Thanks guys.
I've gotten precious little seat time since doing the swap, and none of that has been on the roads I like to ride. (Read: twisty backroads.) However, initial impressions are quite good. The front end just plain works now, i.e. it feels like a bike with proper suspension actually doing something other than getting beat up passively by the road. I wish those SV owners who have never ridden anything but the SV on stock suspenders could get a chance to ride a bike with decent suspension- that experience would no doubt give some perspective on just how poor the SV's legs are as stock. (For the price point, I understand it, but the bike is such a joy to romp on that it deserves better suspension bits.)
I've added a couple lines of preload from full out and set the reb/comp adjusters to halfway through their ranges just as a starting point- so far so good. Additional riding will no doubt yield some further tweaking- but really, that's the true beauty of the swap, adjustability.
In regards to other "gotchas":
These of course depend a lot on your individual capability to improvise, self-source, and willingness to open the wallet. The little things that crept up on me, might not be an issue for you and vice versa. There's just too many variables as there are a lot of different permutations of parts that you choose to use for your swap.
For my swap, I bought a nearly complete '04 GSX-R 1000 front end. It had everything but the fender. Being nearly complete was key to me as I didn't want to spend the time searching for components here and there, wondering about their compatibilty. Plus, on the '03 and up SVs, the steering head bearings are the same part number as many of the GSX-Rs of the same years. So that part, the actual bolting up of the GSXR triples to the SV's head is truly a piece of cake. It's the least of the issues on the second generation models.
Upon receipt of the front end form the seller, I found that both fork seals were leaking. I planned to rework the forks anyway, but there's some time and money there. To make the fork rebuild efficient, I bought a few cartridge fork tools from Traxxion, and since having used them, can confidently say that they are indispensable. So that was some cost as well. I had the front wheel with a fairly good tire on it, but it didn't match the rear Dunlop, so I got a new front tire. The SVs clutch perch required a minute or so on my grinding wheel to make it slide up the GSXR clip-on a little further. There were a few sockets I needed to buy. Etc., etc., etc. Stuff like that.
But for the most part, and excluding the speedo sensor mod, it's about as close to a bolt on as you're going to get I think. If you budget carefully, I think you can do it for under $900. I'm sure people more resourceful than I could do it for much less. I could have used the old tire that was already on the GSXR wheel. I could have got a slightly scratched fender off of eBay, and I could have refinished or bought a new OEM top clamp- but I opted not to. I'm sure I could have saved some in tools if I already had that stuff as well. YMMV indeed.
So, the exact BOM for my bike's swap looks something like this:
Lower triple, stem, bearings, fork legs, wheel, calipers, rotors, brake hoses, and master cylinder are from the GSXR 1K I got off of eBay.
Top triple is from Vortex. (Only because it's cheaper than an OEM top clamp by a good bit....)
Brake resevoir and lever are from my SV.
Front fender, a handful of screws, fork seals, speed sensor and speed rotor are from Ron Ayers.
Tire, PJ1 fork oil, and speed bleeders from Dennis Kirk.
Fork rebuild tools are from Traxxion. (In my opinion, a must-have unless you're a competent fabricator...or choose not to rebuild your donor forks...)
Misc. tools from Sears and Harbor Freight. If you opt for the countershaft speedo conversion, don't waste your time with HSS bits. Cobalt bits are really the only way to go when drilling the countershaft out. And cheap taps are just that, cheap.
Ultimately, I'm pleased. It's functional and looks great. I'm fairly sure I won't run into an SV quite like mine anytime soon, so there's that unique-ness factor. Mostly though, it was a fun project and there's pride in doing the job by yourself.
