John,

Well the weather in Canada is finally clearing up. Here in Calgary the snow is all gone and the temperature is getting progressively warmer. SVen (My >SV) is still at home in the garage waiting for me. I will be done with regular classes on the 13th and should be back home riding the SV after exams on the 28th of April. It's hard walking past all the parked sport bikes here on campus. Since I cannot ride, I have been reflecting on last years photos. I played around with a couple of them and thought I would share. ;) Hope you enjoy them and that things are well in the UK. Take care,

Mitch

You can see one of Mitch's images on this month front page. I'm saving the other for another time ;-)

Here my SV 650 S, 2004

Enjoy !

PIT.

This is how I get some emails. I've posted the photo out of interest. I can't say I enjoyed, the seat is horrible, as is the tank cover. each to their own.

Hi John,

here I attach you some of my favourite SV650S pics... it's the best bike for make in love with girls He He He !!!

But... 5 days ago, I had a terrible accident crash, because a CRAZY car driver, makes an illegal 180º turn that made me turn another side fast but crash!

Now, I am repairing my bike and I hope I can send you more pics early.

Please, reply me about when you put my pics and comments.

Thanks,

Sergio from Barcelona

I wrote back asking how he was himself, looking at the state of the bike you can't help but wonder at the rider. He replied.

Yes, the great damage is the deposit, but chasis is OK. 1.200 € is the cost of their repair.

Thanks from Barcelona, Spain,

Sergi

Hi John,

Seems a bit weird that this is the first email I’ve sent you, considering I’ve been knocking around on the forum for a while now…

Following up on a thread in the forum where someone had come across an accident, I thought it might be useful to send you this handout which I was given when I attended a First Bike on Scene course with Lancashire Ambulance Service – perhaps you could upload it to the main site? It is only a summary of what is taught in greater detail on the course, but is informative nonetheless.

The course is well worth attending as it gives a lot of information and teaches a lot of skills that may literally save someone’s life. I’m certainly glad I went, but thankful I haven’t yet had to use any of the things I learned.

Hopefully see you at AR06! J

Cheers,

Andy (El Saxo)

Not the sort of thing we want to think about too much, but sadly the dark side of biking. This kind of information is invaluable should you ever be involved in this situation. Sorry they're upside down. I had a lot of problems with these files and it seems best to right click and save target on these.

Been a keen viewer of your site for some time, before I had my SV and was riding an ER-5. I have had my K2 for four years now….love it….

Was looking through some Pics from fantastic place in Wales….and thought this was a pretty good pic to contribute to your site images (managed to get rid of the car out of the background too with a bit of photo-editing

Keep up the good work & bikin’

Evz

Yes I liked this shot, nice bold colours, no background clutter and a nice jaunty angle.

John

Thanks for all the help with the manuals. I now have the complete set and will print and bind the lot for future reference. I took delivery of my new blue SV on Tuesday afternoon at 16:00 and so my first ride was in the late afternoon traffic. Not ideal........

This bike brings a couple of firsts for me; First bike with fuel injection, First bike in 30 odd years shod with Dunlop tyres (all my other bikes have had Michelin, Metzeler, Yokohama or Bridgestone's...). Are these Dunlop's any good ? First bike that's had a clock on it, First bike with digital instrumentation.

So far first impressions are good, although the foot pegs do feel a little higher than the old model and I do seem to be sitting a little further forward. I will see after a longish ride which I will undertake soon. Currently my commute to work is just 14 Km's each way mostly in traffic. The bike also seems to pull very strongly from low down the rev range (the dyno chart did show more torque low down the rev range) and also seems to want to rev rather freely for a new engine that should be tight. Still to come are a double bubble screen, a rear wheel hugger and a K&N air filter. I intend fitting the air filter only once the engine has some mileage on it. The K&N that I fitted to my old bike made a major difference in lowering the fuel consumption as well as improving the roll on throttle response. So I will see how this one does. I will let you know how things get on.

 Regards,

Dave Loubser

Just in case you hadn't seen this image on the forum, I'm posting it again here. I wrote to the creator, Steven Spitera in Malta and this was his reply.

Thanks for your kind comments John.

I've also fitted a pair of Ohlins springs to my brother's SV along with thicker oil as he's a bit loftier than me which improves things a lot for him. I'm not decided on which route to take on improving suspension yet. TRAXTON have the best solution but are a bit expensive. I'm happy with what I've done for the mo so will enjoy what I've got for the time being.

I hope to take some better pictures next weekend so maybe you'll have something for the main site's homepage ok.

Steven

Hi John,

I'm not quite sure how much time you get to browse the forums yourself, but I have posted a fitting guide for Oxford Hotgrips on the K3>. I thought / hoped you might consider putting it in the goodies section for the benefit of others. Anyway you can download a copy from http://www.independentphoto.co.uk/media/sv650/FittingHotGrips.pdf 

Cheers,

Garry

Very useful and comprehensive. I'll add a copy to the FAQ section and also here. Thanks for sending this in.

A quick update from previous e-mail and photos of June 2005. Now have a pair of Bridgestones, BT 020 on rear and BT010 on front (better than OE Metzlers)

Paint work on tank and front fender by my brother in law ( www.gscustomdesigns.co.uk ). Hope to upgrade forks with progressive springs and fit some braided hoses.

Gordon Bruce, Blairgowrie, Scotland.

This is me on my first big bike after passing my test this year, I love my SV it's such fun to ride i just cant keep off it.......

Gary Payne

Well the biking season finally kick-started for me in April. Managed to get out and start enjoying the spring. Wasn't all jolly though. On one occasion daryl and I headed into Wales, a short trip to Bala. The further we rode the wetter and colder it got. I sure it was sleeting by the time we stopped and gave up. We went to Welshpool instead, found a Costa coffee shop and paid a small fortune for a coffee. We were frozen.

The following week I tried again with a different bunch of riders and got 30 miles before the lad on the ZZR1100 broke down. 2 hours later we finally got him home courtesy of Carol Nash breakdown.

I also managed to start assessing the ride out route for the AR06 in July. All serious research and very hard work, but someone has to do it ;-)

Still trying to sell my old SV, not to single call so far. Thought things would have picked up by now. 

John