re pointy tuning

A mate of mine is buying an 04 pointy and i want to find out what tuning is possible i have heard things about ignition retard eliminators and advancer woodruuf keys but im abit unclear as to weither these apply to pointys and curveys.
Also with the fitment of an aftermarket can and say a k&n air filter is a power commender nessasary to adjust the airfuel ratio and what sort of power gains can be expected with the various mods.

In peoples opinions is it better to spend the money on suspension mods to make it handle better as im not sure tuning makes alot of difference to svs as the gains are prity minimal arnt they?

thanks in advance for anyones views.

Just an opinion but my oh so humble one says yep, better to spend the money on suspension instead. Purely from a cost/performance angle I'd have thought a couple of hundred squid on improving the front would have a noticeable effect, wheras a couple of hundred spent on fettling won't necessarily produce an effect that's noticable.

Now ranging even further from opinion and into the realms of "I haven't a clue but will spout on about it further", I don't think you need a power commander, with the right kit and a dyno you can remap the stock ECU. Heavy stress on the word think.

And entering realms of complete guesswork, I'd guess you can get 5-15 more ponies out of the SV, perhaps a few more if you go big bore. But all that would cost a lot more than a new front end. I'm pretty sure my brain wouldn't be able to discern an extra 5hp, probably not even an extra 10.

Yep im in agreement with you there minimatt, would like to know about the timing retarder does this happen on the pointys?

[northwind]

The usual "fix" for the retard on the pointy is a total bodge, just removes the gear sensor as the retard only occurs in some gears. It's such a slight retard that it's not worth messing with the maps IMO.

Ignition advance is open to debate, depends what else you do to the engine. I reckon it was a good mod for me when I did it, now I suspect it's maybe costing me power.

Cams... Buy a set of curvy intake cams, stick them in your exhaust side, couple of horses and it'll rev for longer (the longer peak is much nicer than the extra power IMO). Very cheap, very easy, you can get used cams for under £50. From me Or, buy a whole motor with a wobbly bottom end and throw the rest away. You can get proper race cams, of course, but in terms of cost benefit the cheap way works well. Your OE cams are allegedly the same spec as the old Yoshimura stage 2 cam set for the curvy, though I can't say for sure if that's true.

There's not really massive gains from induction, and it's expensive for the benefit. I reckon it only makes sense as part of wider tuning, when it starts to benefit the other work. I don't know what the best parts are for the pointy, though. Spot of compression's easy enough, you can deck the heads by splitting the head gasket and using one less layer, safe and DIYable that. You can do 2, but you'll want to check clearances.

Personally I don't like the bigbores but that's a bit of a matter of opinion, there's too many have had bottom end trouble for me to put them in a road bike that I expect to last for years and which has to get me to work every morning, or to Germany and back. I'd put them in a track engine like a shot though, might do if I ever rebuild my spare... It's fairly cheap to do for very solid results.

Tuning an SV's a wee bit of an exercise in money wasting though, there's gains to get but they're not cheap and at the end of the day it'll still be an SV. An 80bhp rides exactly like a standard SV once you're used to it, I just don't feel the difference unless I go back to back. Doesn't mean I'm not going to go a bit further, but only because I'm a tweaker, not because it makes any sense

So yeah, suspension. Or, buy a thou or a GSXR

Hi Northwind
thanks for your informative post prity much what i expected tbh money better spent on suspension.
cheers
mark