General tuning

Right i KNOW this is on the site somewhere but after an hour of looking and not finding i feel i am allowed to start another .

So the situation, i wanted to get an SV1000S but due to inability to test ride (i do a lot of miles and i dont want to get a bike blind and find i hate it - have to be 25 to test ride ffs!) and my bike not seemingly worth very little i have decided not to get rid of the SV650s for now...

So i have a K5 (red clearly best) SV as per Avatar, what im wanting to know is basically what effect do these things have on power. A combination or on their own:-

1. Power commander
2. K&N/performance filter + snorkel removed (maybe even ram air setup with powercommander to compensate?)
3. Is there a cam upgrade for the K5 similar to the k2?
4. End can / Full exhaust system increases.
5. Anything else that is fairly simple to do.

BUT please keep it to sensible stuff! I dont want a big bore, i want the reliability to be good!

Right and here is something else:-
1. What are the easy remoable parts to reduce weight?
2. Is the Gixxer fron end a good idea for weight and handling (and breaking with the radial 4 pots...)


So i think that is the meat of it. If you have any other info then please let me know. Im aiming for 80ish BHP at the back if possible with these mods and with keeping reliability?

Very interested in weight loss, for obvious reasons.

Cheers for any info!!

[northwind]

You could chuck a set of curvy model intake cams into the exhaust side, that'd give a wee bit of power, though not as dramatic as it is with the curvy... I don't really know the other pointy tuning options though, or where the easy weight loss lives, with the curvy it's all overengineered brackets and unneccesary parts.

I really rate the GSXR front end swaps, mainly because the SV parts have good resale value- you could fit a K2 GSXR750 front with the conventional calipers and, if you're careful, actually turn a profit! Emulators are a good option, and the Matris kit seems good as well, but they do cost. Bear in mind, you might still want to rework the GSXR forks, though they're a fair average usually. I'm too light for mine

Thanks North.

I was thinking of going for the newer k4-5 model unside downs and brakes if i ever get round to it...

I could do with getting everything together. Then take some holiday, see the problem i have is i have too much dependance on the bike, i cant afford for it to go wrong, i have no other transport


Anyhow, is there none on here who has lightened off their SV650 K3- at all?

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

Anyhow, is there none on here who has lightened off their SV650 K3- at all?

The tank raiser that's under the rear seat - my theory is if you're gonna use it, it'll be while you're at home!

A full racing exhaust, race air-filter, and a yosi-box/ecu map will add about two brake.

Other than that... can't really suggest much.
It's mostly due to the engine design, it's a V-twin - most of its power is low down torque, and extra mods mainly increase the torque more than extra horseys.

Bump... Common guys someone has to know something!

[jambo]

What do you want to change?

If you want a load more power, forget tuning an SV 650. You'll get a nice bit extra with engine work but nothing mega. The front end conversion can give better feeling forks and stronger brakes, but may take time, be tricky and highlight a need to suddenly budget £500 on a new shock. And it'll still have the same power as it did before.

Talk to your insurance company, you can't test ride an SV1000 simply because the shop's insurance doesn't cover you. Will your insurance cover it for a day? (If you're TPO / TPFT consider the cost of dropping the bike while on a test).

You can get more out of an SV650 but for it to solve what you want you need to be very specific about what you want to change and what sort of money you're happy to spend.

Jambo

Originally Posted by jambo

You can get more out of an SV650 but for it to solve what you want you need to be very specific about what you want to change and what sort of money you're happy to spend.

Jambo

Well the power mods are above... Just pretty basic stuff for now.

At the moment im still looking for infomation, like what i can change and/or remove from the bike weight wise. How much power a cirtain item will gain, oh and im not looking for out and out power, more mid range, though a increase across the range is good .

The prices is something else that im wondering about... i know the cost of stuff like Power commander and air filters, but anything else that gets recomended then well im interested to know.

I might well see about the insurance! I think at the very best ill be waiting till next insurance year (in feb) before i go test riding again.

The reason im not major fussed about going for another bike is like i mentioned somewhere, my fiends SVthou wasnt that much quicker than my sv650, it was only over 120MPH that he started to pull on me by a margin. N' to be honest as a whole im happy with the setup i have atm, but as bits (suspension) gets tired then i wast to know what effect a major change might have...



Suppose ill just end up testing another bike and falling for it, i dont know...

[northwind]

The thing about weight loss is that chopping bits off a bike absolutely wrecks the resale value, and a lot of it isnt very reversible. That, and it'll be hard to really get the weight down. Ditching the exhaust makes a big difference straight away, but then you start to get into diminishing returns, particularily on a road bike. So, if you've got any thoughts of selling in the future, it might not be that good a move.

Suspension on the other hand, keeps its value well- a used Ohlins shock will generally fetch 3/4 of its new value for instance, and springs and emulators sell well too. The jury's out on the impact of a front end swap, I don't think it makes a lot of difference myself, it would put some buyers off but it probably doesn't actually impact the sale price badly I suspect, it just makes it harder to make the sale.

Power, well... The SV's generally said to be able to deal with 80bhp without significantly reducing its lifespan, that's obviously a rule of thumb but it seems to be born out. Mine sits at just over 80, but one thing that I've found is that day to day, it doesn't actually feel that powerful. If I ride a standard one followed by mine, the standard one feels heavy, wheezy and peaky, but if you add 5bhp, in a month you'll take it for granted again. It doesn't really make that much difference in the real world.

Obviously, I'm not the one to lecture on keeping things standard Mine in bits is worth about 3 times what it is whole, at a guess... But I decided very early on that I was keeping it for the long run, so it's just not a concern for me.

Yea i can understand what you are saying with the power. But i think the standard setup has a bit of a hole in the middle of the power curve, do id like to turn it around so that the mid is the strongest part, as this is the part you use most of the time (as im sure you know).

Hmmm well the weight thing is an interesting one, i wouldnt want to go as far as making the resail drop such a large amount obviously. I think i will see what the insurance poeple think to me changing the forks and brakes N' see if a power commander will effect things while im at it.

Insurance is the thing which will be keeping me held back... sucks dont it!

[northwind]

I'd expect a remap should get around the hole in the middle to some extent, and should also make the bike generally a bit more responsive. Speak to people like JHS and Steve Jordans about this, I think Steve Jordan would recommend the Teka reflash rather than a PC but don't quote me.

Ignition advancer might suit you nicely... I've never been that convinced as to its merits to be honest, it did feel much better to me in the midrange but perhaps that's psychology. Here's a JHS dyno curve



Though with my skeptic's hat on... I'm sure mine made no more peak power. TWF (formerly from SV Rider) is one person I always listen to, and he reckons it's a waste of time. Others disagree. But, I liked it, the butt dyno can be deceitful but even if it was just psychology it was a well spent £20