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Joe S 04/2004 With the addition of the Yosh
3/4 system I feel I am pretty close to done with my SV, at least so
far as major mods go. I am still working on a muffler bracket that
will allow me to dump the passenger pegs entirely, just to further
clean up the rear end.
The fairing on it is a Givi, 755 I believe. I had to paint it to
match because all they offered was silver, black and flat black. My
feeling was that if I had to paint anyway I wanted to do a bit of
graphic work as well. I had always liked the idea of 'painted on'
number plates so decided to do that. Matching the Suzuki blue turned
out to be kind of a chore. Color-Rite supposedly sells it but many
people have told me their paint tends to be more along the lines of
'close' rather than match. My painter friend just kept working at it
until he got a very close match. The white that is
used is a pearl white just to give it a bit more pizazz. Doing the
tail section did not involve repainting the blue portion, instead we
sanded the section with very fine sandpaper, just enough to rough it
up, then laid out the graphics and painted it, sanded again then
reshot it with clear coat. If anyone attempts to do this be advised
that the Suzuki clear coat is very thin and its very easy to sand
through the clear and into the base paint, which is itself very
thin. If you do so then you are inviting a repaint.
The bar end mirrors are CRG Hind Sites, they are billet, very nicely
made, kind of expensive at about $55 each (with a discount). I like
them though, they clean up the look of the bike considerably and
offer a view that is much better than you would imagine for the size
they are. To get rid of the caps with the threaded mirror holes, I
simply got the corresponding part from the SV1000S.
The seat is a custom made affair by a place called Rich's in
Seattle. He has become pretty well known for his saddles so I was
pretty confident in getting a good job. It is covered in carbon
fibre leather and he spends a fair amount of time measuring you on
the bike before starting work. Generally they like to do ride in
appointments so you can take it out, ride a bit and make
adjustments. I couldn't do that but the result is still very good. I
now regularly ride the bike 300-400 miles a day in great comfort. I
could easily do more, just don't have the opportunity to do so very
often. It was an expensive mod at $400 but when we often spend much
more for mufflers that really do little more than make more noise
isn't comfort worth something?
The exhaust is, of course, the Yoshimura 3/4 system which I did in
conjunction with the K&N air filter and pulling the snorkel. I had
the stock ECU remapped with the Yosh tool and before and after dyno
runs done. The bike gained about 3 hp, now running at 109.3 hp.
Torque jumped only about 1 ft. lbs. and is at 69.7. On the baseline
dyno run you can clearly see a flat spot right around 5500 rpm.
After the exhaust is installed and remapped it is still there, if
anything slightly more exaggerated. The shop owner said that the
stock ECU just doesn't have enough adjustment to get rid of it, if
it were adjusted to correct the flat spot then it would be too rich
at high rpm. To really smooth it out I would need a Power Commander.
The good news though is that I really can't feel this flat spot when
riding the bike. Like every one else seems to comment the bike feels
to me like it pulls harder in the mid-range and, oddly, it seems to
run with a bit less vibration as well. The sound is definitely
improved, deep, throaty. I kind of wish I could hear one with twin
race type exhaust just to compare but it sounds very good to me. I
also am pleased at the very significant weight savings.
I would really like to get rid of the passenger pegs but to do so I
need to come up with a bracket to mount the muffler. If I could find
another right side passenger peg bracket cheaply I would just grind
off the peg mount and bungee cord hook then polish the whole thing
out. Unfortunately Suzuki wants $112 for this unit so I plan to look
into fabricating a bracket from aluminum or stainless.
I am also planning to add a hugger soon. I think it will be a
Pyramid Plastics carbon fibre model but its not set in stone yet. I
may also at some point change the bars to Renthals but I'm going to
ride the bike a little longer before I make any more changes.
I think that is about it. If you have any further questions please
ping me and I'll try and answer them.
I almost forgot about the Hamicad fender eliminator. Hard to say
enough about the quality of that part, excellent fit and finish and
adds (takes away?) so much.
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