I have never been able to understand this …

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

Ok, so people like ‘tricking’ bikes up, be it purely for cosmetic or performance or both.

.......

You just like ranting about us "tweakers" don't you?

As standard SV's look pap IMO, so I made myself a bike that fits my purpose. I couldn't afford the cash I have put into my bike all in one, so it's been done over time and I like the result better than an older bike.

My 53 plate SV650K3 nekkid cost me £500 as an unrecorded very lightly damaged (dropped on one side) bargain. I've already got a stonking road bike (Daytona) that has a few minor cosmetic mods, so I am building the SV for trackdays only. My plan is to do the whole lot for under a grand, including purchase, and for that it'll be mint. A chunk of the cost will be offset by flogging the original parts not needed, like tailpiece plastics etc. I'll do all the work myself, including the repraying of fairing and tank, so that'll keep costs down. Things like a race shock will have to wait until the original is shot to bits, because I just don't want to afford to replace it with anything expensive. When it does require replacement it'll get a Gixer Thou K1/2 one to start, and if that's no good then I'll consider a Nitron or Ohlins and stick the Gixer one on eBay to get my money back.

Never in my wildest dreams would I spend the sort of money I see bandied about on the Gixer forums. Those guys spend upwards of a grand on paintwork alone, and then add in the cost of lightweight wheels and upgraded brakes etc. From what I've added up of some bikes they own, they've at least doubled the purchase price in parts alone. All this for absolutely no benefit whatsoever, because as far as I've seen, most of them still can't ride for sh!t and do about 1500 miles a year. 90% of them are too scared to do a trackday in case they have a fly splat on their new paintwork, or heaven forbid, pick up a stone-chip.

A year or so ago I sold a highly blinged, immaculate 2002 registered, 3 owner, Gixer 1000 K1 that had an HPI cat D against it - it had AP Racing calipers on PFM discs, Maxton shock and fork internals, Ohlins damper, Gilles rearsets, Gilles adjustable clip-ons, carbon fibre this and that etc etc, the list goes on and on. Thousands had been thrown at it before I saw it...and then the owner sold it to me for 3 grand because he needed the money. I kept it for a year put 10K miles on it, did trackdays, took it touring and hooned every day, then flogged it to a mate for 4 1/2 grand and bought a straight 2004 1 owner low mileage Daytona 955i SE with FDSH for 4 grand and bought my SV as well.

That's the way to own a blinged up bike. I love biking on a budget.

when i passed my test i looked at what bike i wanted like this.

it was between a sv650s and a gixer6

yeah i could afford the gixer but that was all. fantastic bike by the way

so i bought a sv and with the money i saved from not buying the gixer i spent on the sv, making her into the bike ive got now.my bike, not the bike anyone can buy from your local suzuki dealer. if i go to one of the many bike meets by me and theres another sv it wont look like mine,

if no-one modifed their bikes wouldnt it be a little strange everyone riding round on say totaly stock sv's and what would ppl who gather round modified bikes do at said bike meets if there was no mods to look at

yeah i might cost loadsa money and it may not add any extra value to the bike when i come to sell but i think its worrth it at the end of day cos im happy as pigs in s@@t with bike, well.............................................. .................................................. .......nearly

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

He kinda proves you don't need to spend thousands on tuning bits to win races at that level.

Well yeah, but if the playing field should equalise- ie, someone exactly as good turns up, with a better bike... Then all bets are off. Racing's full of fantastic riders on uncompetetive machines having to give 11/10ths to keep up with others on better machines- a great bike won't make a rubbish rider a winner, but it could make a 4th place rider into a winner. Right Sarah (sorry, couldn't resist)

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

Ok, so people like ‘tricking’ bikes up, be it purely for cosmetic or performance or both.

Bearing in mind the price of parts, this can run into many thousands of pounds very quickly.

So, potentially buy an SV for say £1500, spend say £2k on tricking it out with nice plastics, fancy exhaust, nice suspension wheels etc etc … bike is now worth say £1700-2k on a good day (sometimes diminishes value as it is too personalised) how can you justify that?

Also if you had/have £3.5k why didn’t you buy a ‘better’ bike in the first place??

I can see why some people might enjoy the customisation/personalisation (so you have the same mass produced can as 20,000 other ppl ) but how can you justify the expense surely KNOWING you are never realistically going to see anything but a fraction of that back??

I think expensive performance (power) mods make even less financial sense … why put a 700cc big bore kit and a full race system (what £2k all in?) on an SV650 for example? Where is the logic in that?

p.s. you do what you like with YOUR money, I am just curious that is all

IMHO it's probably relative to how much disposable dosh you have. I mean some people just want to modify anything they own so if you start off cheap well there you go.

All the mods I've done to my bike have only cost me about £300 thats after buying and selling parts so not to bad eh!

Originally Posted by Lozzo

Why?

Danny Imberg's doing quite well on a pretty much standard 2004 ZX10R. he certainly hasn't spent thousands on tuning and other performance bits. So far the list runs to:

MHP full exhaust system _£800 approx
Power Commander - £300 plus £100 min dyno setup
Quckshifter plugged into PC3 - £200
Rearsets (cheapies) - £120
Uprated bellmouths inside stock airbox - £100
WP shock - £750 min
WP fork springs - £300 inc work
Pretech calipers (not needed, but they were donated by sponsor)
Race tyres (slicks or wets depending on conditions)
F/glass bodywork - £300

He's still using standard wheels, fork externals and dampers, seat subframe, fairing bracket and clocks, clip-ons, seat, all electrics are still in and we could turn it back into a roadbike in about 2 hours. When you compare what he's spent against what Rob Ellsmere, Neil Faulkener or Steve Mercer have spent it's a pittance, and he's always up with them and beating them.

He kinda proves you don't need to spend thousands on tuning bits to win races at that level.

A quick run down of that list and he has spent £3000 minimum on those bits.

It aint cheap prepping bikes..if i had a GSXR1000 it would have similar put on it..hence a spend of a few thousands on top.

FYI Steve Mercers bike is as "stock" as Danny's as Steve is running Superstock spec so what you can add is minimal.

Originally Posted by northwind

Well yeah, but if the playing field should equalise- ie, someone exactly as good turns up, with a better bike... Then all bets are off. Racing's full of fantastic riders on uncompetetive machines having to give 11/10ths to keep up with others on better machines- a great bike won't make a rubbish rider a winner, but it could make a 4th place rider into a winner. Right Sarah (sorry, couldn't resist)

eye and in my class i need every inch of performance i can get from the SV and what i have spent has been worth it as its now a fantastic bike to ride and one thats capable of winning races in a field of trick Ducati 748's and has also raced and beaten plenty of bigger twins.

One other thing to consider with tricking up parts is replacing OE equipment with cheaper (but better) aftermarket equipment. It's often cheaper to buy an 'upgrade' than replace it with the suzuki parts.

I'd of like to upgrade my rear shock sooner, but couldn't justify the cost till my original one was on its way out. People might think it's mad to spend about 15% of the bike's current value on a new shock, but it was neccessary to make it rideable (it was getting to the stage where it was unsafe because of it) and it was either that or write off the value of the rest of the bike. Likewise, my exhaust is badly damaged and now rusting heavily. I imagine it won't be too long before it starts blowing. If/when it does, I'll buy an aftermarket exhaust to replace that and a K&N and remap at the same time.

Similarly, after a non-fault crash, you are paid out the value of replacing with suzuki parts. I don't see the harm in spending that money on other companies' parts, although on paper it might look like like you spent £1500 on aftermarket parts, that could be 'only' £1500 of a £2000 payout for repairs.

i just do the odd search on ebay for stuff i want, hence why im so lucky to have lots of nice trick bits for her at such a low cost.
my other excuse is i work in a bike shop-how i sell after market parts to customers if i dont know if they make the bike look good etc?? lol

If anything, our zx9 has had wayyy more spent tricking her up-most the aftermarket parts were from work, i spent at laest 1-2k on her