Hello all,
So 3 years after originally posting this, I have finally gotten round to doing my rear shock (I've had a lot going on lol)
I thought I would post the process I went through on here, becuase most posts on here are for US SV's and I'm not sure whether there are a few differences on the UK spec SV.
I bought a 06/07 ZX14R rear shock on eBay for $70 (USD) ($115 including shipping/taxes) which worked out to about £96 (GBP) when imported to the UK, included with the shock was the top bolt (Which is important). Below is the process I went through to get the shock fitted, all in all it took me about 45 minutes.
1. Put the bike up on paddock stands (Headstock on the front, swingarm on the back), and jacked the center of the bike up on a block of wood to the point the rear bobbins were just resting on the rear stand rather than being supported by it.
2. Removed the rear bolt on the shock linkage, the bottom bolt on the shock and then the top bolt and the shock simply slid out of the bottom.
3. Test fitted the new shock and discovered it fouled the tool kit slot, so I removed the plastic protective trim that was on the back of the tool kit slot and the shock slid straight into place. (3x screws hold the trim in place)
4. Re-installed the original top bolt
5. Cut approx 7mm off the top bolt that was supplied with the new shock, and installed it as the bottom bolt on the new shock, the opposite way around to how the original bolt was installed.
6. re-install the back bolt on the shock linkage
Other than cutting the bolt to fit, no other cutting was required and the shock does not foul the battery tray.
I hope this helps people out when looking to replace their shock, the process start to finish is fairly straightforward and a competent person could easily do it at home with a standard toolkit (though an angle grinder does help when cutting down the bolt). I've put some photos of the final product below.
Now I just need to take it for a proper test ride to make sure this wasn't all wasted effort!
The bolt I cut down:
The shock is close to the tool kit holder, but not touching with the trim removed
The shock fully installed
The other side of the tool kit holder
The manky old shock!!: