The group of folks I ride with out of Houston, the Ten West Sport Pilots, had been talking about getting a track bike for the group but we weren’t really ready as a group to get one. In just talking with everybody, we wanted something that wasn’t too expensive, had decent performance but wouldn’t break the bank either for upgrades, tires, repairs, etc.
Well, I had been keeping my eyes open for interesting looking machines from time to time and posting them on the forum. I was not really seriously looking but last week something caught my eye on ebay. It was a super clean 07 Suzuki SV650S from Columbus Cycle Shop out I-10 on Saturday 1/15/11. It had just over 8000 miles on it, was adult owned and ridden with no damage. My other ride is a 06 VFR800 outfitted with full bags and topcase and while I have fun sporting around on it, the sucker does weigh 600 pounds so I was looking for something lighter to play on too. The SV650 weights barely 400 pounds.
It got me started thinking. I could either wait around for the group to finally get a 10 West track bike, but that possibly wouldn’t even happen this year. Plus it would be much more simple to just have my own motorcycle that I could do with as I wished without any group decision making, committees, funds gathering, and such. I had been saving some money for the track bike project anyway so the cash was already earmarked. So only being half serious, I sent the link to my wife saying, “Hey, maybe I should get this”. She responded back, “Go for it.” so I did. I ended up calling the dealer to ask about it instead of waiting the 3 more days for the ebay auction to end. I arranged to come out and look at it and agreed on a price if I liked what I saw, didn’t find anything wrong with it, and actually wanted to buy it. I took a friend along to be a voice of reason, a second set of eyes, and to drive my car home! Well, we couldn’t find anything wrong with it and I ended up buying it right there. By that time it was dark, oh and a light rain was falling, so we proceeded to make the hour drive back home to Houston. It was a smooth trip, the SV650 rode just fine, and we made it home in one piece.
Here it is from a photo that the dealer had on their site. It’s currently crammed in my garage and the weather has been blah, so I don’t have any good pictures that I’ve taken yet.
My first ride on the motorcycle until today was riding it home from Columbus on Saturday night in the rain. I'm an all-weather rider on the VFR so I was comfortable and I had a support vehicle along and we made it hope uneventfully. I won't say it was as comfortable as the VFR, but I had no complaints. I think we have a happy relationship in the future. I'm going to keep it street legal so I can do more than just track days and I look forward to taking it up to my group's annual trip to ride the Dragon at Deal's gap. I think after pushing the VFR around those curves, this lightweight is gonna have me all giddy.
I'm already on the mod/farkle route. I normally like stock-looking bikes and don't make big changes, but I might be different on this one. It already has the fender eliminator kit along with the LED signals front and rear. I've also ordered and received a set of TechSpec snake skins for the sides of the tank for better grip, and 3M headlight kit from thetankslapper.biz is on the way. I have the Skins on my VFR and like them, and the headlight covers have prevented several scratches and nicks on the VFR headlights so I'm putting them on the SV as well. Tape for track days come right off the 3M without damage to the film. Motoslider frame sliders and swingarm spools have also arrived from SV Racing Parts to help protect it should it get dropped.
After I get a few miles in the saddle to to figure out my riding posture, I'll send the seat off to Spencer (at greatdaytoride.com) to have him put gel into the seat for me (75 bucks). And eventually that humongous muffler has got to go as well. There’s LOTS of options down that route.
Oh, and tires. It had a set of OEM Dunlop D220's and I don't know if I trust them. I had a set of hard Metzler Z4's be partially responsible for an off I had in the past, so I'm a definitely a fan of something stickier. I run Bridgestone BT-016 on my VFR and love them. I was thinking to do something different on the SV. I started looking up prices for the BT-016, Pilot Powers, and some others. In the end, I just let final price be the deciding factor and ended up ordering a set of the BT-016 rubbers for this one as well. They arrived yesterday and I had them put on today. We’ll see how they hold up on this lightweight. This motorcycle isn’t going to be used regularly for commuting so straight line tire life isn’t as much a factor as it is on the VFR but I’ve still had good performance from the Bridgestone. Of course when it hits 100 degrees in the summer, this semi-naked bike may get ridden more simply because there’s more air flow around the rider.
Anyway, stay tuned. I plan to spend most of Sunday installing items that have arrived and performing general maintenance. I don’t have the prior maintenance records, so just to start out I’m changing all the fluids (oil, brake, coolant) so I know exactly what’s in the motorcycle and when it was put in.
The track season starts up in February and I hope I’ll be ready to try one in March. I need to get some more time on the roads just to start getting a feel for how it rides. In a month or 2, we’ll have to work on getting a new muffler on it. Sounds like the fun is just beginning.
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