SV650 powerfull sports bike? ?

in the bbc programe the reporter classed the sv650 as a powerfull sports bike

is this a fair discription?

i know its not a sportsbike (although it does come under that section in the bike trader)

& is quite powerfull IMO

[Luckypants]

Not very powerful when compared to similar capacity true sports bikes. R6, GSX-R 600, CBR-600 etc all make over 50% more power than the SV.

Is not really a sportsbike either, with run of the mill brakes and suspendies.

[Richie]

Wot he said...

What he said. For the inexperienced it may seem fairly powerful, and it certainly does better than the numbers suggest, but it's not particularly powerful, and it doesn't really qualify as a sportsbike in the usual sense.
As per a conversion I once had in Frith Street. It's a diet sportsbike.

If it is, I bought the wrong bike. I was looking for a sports-tourer.

Originally Posted by Baph

If it is, I bought the wrong bike. I was looking for a sports-tourer.

I'm not sure it's one of those either!

I consider it a "street-bike", nice and vague.

"Powerful". Well it's not exactly a false statement, but search Google for "Powerful Sportsbike" and you don't find much mention of the humble SV650. Powerful enough to be dangerous, though, but then so is a 33bhp restricted one. So not wrong, but it's not a very useful description either, might as well have said "high performance 120mph+ bike". Not many fall into that category do they?

It gets me where I want to go at the speeds I want to go, with tht little bit extra when required, wether its a powerful sports bike as such, It's powerful enough for me, and has a sports look, but its definatly in a different section from the spors 600s. Thats like calling a VW golf a high powered sports car because a ned added a spoiler

[Lissa]

The SV is what it is.................and what it is changes depending on who is riding it

did the bbc not mention that its a girls bike??

I don't think it's particularlly powerful. It's great compared to the tat I've been riding for the past 5 years but I'm already finding myself thinking "is that all it's got?" Then I remind myself that it's still plenty more than I can actually handle in anything other than a straight line.

As for sports bike... MCN clearly dont' think so. The other week it had a suppliment with ~"All 178 bikes tested" or similar and I had to try quite hard to find the SV in it. It wasn't in any of their main categories. I found it in the end in I think the "naked" section (though they mentioned there was a semi faired S option). But all fairing-ed up that's a bit of a poo description too.

Tbh I rather like that it's not so easily classified. Some reasons I bought it were that it was a twin (for ride and sound) sensible cc (practical and affordable to insure & run). So whilst I was a bit 'hurt' that it wasn't in the 'Rave' section in the MCN thing - actually I don't think i care what it is, but no it's not a powerful sports bike.