We mentioned before that Lancer kicked everyone's butt performance-wise up on the mountain trip -- none of our mods were even close to his performance-wise as not only was he swinging his normal sort of exhaust & carb mods but he had finagled himself some extra displacement and was running some sort of higher compression dual spark plug rig-up as well.   He had at least 50 something horses and a lot of extra torque too -- he kicked our butts right smartly.

Toymaker and I discussed this quite a bit that Sunday morning -- what it would take to make Lancer actually have to actually strain to beat us .....

If you can't whup 'um -- join them I always say.   Lancer's tricks can be copied, you know.

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My 2002 silver Wee Bagger is perfect just as she is, I wouldn't put her at risk in this effort as she runs even with the best the group can offer (with the exception of Lancer of course) and she is the quentissential around town quick handling light go-getter bike.  She stays the way she is, thank you very much.  My baby is perfect, and she stays that way.

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So, I bought me a junker 650, a rag bike, a sacrificial goat if you will to work my experiments on.  Bike sold for less than Kelly wholesale and had a very speckled history of repairwork and some light wrecks behind it.  

I bought it because it sounded good and I checked with the stealership mechanic who had just put a set of cam chain guides, chain and a new adjuster into the bike to make sure the clutch and everything else was healthy, and that the valves were correctly adjusted and the cam lobes weren't spauled.  It uses some oil, he said and had a hard 17,000 miles on it but had good compression and a solid clutch.

So, I got a solid junker basis to go on and a roadmap of the work to be done.  Are you interested in following along in detail, or should I just finish it and shoot a pic or two when it is all completed?

Oldfeller

Hmmm.. so you finally bought the SV650?

I really hope you'll like it. I assume you'll show us some pics soon?

Next, we need to talk geometry and crip old men.  Neither Lancer nor I are spry any more -- we crawled off our bikes, hobbled into a McDonalds and then had a bit of fun getting up out of the funky little seats when it was time go go again.  

Study the geometry a bit and you will see that the new bike has to be lowered 3-4 inches to get into seat height parity with a Savage.




To finish doing the deed, you need a good lowering kit like this one




Lastly, you need to consider the seat itself.  Fortunately, the used bike came with a Suzuki Gel Seat already mounted on it.




Seat feels neat, it is full of squishy stuff and your butt snuggles right down into it.  Seat was a nice extra to have come ready equipped, as was the Two Brothers High Performance sports exhaust and K&N air filter.  Bike is already rejetted and tuned for same and the exhaust pipe is not blued or purpled so whoever did it did a good job.

Note the foot pegs, they are approximately the right height but are not positioned in the cruiser standard position by any means.   SV's make you lay down on the tank on purpose by rocking your leaning position forward a good bit.  The padded tank bra is supposed to make this more comfortable, but I am not used to the idea yet.  

Yet, both Lancer and I had to lay on our tanks to stretch out our backs out and on the trip back home on Sunday I expect I spent more time laying down on the tank than sitting up.

Lastly, the gastly clip ons ......



I don't think I will be able to live with these rather expensive optional clip ons.  The standard SV bars are akin to the S40 straight bars and there are other dirt bike bars that SV people use to straighten up their bodies some.  Bluntly, my arms are not long enough for this set of clip ons.

195/45R17?

What kind of rear wheel do you fit ? I thought we had a 15" ...

About the tire profile, are you sure you can actually get the bikje to lean on a /45 profile ?

I thought you were going to get a standard 165R15...

Or maybe a 185/70, but not any lower ...

Mescapatori, we are talking Sportster killers here -- Lancer's Sportster to be specific -- and unless you are going to put a heavy hitting nitrous kit into your Savage (and invent a new clutch system) you ain't gonna be doing that with your 650 Suzuki Savage ==== but you can with your Savage Suzuki SV650 (a different sort of savage 650cc bike made by Suzuki).




I'm 5'6" tall with legs that don't want to bend all that much and arms that like to tear on their rotator cuffs if they get a good chance.  I have some issues that bear consideration in this effort, so you can understand some of the strange choices I make.

I am going to fix the bike so I don't have to do the "ongoing pushup" routine ever at all.  I can do this by either straightening up the seating position or by making the tank into a reclining bed.  Either way would work and the reclining bed would be better for longer trips, so I'll try that first.

First step is to get rid of the clip ons -- final pick on the handle bars will depend on final choice in riding position.  Of course, it is easier/less expensive to move the bars rather than the footpegs, so we start there first.

But it will still build up to be a right smart Sportster killer, don't you think?  Tire will lower the bike an additional 1/2" and lower the stock gearing ratio a by a tiny bit.  Previous owner claims 140 mph was achieved by the bike with him on it, so I am looking to see 125-130 mph with a 200 pound and a 20 hp advantage in getting there.  Oh, and at least a $1,000 plus advantage in the purchase cost, too.

(that's the part that will make Old Yoda happy ....   that and the practically immortal $69 rear tire. )

Hey Oldfeller. how 'bout some pics of your progress?

Look at the post above.  To the right of the shiny new foot pegs, you see the shiny new 3 position dog bones getting their first coating of chain lube.  This lowered the bike to the right level.  The Buell pegs lowered the foot position.  The shifter lever is bent six different new ways to put the shifter peg out where it can be used.  All custom work here.

Progress goes slowly, as issues have to be identified, solutions identified, parts located, parts bought & shipped, the new parts reworked and then installed.  For example, I bought a new handle bar, but it wasn't right so I had to ship it back -- then posted for a 6-8 year old stock part that may not be available anywhere right off the bat (only exists holding up the wall in somebody's shop in Podunk somewhere).  Slow going.  No one admits to having a stock part (squid shame prevents such behavior) plus squid bikes tend to move around from owner to owner quite frequently leaving all the old stock parts behind.

Issues/solutions example:  for example, the Buell pegs are using the stock Suzuki return springs -- these are too weak and the pegs move up due to your shoe sole sticking into the rough knurly surface texture (my shoes do, anyway).  Solution could be to pick up a second pair of return springs and put them in place as there is room enough to have two springs per foot peg.  Squid kids simply don't have this issue because they are not crip old men.

This isn't going to be a quick fix project -- a squid bike is basically incompatible with this old man's body.  The old man's body has got to give some and the bike has got to give some in order to make the match up work.

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SV650 is a squid bike, make no bones about it.  You are supposed to hang out off each side of the bike like a reesus monkey to take a "full lean turn with good body form".  Ha, that ain't gonna happen.

You wanna hear about my first attempts to do a stoppie or a wheelie?  I am too fat to do a stoppie -- front tire will skid before the back end (and my big butt) will come up off the ground.  Wheelies in first are easy with the longer touring handle bar in place -- just pull the fat ol' body mass back up over the rear wheel and goose it in first gear.  

Problem is it makes absolutely no sense -- first gear runs out too soon.

Engine has great torque, so much so that rolling off the throttle after pulling a little wheelie will skid the soft gummy back tire.  Engine braking on this light a bike has lots of discussion on it as a squid topic as it is so abrupt and severe it poses a body hazard if it has been raining and the roads are slick.  And that is the squiddlies talking about excessive engine braking, much less us crip old men.

Remember, this bike weighs just a little tad more than a Savage does.  It is physically longer, but has LOTS of aluminum and light weight plastic in the major construction pieces.  Squid folks worry a lot about weight (they actually complain about the weight of the steel sparklers on the Buell pegs as it is unnecessary dead weight).  The engine is powerful and has great torque characteristics, both in going forward and in slowing things down.

Rear brake is strong compared to a Savage.  Front brakes (dual large rotors, large 2 piston caliper units) are completely insane compared to a Savage.  Thank God the stock front brakes are intentionally metered at the point you have to use white knuckle force to get all that there is to have out of the front brakes -- some out there in squid land have replaced the master cylinder with a GSXR unit to get two finger braking force at these full insane levels .... dangerous !!

The bike is completely driveable with increased power levels compared to either my Savage or my XV535, at less than 5,000 RPM.  So, at Savage level engine speeds it clearly outperforms.

However, the engine redlines at 10,500 rpm and the engine is fairly linear output-wise right up to redline.  Pipe makes a nice loud squid bike howl over 6,000 rpm ...  Third gear (out of six gears) is good for just short of national speed limit if you were to wind it out all the way to the rev limiter.  But why would you want to do that?

There are two bikes sitting here -- one is a low rpm torquer that gets you around town like a slightly stronger Savage
(at an equivalent 50 plus MPG gas mileage, BTW).  

The other one?  The one that comes up over say 7,000 rpm?  People write quotes about him.

"The SV is like the quiet kid in the corner that nobody plays with. He's harmless until you poke him with a stick... then he becomes ugly, angry, and stabs you in the face with a golf club. - ASCSurveyor"

"You're making me angry.  You won't like it when I'm angry ...." - Dr. Bruce Banner