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Preload Apr2005 First
Bike 1999 Suzuki LS650 Savage then a 1995 Kawasaki Concours and now
- Margarita Blue 2003 Suzuki SV1000
It's a wonderful bike. Responsive yet stable, strong, really
exciting, although the knock is worrisome.
The forks and rear shock are fully adjustable (preload, rebound
and compression). I tried changing the settings a little at a time
and just confused myself, so a friend advised me to take Gary
Jaehne's suspension workshop at
Doc Wong's.
Doc is a self-described motorcycle nut here in the Bay Area who
sponsors numerous rides and workshops. Gary is a several-times
champion racer who also
writes
and teaches riders how
to enjoy their bikes. In two evening sessions, he showed us how to
setup our bikes properly and did a great job. I had it riding stiff
for a while but used what Gary taught me to smooth out the ride
without compromising the handling.
The knock! Some SV1000 and 1000S engines develop a
very loud knocking noise at low RPMs when the engine is hot; it
might go away at higher RPMs, but it's hard to tell. No one has
reported any damage or breakdowns resulting from the knock. Riders
in Great Britain have reported that Suzuki replaced engine bearings
under warranty, but riders in the US are not getting the same result
from Suzuki America.
For more on the knock, see the
SV1000 Archive and the
thread entitled "The knock ... the final thread" at the
SV1000 Portal.
Finding a windshield that would fit the bike
wasn't easy. The instrument cluster on the SV1000 is mounted above
the headlight instead of behind it, so it gets in the way of most
fairings and 'shields. You need one that mounts almost vertical.
The National F15 Sport
Shield works well. It matches the look of the bike, attaches
fairly easily, and deflects the air off chest and hands the way I
wanted. I can tune the air flow by changing the angle of the 'shield
just a little. I had to make two changes to the
fittings:
-
The windshield brackets clamp to the headlight
brackets. Fittings on the headlight brackets get in the way, so I
cut each 'shield bracket and bent it enough to clear them.
-
The windshield bolts to the brackets, but
National provides large polished fittings that look really bad
against the black of the 'shield. I replaced them with parts from
the local hardware store, all of them black to match the 'shield:
Allen-head bolts, small stiff faucet washers, large rubber washers
against the plastic.
The stock mirrors looked clunky. The
EMGOs look sharp but
they vibrate a lot, are flat and too close to the center of the
bike, so I'm still hunting for replacements. The
Suzi has a single round headlight, and driving on dark roads is like
driving through a dim tunnel. These
FET CATZ XSLs light
the road ahead and to the sides, even in corners. They're mounted on
the fork tubes, using steering damper brackets. They have a round
beam with a 75º spread and they're aimed slightly to the side and
up.
The Savage had soft saddle bags and the Connie hard ones, but
neither were as useful as this
Givi E460 topcase.
It's good for chores around town as well as touring. It's big and
well-made, it's mounted and removed easily, and it's very secure
once mounted.
Givi did a good job of aligning the topcase frame with the bike's
style lines but it's still sorta ugly, and attaching it was a pain
in the butt. The frame's not coming off until I figure out a new way
to attach it.
In the photo showing the Givi on the bike, you can also see the
Fenda-Extenda. It's the black portion of the front fender. It
catches all the stones, debris and tire schmutz that would otherwise
dent the fins of the water radiator. Debating the best way to attach
a Fenda-Extenda keeps email lists going for days. I attached it with
epoxy glue and no screws; clean off the inside of the fender with
alcohol first.
This modification will make sense to SV owners but maybe no one
else.
The passenger seat has to be removed with two hands, which is a
nuisance because you often have something in your hands when you're
removing the seat. I bought a spring at the local hardware store,
cut it in half, and popped each half into the big rubber stoppers. I
bent the cut ends just a little so they wouldn't dig into the seat.
Now the seat pops up and I can remove it with just one hand.
Even better, I don't have to remove the seat at all to lock up the
helmet. I hooked a key ring around the built-in helmet hook and
taped it to keep it in place. In the closeup of the Givi frame, you
can see it sticking out from under the seat. Okay,
this is funky, I admit. The standard footpegs hurt my feet after a
few hours' riding. I could buy boots with thicker soles, I suppose
... or cut a cheap handgrip in half and tape each half over a peg.
These have lasted 700+ miles so far but they're obviously not a
long-term solution.
The Hayabusa pegs look pretty comfortable. Anyone know if they'll
fit? Email me.
Other modifications include a
Kisan headlight modulator, a
Signal Dynamics brake light
flasher, a Tankslapper
tank protecter, and
FIAMM horns. I also added white reflective tape on the chassis
and fork tubes, red reflectors on the swing arm, and nipped off the
red reflector on the rear fender and remounted it below the license
plate.
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