[sv650rider07]

I bought a 2007 Maroon SVS new in June 2007. I was there to get a GSXR 600, but the insurance was going to be absolutely rediculous so I settled for the SV. I did not know much about it at the time, but I have since come to love it and am very glad that I bought it. This is the first picture I took. It was about a month after I bought it. A buddy upgraded the exhaust on his GSXR and gave me the Yoshimura RS3 system he took off. I cut it off right after the mount and had a muffler shop weld it on for me.

I had an unfortunate lowside in early fall of the same year. I was in a big group of rockets and was one of the front runners. I have always been fairly aggressive. We came up on a sharp left hand turn and the guy in front of me on a GSXR 600 got on his brakes really hard really fast. I did not have much time so I went high in the corner to avoid him but still be able to make it around. Well, the gravel was over the edge of the road a little and I lost the front because of it. The bike slid sideways into the ditch and hit on a telephone pole that had yet to be installed which was SO lucky. Stopped the bike dead with little damage. I, on the other hand, flipped and slid for 20 or 25 yards down the edge of the road. Had to pick gravel out of my arms and back, but I was not hurt. Broke the shifter, cracked upper fairing, and had scratches and scrapes down the whole left side of the bike.

Some scratches on the tail.

Scratches and deep chips on the tank.

Scratches and dents in the upper fairing and on left headlight.

Crack in the top of the upper fairing.

 

[sv650rider07]

I did not fix the paint and body damage for almost a year and a half, this past winter. It was not THAT bad and I did not have the money to have a body shop do it for me. So, I got some flush mount front blinkers, made a fender eliminator, got some small rear blinkers, painted the windscreen black, and removed all the factory decals and stickers.

This past winter I decided I had enough of the scratches. I dove in head first and tackled painting the whole bike myself. I did what most would probably consider to be the wrong thing....I used rattle can paint. I took off all the parts, sanded, bondo'd and fiberglassed as needed, sanded, primered, painted, and then cleared with several coats. It only took a couple afternoons to finish. I used grey automotive primer, Krylon Satin Black, and Satin Clear engine enamel. It turned out great! The engine enamel as clear was for its gas resistant properties. I have gotten a few drops of gas on the tank and absolutely no eating into the paint at all. There are a few tiny chips here and there from bugs and rocks while riding over the summer. The finish is not "perfect" and has a texture to it. I was going for a hammered look to help hide some of the imperfections and it came out exactly that. I also love satin black vehicles, so there is little shine to the fnish, but that is what I was going for.

Broken down.

Finished tail. No more deep scratches.

Finished upper fairing. You can barely tell the way any damage at all on the tank, the dents down the side of the fairing, and the big crack on top.

Finished over all. There are a few small traces of scratches that were really deep, and the headlight is still scratched. Overall I am completely happy with it. I have about $40 in it total!

I have done a few mods to the bike as well before and after I painted it. Most notable is I added a 2005 GSXR 600 steering damper to eliminate head shake. It had some bad spots in the action when I got it, but I flushed out the oil and added the 15w fork oil I had left from draining and refilling the forks to it and worked all the air out. Worked like a charm and I love it! I made some custom brackets to mount it with. I used a piece of flat steel that I cut, bent, drilled and painted black for the upper mount and a piece of aluminum for the fork mount. I will post some pics when I can. I removed the fork tubes and hung them to drain them when I changed to 15w fork oil. I did it right to eliminate any problems taking short cuts would cause. Got rid of the front end diving and really shiffened it up quite a bit. I am mostly satisfied but am wanting some traxxion top adjustable emulators.

Mods as of September 2009:

2005 GSXR 600 steering damper
R6 throttle tube
Yoshi RS3 muffler
aTRE by Steve
PAIR mod
TPS adjustment
De-snorkled
15w front fork oil
Flush mount front blinkers
Custom plate mount
Small rear blinkers
Black windscreen
Whole bike painted satin black

I have several mods that I will be doing in the next couple of weeks. I purchased a 2006 GSXR 600 rear shock on ebay for next to nothing. I am only 165 lbs geared, so this is great for my weight. Plus, not very many things have to be changed for it to bolt up. The only draw back is the spring is yellow, but I can live with that. This will lower the back about 1" to 1 1/2" so I am going to use some shorter dogbones to lift it back up. I am also going to slide the front forks up in the triples a little so over all the whole bike will be about 1" lower, and the front will be slightly lower than the front for faster turn-ins in corners. I also bought a set of new, never installed, but damaged lower fairings on ebay for a steal! One of them has about a 4" crack in the side of it, but other than that they are brand new. I will fiberglass, bondo and paint them using the same process as I did on the bike so they match. I will probably take the upper fairing off and touch up the tiny chips on it too while I'm at it. I am also going to remove the rear grab bar. I am just going to cut it off flush with the rear body work, paint the ends, and put what is left back. That way the rear seat will still latch and the center piece that is left will hide the holes in the sides of the rear section. I'll paint a few things while I have it taken apart like the fork lowers and maybe the rearsets. I plan on redoing my license plate bracket so it's smaller and painting it to match too. I am also going to rework my shifter and make it look better. When it broke in my low side, the peg broke off. I just drilled it and put a bolt through it so it looks kinda bad, so I am going to do something with it so it looks better. There are a few other small things I want to do and will update as I do them. I will try to do a full write-up with pictures on the gsxr 600 shock install. I cannot find one on here so hopefully that will help others out who are doing the same. I will try to do the same for the lower fairings to help those who have never done body work and rattle can painting. I will try to answer any questions anyone has as best I can if you have any. Just PM me or start a new thread. Thanks!

List of up-coming mods as of right now. Sure to add to it.

2006 GSXR 600 rear shock
OEM lower fairings, painted satin black to match
Frame sliders/moto sliders (haven't decided yet)
Rear spool sliders
Up 2 tooth sprocket in the back
GP shifting (might try it a while - 1 up 5 down shifting)
Rear seat cowl
Cut Yoshi RS3 can down to about 12"
50mm high velocity stacks
Traxxion top adjustable emulators

More sure to come.....

 

[sv650rider07]

I played around with a picture of a fully faired black SV to show what I eventually want it to look kinda like. All of the mods I previously listed, plus a 6" extended swing arm and probably a full GSXR front end and GSXR rear brakes, and lowered considerably. I know extended swingarms aren't all the rage on this forum, but I love the look and you will never see another SV with one. At least not around here where I live. This is not a drag bike and I know that. Purely cosmetic. This is just for fun and is not a great edit, but it's just to show what I think I want it to look like right now.

 

[sv650rider07]

I got my 2006 GSXR 600 rear shock in and got it installed. I will do a how-to in another post for those who do not know how. I also got my lower fairings in. The left one did have about a 2 1/2" crack in the front of it. It was not nearly as bad as I had expected based off the ebay description. It was, however, missing several bolts, plastic rivets and brackets that are needed to install it. I will have to fab some brackets and find some replacement screws. The local Suzuki stocks the rivets so those aren't a problem....I lost some in my low side and had to replace a few before. I installed the shock first. Then, I lowered the front to get the bike back level. Overall it is 1" lower, but to me looks way lower than that. I even double checked my measurements to be sure. I did a quick mockup of the lowers next to see what they were going to look like and check fitment.

I then removed the lowers and the upper fairing to prep for paint. The upper had a few chips and a crack resurfaced next to the headlight from my lowside. Upon inspection after I removed it, it would seem I missed it when I did my fiberglassing so the crack was just filled with bondo which of course came out from vibrations. I got everything sanded down first. Then I set in doing fiberglassing. I did the crack on the left lower with a couple layers for strength from the back. While I was at it, I decided to add some expanded metal in the big holes in the fairings for looks. I cut some pieces and fiberglassed them in as well from the back. I did the crack in the upper from the back. Then I flipped it all over and did both cracks in the two parts very lightly from the front just to get down in the crack. I have done just bondo for this in the past and did not like how it turned out. I will try fiberglass then bondo and see how well I can float it out. With the mesh, I just did the corners to hold them in. This should be more than enough because they will never have any force on them. After the fiberglass set up, I tried to push them out and they didn't budge, even with some force. I am happy with the way things are going so far.

Lower fairing crack.

Lower sanded down and mesh taped in for test fit.

Back of cracked lower repaired with fiberglass and mesh glassed in.

Upper sanded and glassed.

Now I am waiting for the fiberglass to dry so I can sand it all down and bondo any areas that need it. Nothing should need any bondo, so hopefully I can move straight to primer, paint and clear tomorrow and get them installed Saturday afternoon or Sunday. I will keep updating as I make progress.

 

[sv650rider07]

I got everything finished up and installed and it looks great! The fiberglass sanded down smooth with no problems and I did not have to use any bondo. I do not recommend a lot of bondo, none at all if you can. It will probably crack with my experiences on a v-twin motorcycle that vibrates as SV's do. Plus, hitting your knee or foot on a platic part that is bondo'd isn't really good on them either. The plastic will flex and put stress on the bondo and eventually that will crack it too. Sometimes bondo will shrink as it sets up too and that is frustrating because you will have to use several applications to get it right. I go a little thick with fiberglass, then sand it down smooth using 80 grit, then 220, then about 1000. Just take your time and you will get great results.

Cracked fairing glassed, sanded and primered. What crack? You can't see it at all, I am very pleased with the results.

Here is a picture with my iPhone with them painted and installed. It has been raining for a week or so, but when it clears off and I get the bike back out I will take some better ones.

While I had the upper fairing off for painting, I took a couple pictures of my 05 GSXR 600 steering damper.

Bolted the bracket on with the bolts that hold the instrument cluster on. Might be hard to see the bracket because I tried to match the paint and texture on it as close as I could to this part of the frame so it looks pretty good. I used a piece of steel flat stock to make the main bracket. I drilled the two top mounting holes, bent the bottom at 90*, then marked and drilled the hole for the damper. This way I could get the hole just where I wanted it after it was bent. I do not have a full shop of tools at home do I used a clamp to hold it and bent it with vise grips. I have all the good tools at work (work construction), but did this on a weekend and did not have access to them. I rounded the corners with a grinder for looks and fit, then painted and installed. I used a piece of aluminum flat for the bracket on the lower triple clamp. It took some trial and error to get the length right so that I did not bottom out the damper before the steering did which would cause me to lose some steering movement. It works great and elminated all head shake, which is what I was after. Very pleased with it. I got all the material from work for free, and the damper was only $20 shipped on ebay.

 

[sv650rider07]

I took some pictures of my shock swap. When I first did it i put the stock dogbones back in to see exactly how much it would lower the back. It ended up being exactly 1" lower. I lowered the forks an inch in the triples to level it out. I would not recommend this! It can potentially be dangerous because the forks can bottom out, which could cause you to lose control. I went for a test ride just to see what it was like. I of course bounced as hard as I could on the front to make sure it wouldn't bottom out on me. It didn't, but a really sharp bump at high speed might have. I did trim down the plastic covers that stick up on the forks about an inch because the left one was close to hitting my damper mount at full compression. It looked awesome with the bike so low. However, not only was it dangerous, it sat almost straight up on the kickstand and I did not like that at all. A stiff wind would blow it over and ruin all that work I put into my paint job. I don't have frame sliders yet but am getting some soon. I also did all my sag measurements and got them adjusted as close to 30mm as I could. The picture I posted earlier with the lower fairings installed was with the bike lowered. After the weather cleared for a few hours, I put in some shorter dog bones I had from lowering my bro-in-laws bike on mine bike to raise it back up some. It ended up being about 3/8" lower than stock on the back. So, I raised the front forks back up to about 12mm about the triple. I want faster turn ins, so I wanted the forks a little lower than the back. I have not test ridden yet, but will this weekend. The stock dogbones from his 2008 Suzuki Boulevard C50 were 1/8" shorter than mine, which made the back about 3/8" lower than stock after the 1" shorter shock. You can figure that a dogbone length difference will yield about 4 times that in ride height difference, give or take a little. So if you want to raise or lower 1/2", use dogbones that are 1/8" longer to lower and 1/8" shorter to raise. We lowered his bike 2" because he is short with longer dogbones, and he gave me the stock dogbones so it worked out great.

Here is a picture of the 06 GSXR 600 rear shock. I had to make a notch in the tool box for the reservoir to fit, and I cut a notch in the side of the tool box cover so I could put it back on to cover the tool box so there wouldn't be a big hole there.

You can see the notched tool box at the far right of this picture, before I fixed the cover to fit back on.

With cover.

 

[sv650rider07]

I took some more pictures of the steering damper mount from different angles so it is easier to see how I mounted and what it looks like with the fairings installed. I hope this helps out other people who want the benefits of a damper but don't want to spend a lot of money on a custom one with all the brackets included. I got mine for $25 shipped on ebay and made the brackets. Not track-ready, but could be using thicker material. If you have any questions shoot me a PM and I would be glad to help.
Looking down sitting in the seat.

Kinda blurry, but put the camera down in the upper to show the damper bracket.

I finally got a chance to take some decent pictures of the lower fairings installed. Proof that a rattle can paint job can look good with proper technique, attention to detail and most importantly patience to do it right.

My favorite pic from this set.

Next I'm going for some Pirelli tires, probably Strada for the mileage but still good grip, and I would like some shorter levers. Also considering getting a mid-pipe to raise my can up to a high-mount or race-mount but haven't decided yet. Depends on the cost cause I like it how it is good enough for now. Also want a seat cowl so I can get rid of the dreadful looking grab-bar. Might paint my rearsets and passenger pegs black, or get some good rearsets.

 

[sv650rider07]

I found some more pictures of my lowside damage that show the severity of it a little better. The tail had some deep scratches and I had to reshape the plastic and then try to match it back to original by sanding it down a bunch. Can't even tell now.

Definately need some motosliders before next riding season to keep this from happening again now that I have a full set of lowers and have everything painted. I haven't ridden much after all the work on the bike yet, and nothing aggressive, but you never know what can happen, especially with the dunlop sportmaxx 220's still on there....they don't grip very well....I rode the other day in the low 50's and I was very tentative cause it felt so loose, even after 45 minutes straight. They never got warm and gripped any better. Those Pirelli Stratas look better all the time, but not in the budget, especially now that I might put 500 miles on the bike between now and March/April. I hate riding below 55ish, might change with better tires though.

 

[sv650rider07]

I have not done very much to the bike in a while. I tried some tank spacers because I read several sorces that say they help with a desnorkled sv. I did not like them so I took them back off. The gap seemed too big and I was constantly worried about debris and moisture getting into the airbox. I still want a sv1000 snorkle too, but that will wait for now. I also wired in a quick connect for a battery tender. I put it under the rear seat so it is out of the way and protected. While I had the bike out, I fired it up and let it run for a while. To my surprise, it spit acorns out of the exhaust for nearly a minute. Definately put a rag in the tail pipe when storing your bike.....I got them all cleaned out and there doesn't appear to be any damage. I don't know how the squirels got in because I keep the bike under a bike cover in my shed, but they did. I also put a rag in the inlet on the airbox, just in case. I think I have decided to repaint it, again. This time I am building a spray booth in my shop and doing it the right way with good paint. I will do airbrush art on the whole thing too as of right now, but that could change. I will go back with black for my base coat, and do ghost flames, smoke and maybe some subtle skulls in white. Nothing sinister or evil, but pretty cool to look at. If I do it, I will do the whole thing. It will not be a show bike as I will still ride it, but my goal is a show quality paint job that holds up to the elements. I will also go gloss this time because the airbrushing will show up better, i can get a more uniform finish easier, and it will be easier to keep clean. I have an area about 16x16 in the attic of my shop that will be converted into a full spray booth so I can have a place to do all my airbrushing that is clean, dust free, with full filtered air circulating and is safe to paint in. I can get 90% of what I need from work too, so it will be cheap to build. Just need to build a dividing wall so i can still use the other half of the attic for storage, with a door with weather stripping so its air tight, a fan, and inlet and exhaust filter banks. *I will just have to buy the fan and filters, so i might have $30 in the whole thing. Should be plenty of room to prime, spray base coat, and clear all the parts at once too. The spray paint on the bike now chips too easy and I mainly want something to do. It will take a while to get warm enough temperatures to paint in because my shop isn't heated, but it will be worth it. I'm going to play with some designs then make my final decision. I plan on doing a lot of airbrushing on other projects, so the booth won't be solely to paint my bike. Still need sliders and tires too. There are still a few months until riding season, so I have plenty of time.*