gcrook
24/05/2005, 14:30
can't leave anything alone. Never have been able to. I just like bikes that are unique. I’ve been riding a really trick Honda NSR 250 and RVF 400 for the past few years. But this is the story of how my "make it special" approach has impacted a 2001 SV650S.
The SV is great! Love the V-twin. Always have. In fact, I had recently sold an RC 51 and was wondering what I'd get next. The RC 51 is a nice bike but unnecessarily fast for the street, at least the way I like to ride. Imagine riding an RC 51 and then hopping on an NSR 250. I found myself riding the RC 51 less and less. But I loved the power delivery of the V-twin. A friend of mine was racing AFM 650 twins and I started to pay attention to his SV and thought, "This is a great bike!" Then one day I just went down to the dealer and bought a 2001 SVS. I really like the SVS bodywork: not a full sport bike look, but some nice lines. It was perfect…for about 600 miles.
As most of you know, the stock SV could use a little help in the suspension and brake department. And I happen to have a group of buddies who own a shop here in northern California called Motomorphic (www.motomorphic.com). As the name implies, they can do just about anything to metal, preferably metal associated with motorcycles.
So this project began, innocently enough, with a front-end swap. If you couldn't tell, I'm a sucker for a pretty face. I could have upgraded the stock front end but was seduced by the inverted look. Had to have one on my SV. Motomorphic helped me source a complete 2001 GSX-R 1000 front end. I like the look of the gold tubes and the TiN on the sliders. Those 6 piston calipers look great, too.
The conversion is very straightforward:
remove the SV front end
press the SV stem out of the lower triple
weld it up then machine it to the appropriate size and
press it to the GSX-R 1000 lower triple
modify the GSX-R 1000 fork stops and
bolt the whole thing back on
During the conversion, I thought I'd need to get a set of TL-S bars to get the same rise and clearance as the SVS bars. It turns out that the stock GSX-R 1000 bars work fine. They are about 1" lower but all the controls and cables clear everything just fine.
OK, that's the front. I then installed a Penske 3-way adjustable on the back. Done and done! And let me tell you what a difference it makes. The SV is transformed into the canyon carver it was always meant to be. Suzuki should have made it this way in the first place. Plus, visually, the whole front end looks more balanced. I always thought the SVS needed something "meatier" than those skinny stock forks poking out from under that front fairing. And the gold TiNitride looks great against the blue of the bodywork. It stops a bit better than it used to, to say the least.
So, with the suspension sorted, I started thinking about the next set of modifications. I was surfing the web one day and I saw what was clearly a Photoshop-modified picture of a red SVS with an Agusta MV F4s tail pasted onto it. To me, it looked great. I thought, "Now we're talking!" and my search was on.
I have a buddy who calls me one day and says he found an Agusta F4 Strada tail, complete with seat, tail light, all the brackets, etc. I told him I’d take it. Next, I posted on an Agusta forum that I was looking for an F4 subframe. Turns out a number of F4 owners are being harassed by their girlfriends and are converting to the bi-posto set up. This requires different tail plastic, seat, etc. Anyway, I got a response from a guy in Florida who had done the conversion and ended up with a spare subframe. We agreed a price for the subframe (they retail for about $1000!) and during the conversation it came out the he also had the mono tail, seat, taillights, etc. Can you say SOLD!? I also posted for a set of stock MV mufflers. Well, this same guy contacts me and we agree a price for those. In the end, I found two complete tails (seat, tail light, etc) and two sets of stock mufflers. (Any ideas for what to do with the "spare" MV tail section/seat and exhaust?) For the record, the retail price for the MV parts alone is near $4,000. I was fortunate to have paid significantly less than that.
So, I had all the parts I needed for the tail and exhaust conversion but in order to fit the exhaust, I first needed a single sided swing arm. Motomorphic to the rescue!
You may have figured out that Motomorphic was the key to this project. I fancy myself the ‘idea/design’ guy but Motomorphic did all the machining and fabrication work and sourced a bunch of the interesting stuff. Like the complete Honda RC 30 swing arm/eccentric/rear brake set up, etc.
They had previously installed a VFR 750 swing arm on their shop SV (see their website for pics) but to my eye, the RC 30 arm, which is about 1" thicker in terms of it's visual height, looks more appropriate on the SV. Plus, I much prefer the way it carries the rear brake caliper underneath, rather than on top of the swingarm. I think it makes for a much cleaner look. But let me tell you, it was a big job to fit.
First, the RC 30 linkage is ‘backwards’ from the SV. That is, the swingarm itself lacked the boss that the SV dog bones fit up to. The whole underside of the arm had to be hogged out and then a block/plate was fabricated and fit to make it work. Then the hole that the shock fits through had to be moved over and back and then re-plated. It took better than 22 hours of machining and fabrication work just to get the swing arm on.
Now, those of you who want a single sided swingarm on your SV, have no fear. The mid '90s VFR 750 arm comes with the boss set up essentially the way you need it. All that’s required is to widen the boss and fit the appropriate bearings. OK, it requires a bit more than that but it's a great deal easier and faster to fit than the RC 30. The Motomorphic SV has the VFR arm on it and it was a far simpler mod. Ah, the joys of "going first!" Anyway, the RC 30 arm looks great, it fits great and it works great. It confuses people when they first see it. Most people ask if it's a Ducati swing arm. I guess because they recognize the rear wheel as Ducati. Plus, based on my conversations with people, it appears that not many people know what an RC 30 is - can't blame them, how many people have even ever seen one?
To finish off the swing arm, I had a custom, one-off carbon chain guard made by a local composite fabricator.
Then it was time for the rear wheel. I wanted to keep the look consistent with the GSX-R 1000 3-spoke front wheel. Motomorphic sourced a Ducati 916 wheel, which interestingly, has the same 4-shear pin spacing, etc. as the RC 30. Go figure. Anyway, the chain line was figured as we fit the swing arm so all we had to do was to fabricate a spacer to get the rear wheel alignment right. That pushed the wheel to the right far enough that we had to machine the RC 30 wheel nut spacer to work with what was now a ‘shorter’ axle. We also machined the thrust side of the spacer to fit the Ducati wheel. The whole idea with all this is that I can now run a standard Ducati rear wheel. Can you say 5-spoke Dymag Carbon…? Soon, my friends, soon…
The SV is great! Love the V-twin. Always have. In fact, I had recently sold an RC 51 and was wondering what I'd get next. The RC 51 is a nice bike but unnecessarily fast for the street, at least the way I like to ride. Imagine riding an RC 51 and then hopping on an NSR 250. I found myself riding the RC 51 less and less. But I loved the power delivery of the V-twin. A friend of mine was racing AFM 650 twins and I started to pay attention to his SV and thought, "This is a great bike!" Then one day I just went down to the dealer and bought a 2001 SVS. I really like the SVS bodywork: not a full sport bike look, but some nice lines. It was perfect…for about 600 miles.
As most of you know, the stock SV could use a little help in the suspension and brake department. And I happen to have a group of buddies who own a shop here in northern California called Motomorphic (www.motomorphic.com). As the name implies, they can do just about anything to metal, preferably metal associated with motorcycles.
So this project began, innocently enough, with a front-end swap. If you couldn't tell, I'm a sucker for a pretty face. I could have upgraded the stock front end but was seduced by the inverted look. Had to have one on my SV. Motomorphic helped me source a complete 2001 GSX-R 1000 front end. I like the look of the gold tubes and the TiN on the sliders. Those 6 piston calipers look great, too.
The conversion is very straightforward:
remove the SV front end
press the SV stem out of the lower triple
weld it up then machine it to the appropriate size and
press it to the GSX-R 1000 lower triple
modify the GSX-R 1000 fork stops and
bolt the whole thing back on
During the conversion, I thought I'd need to get a set of TL-S bars to get the same rise and clearance as the SVS bars. It turns out that the stock GSX-R 1000 bars work fine. They are about 1" lower but all the controls and cables clear everything just fine.
OK, that's the front. I then installed a Penske 3-way adjustable on the back. Done and done! And let me tell you what a difference it makes. The SV is transformed into the canyon carver it was always meant to be. Suzuki should have made it this way in the first place. Plus, visually, the whole front end looks more balanced. I always thought the SVS needed something "meatier" than those skinny stock forks poking out from under that front fairing. And the gold TiNitride looks great against the blue of the bodywork. It stops a bit better than it used to, to say the least.
So, with the suspension sorted, I started thinking about the next set of modifications. I was surfing the web one day and I saw what was clearly a Photoshop-modified picture of a red SVS with an Agusta MV F4s tail pasted onto it. To me, it looked great. I thought, "Now we're talking!" and my search was on.
I have a buddy who calls me one day and says he found an Agusta F4 Strada tail, complete with seat, tail light, all the brackets, etc. I told him I’d take it. Next, I posted on an Agusta forum that I was looking for an F4 subframe. Turns out a number of F4 owners are being harassed by their girlfriends and are converting to the bi-posto set up. This requires different tail plastic, seat, etc. Anyway, I got a response from a guy in Florida who had done the conversion and ended up with a spare subframe. We agreed a price for the subframe (they retail for about $1000!) and during the conversation it came out the he also had the mono tail, seat, taillights, etc. Can you say SOLD!? I also posted for a set of stock MV mufflers. Well, this same guy contacts me and we agree a price for those. In the end, I found two complete tails (seat, tail light, etc) and two sets of stock mufflers. (Any ideas for what to do with the "spare" MV tail section/seat and exhaust?) For the record, the retail price for the MV parts alone is near $4,000. I was fortunate to have paid significantly less than that.
So, I had all the parts I needed for the tail and exhaust conversion but in order to fit the exhaust, I first needed a single sided swing arm. Motomorphic to the rescue!
You may have figured out that Motomorphic was the key to this project. I fancy myself the ‘idea/design’ guy but Motomorphic did all the machining and fabrication work and sourced a bunch of the interesting stuff. Like the complete Honda RC 30 swing arm/eccentric/rear brake set up, etc.
They had previously installed a VFR 750 swing arm on their shop SV (see their website for pics) but to my eye, the RC 30 arm, which is about 1" thicker in terms of it's visual height, looks more appropriate on the SV. Plus, I much prefer the way it carries the rear brake caliper underneath, rather than on top of the swingarm. I think it makes for a much cleaner look. But let me tell you, it was a big job to fit.
First, the RC 30 linkage is ‘backwards’ from the SV. That is, the swingarm itself lacked the boss that the SV dog bones fit up to. The whole underside of the arm had to be hogged out and then a block/plate was fabricated and fit to make it work. Then the hole that the shock fits through had to be moved over and back and then re-plated. It took better than 22 hours of machining and fabrication work just to get the swing arm on.
Now, those of you who want a single sided swingarm on your SV, have no fear. The mid '90s VFR 750 arm comes with the boss set up essentially the way you need it. All that’s required is to widen the boss and fit the appropriate bearings. OK, it requires a bit more than that but it's a great deal easier and faster to fit than the RC 30. The Motomorphic SV has the VFR arm on it and it was a far simpler mod. Ah, the joys of "going first!" Anyway, the RC 30 arm looks great, it fits great and it works great. It confuses people when they first see it. Most people ask if it's a Ducati swing arm. I guess because they recognize the rear wheel as Ducati. Plus, based on my conversations with people, it appears that not many people know what an RC 30 is - can't blame them, how many people have even ever seen one?
To finish off the swing arm, I had a custom, one-off carbon chain guard made by a local composite fabricator.
Then it was time for the rear wheel. I wanted to keep the look consistent with the GSX-R 1000 3-spoke front wheel. Motomorphic sourced a Ducati 916 wheel, which interestingly, has the same 4-shear pin spacing, etc. as the RC 30. Go figure. Anyway, the chain line was figured as we fit the swing arm so all we had to do was to fabricate a spacer to get the rear wheel alignment right. That pushed the wheel to the right far enough that we had to machine the RC 30 wheel nut spacer to work with what was now a ‘shorter’ axle. We also machined the thrust side of the spacer to fit the Ducati wheel. The whole idea with all this is that I can now run a standard Ducati rear wheel. Can you say 5-spoke Dymag Carbon…? Soon, my friends, soon…