K3's

Hey People,

I have a K3 and have been reading a bit about SV's in general and have picked up on a couple of things:

*They might have weak cranks, how common is crank failiure in this model year, how does it manifest it's self and how catastrophic can it be! Can I tell from chassis or engine numbers if I'm at risk?

*Seat angle, Why did they chjange this?

All replies greatfully received

Cheers Luke

dont worry about crank failiure the sv engines are strong, the seat angle lowered the seat on newer models.

Thanks for the prompt reply,

Was that all the seat alteration was to rectify, the seat height?

I think the bike has been lowered as the dog bones have a makers name on them, do people fit these to lower the seat height or change the geometry?

And while we're talking about seat angle, does this mean that exhaust link pipes are specific to the K3, high level ones must be I suppose!

Cheers Luke

alter the seat height or to re'locate the tool kit.

the dog bones lower the seat.

Ok,thanks!

It must change the geometry, how detrimental is it?

Luke

[jambo]

There is a fair amount of debate on all this.

The K3 was the first injected SV, and through the re-design the bike became taller at the seat, this hurt sales to people with shorter legs, so from K4 onwards the subframe was redesigned, lowering the tail.

Longer dog bones may have been fitted if a shorter person owned your SV before to help with this, they will alter the geometry and if you're of average height, I'd try and get some standard ones in there.

There are several stories of weak con-rods on K3s, but I'm never certain if people are getting confused with the first SV1000s or not. Either way it's not common, and you'll know if a bit of metal comes smashing out the front engine case of your SV, don't worry, it's dead easy to spot

Seriously though, I just wouldn't worry about it at all.

Jambo

Cheers Jambo,

I'm not the tallest person at 5'6" and I'm comfortable with it as it is at the moment! I probably fit into the shorter legged catagory to be honest, I will see whether I will want it to turn in more quickly soon enough, which is how lowering the rear will affect it I assume!? Can this be rectified by dropping the forks through the yolks to maintain the seat height and steepen the rake of the forks?

It's interesting that you say the weak point is reportedly the conrods, as all I have read is that the crank was the weak point!

("metal comes smashing out the front engine case") Is it usually that catastrophic?

Anyway thanks, my mind is almost set a little more at rest!

Cheers Luke

[rowdy]

Well I have a k3 and the weak spot on that was the crank, it snapped the end off about 3 inch from the chain side of the bike.
To be fair it was given a good thrash for a while leading up to the failure, I think most road bikes that have been ridden half sensibly should be ok, don't know how many minitwins that run k3 motors have suffered though.
The engine note did change slightly though for a few weeks prior to it breaking, but I had just changed my lid and put it down to different accoustics from the new lid. My bad!

Exhaust can does come up at a slightly higher level on the k3 in comparison to later models.

Don't worry too much, just keep an eye on the oil and coolant levels and don't go around bouncing it off the rev limiter and she'll be alright.

Edit: My bike was run on a dyno by the co founder of dynapro dynometers, and was told by him that some early k3's slipped through the net with a rev limit setting that was a thousand rpm higher than should have been. He didn't rev the bike to the limiter, but when asked by the dyno owner what it was safe to rev to he said these bikes have a rev limit of 10400rpm, whereas mine hits the limiter at 11400rpm, so being reved that 1000rpm higher than normal probably took it's toll on the engine in the end.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by rowdy

Well I have a k3 and the weak spot on that was the crank, it snapped the end off about 3 inch from the chain side of the bike.
To be fair it was given a good thrash for a while leading up to the failure, I think most road bikes that have been ridden half sensibly should be ok, don't know how many minitwins that run k3 motors have suffered though.
The engine note did change slightly though for a few weeks prior to it breaking, but I had just changed my lid and put it down to different accoustics from the new lid. My bad!

Exhaust can does come up at a slightly higher level on the k3 in comparison to later models.

Don't worry too much, just keep an eye on the oil and coolant levels and don't go around bouncing it off the rev limiter and she'll be alright.

I'm sure flymo or one of the other racers has said they use a k3 engine with no problems. I'm not really sure, personally I prefer the taller seat & I've ridden the bike like I ride all my bikes so if it goes bang, it goes bang. The bikes 6 years old I'll either be breaking it or popping another engine in, it won't be the end of the world.



*touch wood!*