Got a friend looking at an SV650S. Tell me more.

[rogue]

Originally Posted by Quick281

Rogue, thanks for your very insightful post! He has a SV650s model, black and yellow. I am not quite sure what his weight range is but I would guess between 170 to 200, short dude but has some muscle on him.

When I rode the bike there were a couple of things that worried me. A) The brakes catch at the VERY end even with lever adjusted but I assume that could be fixed with a good brake bleeding. The front brakes on my Gix are feeling odd and the two of us may have a brake bleeding day at some point.
B) When I would get the on the brakes the front seemed to dive a lot. I suppose it just scared me more than anything because I have only ridden my bike and it doesn't dive quite as much. If the heavier fork oil would help with that, then it may not be a bad idea. Of course, that isn't to say anything is wrong with it as much as those were areas that stuck out to me as someone on a more forgiving bike.

So far I have made several trips up to his house just so we could go ridding. Its 30 miles each way, but completely worth it to be with him as he learns the paces. He is getting comfortable and learning to deal with the Atlanta area traffic well. I let him lead so that all of our moves are done at his pace and he won't feel any need to keep up with me.

It has been fun to watch a whole new world open up to him. I am just glad that I can be around to help him with things as he proceeds. On his first day I would just run around the driveway as he was doing small laps to practice turning and there was at least one good time where I had to run and catch the tail of the bike before it fell over. The entire time of course he panicked, the bike was reving up in first gear and he was hanging onto the clutch with me screaming "DON'T LET GO!!!". We laughed it off and remain glad the bike didn't send us both through the wall in his garage.

At any rate, I will post up with any questions he may have and I already sent him a like to that SV site. He isn't much of a post whore but I know he will lurk around and find out the goodies.

You're welcome.

Check the brake pads when you bleed the brakes. (which reminds me, I still need to bleed mine). Another thing that may be what you're feeling that's different is the brake lines. IIRC, the gix's have better lines, although I'm not positive..and the brake line is just a suggestion. The only other bike I've ridden alot to have an opinion on a difference in the braking between two bikes is a cruiser...and cruiser brakes feel different to me than my SV's and therefore, not really even a comparison.

The reason the front end bows down like that is because of the forks. The forks are alot different than the one on your gix. Again, there's other mods that can be done to make the SV's front feel similar to the gix's, including doing a front end swap that seems to be pretty popular with the SV riders, getting heavier springs and different dampening rods, and the heavier weighted fork oil helps too, or at least it seems to have helped mine a little.

Watching someone open to the world of motorcycles is awesome! I got a little TTR dirt bike and taught my kids how to ride. It was awesome to watch them learn and see the expressions on their faces as they learned and enjoy riding. Watching my son pop his first wheelie was hysterical! Of course, he didn't know that's what was going to happen. We told him, "pull the clutch, hit the throttle, then let go." He did and almost came off the bike, but managed to keep it upright. His eyes were as big as saucers. We told him, "that's what you DON'T want to do." Good times

Parking lot practice is most excellent. I still do a few practices every once in a while although I've been riding for a while. It helps, especially with ER braking.