Curvy or Pointy

Drew

Hi mate, i had this trouble about 3 years ago when i was buying my bike. I liked the curvy but was being steered towards the pointy, mainly by the cool as hell tail light i think. And the welding on the curvey doesn't look up to much either. But in the end all i had to to do was sit on both and my mind was made up. For me the pointy is just too, well, pointy. The tank feels narrower and squashes your bits. So my advice is just sit on both of em, shut your eyes and see which one feels the best! Hope this helps somehow...

Si

[Lissa]

Originally Posted by kwak zzr

after seeing your curvey lissa ive looked at 2 since binning the pointy tho

Good man

Although I'd then have some really stiff competition in the clean curvy stakes

Originally Posted by Lissa

Good man

Although I'd then have some really stiff competition in the clean curvy stakes

muw hoh hoh hoh that means my clean pointy competition would be gone

[Lissa]

Originally Posted by SmudgeK3

muw hoh hoh hoh that means my clean pointy competition would be gone

Pointies are better dirty anyway, it hides their ugliness!

thats it im fitting a flame thrower to the front of my bike and when i see you next its gonna be roast lamb for dinner, although i can understand ladys liking the curvey cos the pointys a mans bike

Then again cheaper isn't allways worse, take the AK47 Vs the AK74M for example:
The original AK47 used a reciever milled from a solid lump of metal which was expensive/complicated to manufacture not to mention heavy.
The updated version of the AK47 (the AK74M) now uses a much cheaper reciever which is stamped from a single sheet of metal, not only is it cheaper, lighter more reliable it's stronger too!
Cheaper shouldn't really be looked as as worse, just efficient, which is what the Japanese are all about.

I don't get why you people are going off about how the frame is entirely a cost cutting measure, seems you are missing the point. Every review I've read that compares the old with the new has said that the new frame is BETTER, eg.

In addition to new styling, the little SV's skeleton is updated, utilizing a combination of a sand-cast steering head, high-vacuum-mold die-cast main spars and a die-cast pivot section that represents a five percent increase in rigidity over the original chassis.

you can't tell a curvey owner nothing mate there so jealous of us pointy owners lol don't no why all they have to do is save up

[northwind]

You can't tell me that reviewer put the frame in a jig and tested it though... That's marketing spiel reguritated from a press release. Most race builders would say that the curvy frame is stiffer where it counts. Thing is, both are more than stiff and strong enough- making the frame stiffer in places where it's already strong enough would make no difference. Making it stiffer in places where flex is desired would actually be a disadvantage. The pointy frame's a lot simpler in construction, so I suppose it could be the case that it's also simpler in rigidity.

Flex is a tricky subject, because stiffer doesn't equal better. Look at the SP-2, the swingarm's more flexible than the SP-1 because the original was actually too stiff. Lateral flex effectively acts as suspension when the bike's leaned over- a totally rigid frame wouldn't work well over bumps when leaned. But vertical flex makes the bike feel vague and disconnected, and frame twist makes it feel like there's a hinge in the middle.

Road racing bikes quite often have stiffness added to some frame parts, while others are actually weakened, to make the bike more pliant while also making it stronger... Remember that picture of Guy Martin taking a hacksaw to a bike in the pits, to increase lateral flex? E

Though as I said, it's basically irrelevant, frame stiffness is a big deal on a race bike but on an SV with wet noodle forks filled with pen springs, it's just not a consideration as logn as it's not totally inadequate. On both bikes it's better than it has to be, and IMO the most sensitive rider in the world won't feel any difference unless the suspension's substantially upgraded. The same review that you quoted from concluded that it was the tyres that were making the difference to the handling. They're both surprisingly good frames consideringthe package, and that's one of the reasons the SV is so upgradable- the 2 basic irrelplacable components are both better than expected.

Or, once again, buy the one you like the look of, because they both do the same job almost identically.

why would they call it a rigid alloy frame if it wasnt rigid? and why would you want flex in a frame? shurely the point of the frame is to keep everything alined and held in place

except for the rider