Nice riding, I'm impressed. You must do this for a living, surely.

Yes this is an sv650 racing in the minitwins class at Snetterton on Saturday (going pretty well too) possibly the strangest sv650 yet?

Chris (vfr400)

Eek. I think I like this. A nice retro feel to it and it looks as light as bag of air. I bet it goes well. The reverse megaphone exhausts are a nice touch too. I think the rider should be wearing a pudding basin helmet though ;-)

Hope you don't mind the email but it occurs to me that I haven't seen a Yellow bike on the front of the site

I took this picture on a rideout the other week, Its on the A39 heading down into Lynmouth on the North Devon coast, thought it might make a nice picture for the front of the forum

Hope you don't mind the mail

Take care

Dave

You've probably already seen the cover photo, before you got this far. I'm always on the look out for shots like this, especially with famous landmarks in the background

Here I send you some photos of my SV 01. I've bought it last March and I really like it. Fantastic. I've painted when I bought it and since then I've put an undertray and an Akrapovic (some extra vitamins..). Hope you like it!

Congratulations for your site!!

kind regards from Slovenia,

Ignacio

Another long distance reader. The wing mirrors are interesting, haven't seen those before.

Well John

Things are hotting up, first service and 7500 rpm, she is running in nicely, moving nicely (well I am loosening up, I can now ride for 2 hours along small moors roads up by Tan Hill sheep dodging and foot down to get round the switch backs (well maybe not, a little exaggeration) takes me back to the good old days with extreme clipons, bad vibes and sweaty palms. Well I do reckon that modern Jap bikes are now better, apart from the revvy engine and not quite enough vibration, I love this bike. Its light, agile pulls nicely out of corner and even round fast sweepers feels solid, grips well, brakes well and all the lights work (bit's don't fall off either). I have fitted the M4 can and it now sounds like a real bike although Plod may not like it too much (I keep it at tickover speeds and throttle openings through town) I don't want to put the muffler back on! I have taken the LED indicators off - They're crap, The undertray was rubbish so I have just put on a fender eliminator I got on e-bay £47.50 inc postage, a very nicely made steel and black painted piece of kit that take all the standard lights - Indicators and number plate light - solid as a rock and 40 min to fit. Can't wait till 1000 miles to see what the other 2500 revs does, the kick at 7000 is nice but can't fully appreciate yet, but I will.. don't worry. Its feel solid at the ton but my companion with his 1200 Kawa went past like I was stood still, so I'm already thinking of the SV1000! But I did leave him down the little roads and as the 1000 is the same size and weight... well Mmmm (therein lies the beauty of the SV)

I've got used to the bars, wrists not aching too much , so I don't think I'll need the risers after all, the guy was having problems getting them made anyhow, so that’s saved me a bit of money Eh!

Well I'll send some pictures soon, probably the next instalment; I am spending too much time putting bits on and off it at the moment. I think I have finished all the bits now so I'll take some pics and send them in soon... promise

Peter

Your site has given me great ideas for mods for my bike, thanks.

A nice looking bike Martin and I can see a few of the mods. For anyone else who might write in, don't for get to include what you've done, and why. Also how easy/hard it was and whether you'd recommend the mod to others.

My name is Mike. I live in Poland. Very good www page.

Best regards

Mike

I don't usually publish emails like this, but this month is a bit thin as it is, and Mike's english may not be good enough for short biography.

Was wondering if you could put pics of my bike in the gallery. It's my first effort at spraying and although it isn't brilliant, I'm proud of my achievement all the same.

Best Regards

Si. aka BigApe

Looks fine to me, certainly different, and I damn site better than I could do. Well done.

Better news to report this month. The bike passed it's MOT and it's been running like gem since my last report. I guess a new air filter is the main reason for this, it was getting to the end of it's service life and being swamped in oil just brought that date forward.  I had to take it easy for a few miles, just to get the new tyres run in. They feel pretty good. The rear Road Attack does seem more keen to drop into a corner than the Contiforce, but it might be my imagination.

One recent incident that did leave a bitter taste in my mouth was caused by a bike breakers Nash and Mills in Hemel Hempstead. I called them to see if the had a left seat cowl in light blue, 'Yes they said. £25'. So I bought it. Part duly arrived and guess what ????, Yep dark blue....  I was spitting feathers. On top of this the had added the agreed postage of £10 and then added VAT, total cost £41.  Called them back the next day, 'You just said blue' argued the bod. I disputed this, I know the light blue is rare and it's one of the first questions I asked. So a refund was arranged and we agreed to split the postage costs. I checked the bank statement a week or so later, no refund. Another call. This time the bod refused to refund the postage only the cost of the part. In other words it's all my fault and not his. So I'm now £17 out of pocket. In hindsight I should have just stuck it on Ebay it would have lost less. PS. The money was eventually refunded including the VAT.

Whilst riding the bike around, I had noticed oil spray on my left boot. There was never an oil leak under the bike when parked, so this only happened when riding. I had to say I was concerned. Trying to find the source was tricky, a lot of oil got spilt down the body of the front carb and onto the rear of the front cylinder when the bike was knocked over, maybe this was pooling into the V of the cylinders and then trickling down the alternator cover. I checked this out and whilst there was oil present, it wasn't enough. I then remembered when I purged the front cylinder, to remove the oil from within, with the spark plug removed and the engine spinning over on the starter, a plume of oil had shot out of the spark plug hole and peppered the back of the radiator. So after the next trip I ran my hand under the bottom left hand side of the rad and found a great glob of oil.  So I've since steam cleaned the rad and things are much better. I still get a little oil, but as time goes on the problem is getting less and less.

I've since given up trying to replace the seat cowling. I sanded down the area as best I could and then used the two colour touch up to try and reduce the obvious injury. I've since stuck one of my own SV stickers over it and things look reasonable. There's not a lot of point in spending huge amounts of money that I won't get back on re-sale. I still want a left hand mirror, though.

This months page is looking a little thin as my in-tray has seen little activity. So if you want to see more on this page, write to me.

John