not terrible, but they're a bit basic. They're also strangely specced, the standard springs are too light for 9/10 of all riders. A 10% increase in spring rate would be of huge benefit for most of us, and take away that squishy feeling. I don't understand why Suzuki haven't done this tbh.

It doesn't ruin the bike by any means, it still works very well... But IMO it's one of those few things that's worth upgrading on a fairly new bike, since better forks does let you get more out of the rest of the bike, it's a knock-on effect.

I'll go along with what's been said before. I have a K3 naked bike with standard forks which have fresh oil in them, they're a long way from being perfect but still capable. There's also a K5S in the garage, which has Racetech Emulators, .85kg springs and 15W oil in the forks. This bike is excellent, there's more feel from the front end than I had on the Triumph Daytona 955i that I had before and it handles brilliantly. it's well worth buying a Sport and spending the little extra to upgrade the forks, it makes a capable bike into a fine handling one.

As far as brakes go, the standard brakes/lines on both my SVs are more than up to the job. My ex has a K3 naked and I just fitted braided hoses to that, it really improved the stopping power on the standard pads. No doubt changing the pads for something a little more effective would improve them more.

Yes, the fork on my SV-650K7 was crap, I have to say.

I weigh 150lbs., and the problem for me wasn't that the springs and damping were too squishy soft, but that the damping character over sharp bumps was too harsh.
This made the fork seem cheap and crude, especially since I've had some sportbikes that came stock with some very good forks.

What I did was spend the money for some Race Tech Cartridge Emulators, installed them myself in an afternoon, and now have a fork that is good.
Whether or not you'll feel the same won't be known until you start riding the bike, yourself.

As for the front brakes, they work OK completely stock and good with a simple change to aftermarket HH-rated pads (I'm using Dunlopad HH along with Goodridge braided steel front lines).
The thing with me and the front calipers is that, like the fork, I've owned a lot of sportbikes in the past that came with excellent front brakes as standard equipment and since the SV didn't, it's definately noticable (noticable enough to gripe about them) though not the end of the world.

What makes them good instead of excellent?
You have to squeeze the brake lever harder.
If you have no problem with this, you'll wonder what the fuss is about.

[yorkie_chris]

Dive on braking annoys me, no idea what's in the forks but I presume they're standard. Also not much rebound damping so it tends to spring up quite a bit on turn-in.
I'm probably 12.5 stone with riding gear

As others have said the SV forks tend to be A bit soft. I'm thinking of sorting mine out soon. Of course if suzuki made them good then no one would pay the premium for the gsxr!

Having ridden my sisters 06 fazer I found it a very boring bike to ride. Throttle response was very soft and the steering was very light, you only felt like you were having fun when you were wringing the bikes neck. On the other hand I find the SV to be a bit more of an animal. For example, I found that if your coming around a roundabout on the fazer, you crank it over, see your exit, give it a fistfull of throttle and it slowly accelerates out. You do the same with the SV and the low down torque really makes a difference - you will shoot off the road if you give it a fistfull!!! You really have to control the throttle - I find it much more of a riders bike - you could just be lazy on the fazer. Also the SV doesn't turn as quickly as the fazer - again however I find the SV a lot more stable in the turn as it is less twitchy as it requires a bit more input at the bars. Again, it's more challenging to ride and I think it is more satisfying.

Of course what you don't get with the SV is the sudden rush of power typical of an IL4. Instead you get a smaller rush all the way through the rev range which I love. After the SV, when I tried the fazer I was very dissapointed as everyone says it is such a good bike - didn't impress me at all.

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by davidimurray

As others have said the SV forks tend to be A bit soft. I'm thinking of sorting mine out soon. Of course if suzuki made them good then no one would pay the premium for the gsxr!

You've made some important points there if you rearrange the words a little:
sorting forks out ... suzuki gsxr forks

Onto a winner there

[northwind]

Not really neccesary though, like for me the front forks were pretty much transformed just by changing the springs to ones more suited for my weight. I love the GSXR front end/Ohlins rear, don't get me wrong it really is brilliant, but I wouldn't be unhappy with springs and oil and... Oh maybe an 05 636 shock.