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By BigThumpa July2004:
1998 and I get a job in Bristol, 100 miles from my North Devon home
and centre of traffic chaos in the South West. An ideal excuse to
justify my second return to motorcycling. I start out (again) with a
10 year old GS500E but soon see the forthcoming SV650S in the
motorcycle press. Launch reviews read as good as it looks and I
reckon one day it’ll be mine.
A year or so goes by and the demands of a bigger mortgage and a
young family mean a 5 year old Bandit 600S is the best I can do but
still I hanker after the SV650. The Bandit was good but not good
enough!
2001 and it’s time to cash in the share options, make the kids wear
last year’s school uniform and starve for a month (hey – the then
wife could do with losing the weight!). A new black SV650S is sorted
at Fowlers and my path is set. A few weeks later I find the
fledgling website of JHS Racing, who are actually on my route to
work and specialise in SV tuning/performance work. Temptation that
will continue, as you’ll see.
I was absolutely chuffed to bits with the 650, and rode it
everywhere for over 2 years, not even beginning to imagine what
could replace it. Then the new SVs were released. I thought they
looked horrible, but a 1000cc ….. hmmmmm….(fuller story at
www.mbrads.co.uk)
Like many new looks, it starts to grow on me until, one day, “I’ll
just ask what the deal could be like on a p/x..” Well, the deal was
better than I could have imagined. Even though the 1000 was still up
at £6000 in June 2003, the offer of £3300 for my 12,000 mile 650,
returned to standard (I sold all the mods on eBay for a further
£900) was too good to refuse. Sitting at the desk in the dealer’s we
get to the vital question; “What colour?” Ooh, blue. No, silver. No,
blue. Get up, wander round showroom and look at both. Blue. No,
definitely silver. Sorted.
Even then I knew the ‘snow shovel’ had to go. And I definitely
needed crash protectors, having tested the ones I had fitted to the
650 twice. JHS fitted them before the bike had ten miles on the
clock. Keeping the revs under 6,000 is no hardship, this thing just
goes! In top, that’s still almost 100mph. I ride it everywhere to
get it run in, including the SV forum South rideout in September.
Then comes a downer: Two weeks after the rideout my SV is stolen
from outside my office. It’s found the next morning only a 100 miles
away, partly hidden. I reckon they intended to come back for it in
daylight. It’s in a sorry state: Damage to disc (it was disc locked)
mudguard, rim and calliper from the attempts to get the lock off
(which succeeded after 7 minutes). In their crude attempts to smash
the ignition lock in the dark they hit the top yoke, tank, clocks
and fairing before breaking the lock off. To gain some play in the
now damaged front brake they smashed the brake fluid reservoir (doh!).
To get the steering lock freed they kicked the bars, tearing the
steel pin of the lock through the alloy headstock and writing off
the frame. To try to hotwire it they then ripped the saddle off from
the back, trashing that. To get at some wire to short out a circuit
they ripped an indicator off. Then to finish it off it looks like
they dropped it. Total repair bill? £4700. By this time the new
price is down to £5249, so it’s a write-off. The replacement gets a
Datatool System 3 fitted straightaway. The theft took place not 10
yards from the entrance to my office with people passing all the
time, so I reckon an alarm would have saved it.
Right, time to run in again. Well, for 300 miles or so, anyway. In
the meantime on goes another set of crash protectors.......
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a double bubble screen.......Norms rad grills,
and stainless bar end weights
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I keep hassling Norm (Andy) for his fender
eliminator as that rear mudguard has to go, and he eventually comes
up trumps.
Well, another visit to JHS and I’m persuaded to free the noise with
a set of M4 cans. Fruity! And the dyno is encouraging, even with
only 300-odd miles on the clock! Peak power up from 103.4 to 107.7
at the wheel, and torque up from 66.6 to 67.7. Nice, but I want
more!
James is very persuasive. “What about the Pipercross filter kit?” he
says. “Oh go on then” in for a penny, in for several hundred pounds!
Now the dyno is really talking:
Peak power up to 112.2 and torque up to 72.3. That’ll do nicely.
Back to the cosmetic mods: clear indicator lenses, black
powder-coated wheels, seat cowl, remove the grab-rail, and when
Flipper strips his SV ready to buy the Aprilia I get in quick and
get his alloy reservoir lids. There’s also an Acumen Digi gear
indicator and Fenda-extenda.
A set of Chewy’s angled can spacers tidy up the rear view nicely and
make it easier to push the bike backwards into my side path. Then a
few days later I’m looking at the unused hanger spacers thinking
“They’d do a good job of raising the front of the tank”, and hey
presto Chewy has a new product line!
Finally, and most recently, the GSXR 1000 rear shock.....
....and 41 tooth gold sprocket.
I’d like to think that that’s it now, and so would my bank manager,
but I have a feeling the mods may continue. I don’t know what’s next
though – maybe a paint job?………watch this space!
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