Hand guards

Background

We dumped our good-times MR2 to become a one-car family.  One of the biggest reasons was to dedicate a parking spot (of which we have 2) to the motorcycles.  Then we wouldn't have to move a car to get a bike out.  So we moved both bikes to the new, vacant parking spot and times were good!

Problem

But there's another side to this coin.  We only have one car, which means someone's going to have to drive a motorcycle through the winter (which is beginning to settle in).  I'm all for the challenge, but it's been a while since I commuted through the winter on a motorcycle.  So on a few recent, frosty mornings, I was clearly reminded of the 1st body parts to go numb - my fingers.

Solution?

I decided to give hand guards a try, and a wee bit of research led me to believe that OEM hand guards for the V-Strom 650 (DL650) would fit our 2007 SV650.  I hit Ebay and snagged a DL650 OEM hand guard kit and waited for USPS to bring me my box.  The delivery happend, and under an hour later the black hand guards were installed!

Conclusion

Installation



Installation was surprisingly easy.  I thought I was only buying the guards, but it turned out to be a kit with all hardware included.  I had a bit of trouble with the bar ends because of the rideitmoto aftermarket, bar-end mirrors.  But things worked-out in the end - just like they did for this guy.

Appearance






They're pretty in-your-face.  Big, black body work that surely takes away from the SV's nakedness.  But whatevs - small price to pay for less-than-freezing digits.

Functionality


I've so far used them in moderate temperature, rain, and cold (but not below freezing).  In the warm temps, you notice the wind isn't hitting your hands.  In the rain, your gloves clearly stay dryer longer.  And in the cold, it's pretty clear that your hands get colder much slower.  But the temperature still finds its way in.

Forks: known state

I've read a lot about the SV650's front suspension and I get it: The forks are the result of a compromise to keep the cost of the bike down. There are a gazillion threads on every relevant forum about how to improve the front suspension on an SV, and I quickly got lost in the forest of emulators, springs, and GSX-R swaps. So I decided to rebuild my stock forks to ensure that they're giving me their 100%. This way I'd know exactly what I'm riding on before considering upgrades.

The plan went like this:

• Set my sag (and create new spacers if necessary)


• Replace the age-old fluid with 15w oil filled to the stock level


• Replace the oil seals and wipers (the wipers were getting hard and cracking)

Setting sag

Ideally, you'd have three people available to set sag: One person to hold the bike, one person to measure, and yourself to get on the bike since the sag is being set for your weight. I only had 2, so Harbor Freight's Baxley knock-off held the bike (it did an okay job).



The conclusion was that the stock SV was pretty much sprung for my weight. Score, so I won't have to make longer spacers for the forks. That was easy.

Rebuilding the forks



I got all the parts I needed to do the job (just fork seals and wipers), and finally found the time one Saturday. Well, buying parts ahead of time does you no good when the parts are crap.

I bought a set of Leak Proof Seals for the 2001 SV650S from motorcyclesuperstore.com. I'm usually very happy with motorcyclesupertore.com. But these Leak Proof seals were garbage. First of all, they look nothing like the image motorcyclesuperstore.com has up for them. Second of all, the Leak Proof seals are not firm and they don't fit tightly. They are mushy, squishy round rubber rings that would amaze me if they could seal at all. To make matters worse, one of the seals had loose pieces of rubber stuffed into the recess (on the oil side). I thought these seals were supposed to keep particulates out of my forks.

Next.

So I dashed to a local Suzuki dealer to get a set of OEM fork seals for the 2001 SV650S. Thanks goodness they had them in stock. While I rejected the Leak Proof seals as soon as I slid one onto the fork slider, I did make use of the wipers that came in the Leak Proof kit. We'll see if they're good for anything.

My Haynes manual helped enormously with disassembling the forks. The pictures were priceless.

Finally, reinstall



I finally got the chance to put things back together in the post-set-the-clocks-back dark. I even copied Mike and pushed the forks up through the top triple a few extra millimeters <--this was to account for the taller 120/70-17 I've got on the front (as opposed to the stock 120/60-17).



Anyway, I took the SV for a ride to meet a buddy for lunch today, and the forks are definitely less divey with the new 15w fork oil. I didn't get the chance to really push it hard or test it on challenging surfaces, but in time...

Maximizing efficiency

I don't know if it's the resource conservation, the challenge of surviving inconvenience, or the chance to be different, but it feels good to travel on a motorcycle. I don't mean commuting on a motorcycle, but traveling on one.



We recently outfitted the red SV650 with SW-Motech Quick Lock Sideracks. The aim here was to outfit a motorcycle for weekend travel to family and friends (which we do quite often). We figured that, if we used the motorcycle for enough of these weekend trips, then we could recoup the cost of the sideracks! More on that later - but the opportunity to inject some more excitement into our weekend travel is always worth $229.



We had two Pelican 1550s that were previously acting as top cases for the red SV and the blue SV. So we sacrificed these non-matching cases to mount to the SW-Motech sideracks (saved some serious $$$ that way). After a week of test rides to work, which proved very successful, we decided to put the setup to work on a voyage to Eastern PA.



I am most impressed with SW-Motech's product. First of all, the sideracks are easily-removable. So when you don't want your luggage on, it's minimal effort to take it off. This is great when you use the luggage for long trips too, because you can carry your luggage into your bedroom like you would any other bag you packed.

Second, the rack system is solid. We liberally packed (stuffed?) our 1550s with clothes, footwear, and just about everything we'd take with us were we driving in a car. So our cases were quite heavy (I'll weigh them next time). But they mounted just fine and the system of brackets hung onto our cases through all kinds of bumps, leans, and quick stops.

Third? "Nothing. There is no third thing." (Monty Python fans?)



After our weekend trip, we got an accurate calculation of the SV's gas mileage when traveling long-distance. Let's take the average miles-per-gallon for our red SV650 at the time of this writing, 55.34 mpg. Lets compare that to the average miles-per-gallon of the MR2 (since that's what we'd be otherwise traveling in), 30.46 mpg. Now let's see - I remember paying $2.49 per gallon when filling-up on our trip out to Eastern PA - and that was a good price!

$2.49/30.46 = $0.081 (cost per mile driven in the MR2)
$2.49/55.34 = $0.045 (cost per mile driven in the SV650)

So how many miles would we have to drive on the SV to save enough money to pay for the sideracks? Well, the sideracks cost $229 plus shipping - so lets say $250. The savings per mile when driving the SV is $0.081 - $0.045 = $0.036. So...

$250/$0.036 = 6,944 miles

That's not bad! If we were diligent enough in choosing the SV over the MR2, we'd make our money back within a year. Will we be that diligent? We'll see...

I highly recommend this product - I've used it transport oil change supplies for our MR2, to commute to work, for a 9-hour round-tripper, and we plan to hit the Raleigh area with it this coming weekend. Maybe this time I'll get pictures with us actually on the bike!

Another Pelican

My wife has the more reliable and efficient of our bikes - a 2007 Suzuki SV650. It's a beautiful black and red beast with 2 spark plugs per cylinder and fuel injection! I'm so easily impressed by modern automotive technology...



Anyway, we aim to turn that bike into a touring machine. If we want to two-up on a trip to visit family (maybe to save on gas or to add excitement to our many 200-300 mile trippers), then we'll have a bike that's up to the task. The first requirement that comes to mind is luggage space. In my opinion, the simplest solution to sturdy, lockable luggage is a top case. I previously mounted a top case on my first-generation SV650 by mounting a Pelican 1550 directly to my passenger seat. I've been really happy with the result, but my barbaric approach rendered my passenger seat useless. Unfortunately, mounting hard luggage while still retaining use of the passenger seat means spending more money (because I'm not interested in manufacturing a complete solution myself). So I purchased the SW-Motech ALU-Rack from TwistedThrottle.com, with the intention of mounting a Pelican 1550 to it. The SW-Motech ALU-Rack is supposed to be used with a conversion plate specific to the kind of case you are going to mount (like a Givi case or other motorcycle-specific container). However, the rack happens to have three conveniently-spaced holes:



All of my plans were first okayed by the bike owner. While I can take credit for most of the ideas here, an exception can be found in the color of the Pelican case. But hey, that's cool! To each her own.

Installation was quite simple - little was left up to assumption given the single picture in the ALU-Rack manual. Aside from having to grind down 2 aluminum spacers and losing one of the provided nuts, the rack was assembled without issue. Mounting the Pelican 1550 was also a simple task. I went with the very straight-forward method of bolting the 1550 to the ALU-Rack via the 3 available holes. After drilling 3 holes into the case and picking up the necessary hardware, the case and the rack became one. The final product looks acceptable and, as expected, does not prevent use of the passenger seat.




The question is, will the rack support the weight of a Pelican 1550 (~10 lbs) full of traveling gear and supplies (? lbs). Only time will tell, and I plan to test this setup tomorrow when I head to work. Should this arrangement prove useable, we plan to incorporate the SW-Motech Quick-Lock side racks. With two top-loading Pelicans on the sides, we may have enough room for a weekend trip!

Mine for yours.

After a 2nd track day with the 2002 Triumph Thunderbird, I was completely convinced that this triple was not the bike for me. I mean, in the past year I've had alot of fun with it. It's torquey as hell, it has top-end pull, it never leaves you wanting more power...

...but it's heavy, it has just a tad too much rake (for the track, anyway), and it's tough to practice proper body positioning on it with the low seat and stock footpeg locations. It seemed that, if I wanted to progress and get the most out of my track day experiences, I needed something sportier. At least this was where I stood after our Team ProMotion track day early September, 2007.

Fast-forward to early October, and I'm now the proud owner of a 2001 Suzuki SV650S. A Triumph-lusting resident of State College, PA offered to trade his SV650S for my TBird. After some Blue-booking and decision making, we agreed to a trade: his Suzuki plus $300 for my Triumph.

We lived over 300 miles apart, so we met at a Sheetz in McConnelsburg, PA - halfway between us. M came with me on her Ninjette, and we made our way through some back-country roads to our Sunday bike trade.

Lack of cell phone reception on-site made the meet-up a little rough, but within an hour of our appointment, we were all at Sheetz looking the bikes over. Between cups of coffee to warm up (it was a brisk morning), we test drove each other's bikes and made the trade.

M and I took our last look at the Triumph, and we high-tailed it back home - this time I was on a blue Suzuki with handlebar risers and a fairing. Crazy.

It was an interesting experience - to trade. Especially when the round trip was about 260 miles. The differences between 2 bikes really jump right up at you when you spend so much time on each one back-to-back.