I had the chance to ride an SV, which I eagerly took advantage of, and it was like meeting the bike of your dreams. Sleek, sensual, a subdued throatiness and a fairly decent suspension package. It was the Nighthawk with a real chassis and the baby Superhawk motor. In other words, FUN!

The Fizzie was quickly dispatched and a 2001 Naked SV was found after a few weeks of hunting....there seems to be two camps when it comes to the used SV market. The "It's perfect and it has all this stuff" camp that wants premium dollar, and the "Hey, I rode it to work everyday for two years and it's a little dirty" camp. Of course, I was saving my coin for mods, so I found the cleanest commuter I could find and started wrenching.

Since I weigh 190, I swapped springs for .80's and installed emulators. I found that 18w (20w and 10w mix) oil with 18mm preload and oil height at 135mm suited my style, which is smooth and not all that fast. Now I really noticed the lack of ride height in the rear, since the bike's understeer was even more noticeable, as well as feeling a little funny when on the edge of the rear tire. The former owner had put a 170/60 MeZ4 on the rear and it just didn't feel right. I'll say those Mezzy4's wear like iron and let go predictably, but they let go a little too easily for me. Before I changed the rubber, though, I'd want to try that gixxer shock swap everyone on the board seems to have an opinion about! I found a 98' gixxer shock on Ebay and snagged it for $11 from an auto dismantling yard in Vegas. I cleaned it up and readied the patient for surgery by orally injecting the surgeon with Guinness and Bass anti-coagulants. 2 hours later, the rear end was looking like it was ready for Laker girl tryouts. Couldn't wait to turn and burn. Much better, and even though the spring is a bit soft, it was a decent match for the front. It was a lot of suspension upgrade for less than $250.

Since the rear tire diameter on the Mezzy4 170/60 rear was 25.1", and the Bridgestone BT020 160/60 I wanted to replace it with was 25.9", I decided on a 120/65 BT 010 front since it was 23.3" diameter as opposed to the stock Mezzy's 23.2". This will keep me close to the geometry that's dialed in now, which is just fine for this old dog.

I then changed the handlebars to a superbike bend and cut them down to 27". Much better! I found the stock seat to be fine for 50 miles or so, but not much more. I jumped on Ebay again and found a Sargent for $157. It's a bit firm, so I again orally infused the surgeon with Hornitos ginger margaritas and spray glued on a layer of 1/2" upholstery foam onto the top layer of seat foam, since that's about all the cover would allow without showing too much skin. I used a mini-grinder with a 120 grit soft pad to blend the edges and now it feels about the same as riding in padded bike shorts, but without all the sweat.

I replaced as many bolts as I could with stainless hex head screws. It's nice to be able to carry a set of hex keys and be able to get to almost anything on the bike, and they look a heck of a lot nicer, too. Of course, the warning stickers were removed, but I couldn't stop there. I sharpened my 3/4" wood chisel and dipped it in dish soap. Next thing you know the SV stickers were removed from the tailsection with no scratches! I can hardly believe it myself. Since I had a flame graphics kit for a helmet laying around, I applied the stickers to the tailsection and I must say it looks rather fetching.
On to the heart of the beast. There are a myriad of exhaust options available for the SV, but there was something about the Leo Vince Ultra-Hi that caught my eye. Pipe City price matched a competitor and $665 later the box was at my door. Hey, doesn't this thing come with directions? I guess mine didn't. This calls for an emergency Merlot transfusion. Ok, it's on, and thanks to CatPoopMan (where did he come up with that?) I got the jetting right on the first time, which was 150 mains, 2 .020 shims under each needle, 3 turns out on the idle screw. I'll save the slide hole for another time. I performed the 1/2 snorklectomy, which is drilling out the stock air filter nozzle with a 2 1/2" hole saw, and then raised the tank 1/4". The pipe was a bit loud, so I sawed off a 1 1/2" piece of aluminum rigid conduit and glued it into the end of the pipe with permatex hi-temp silicone. Perfect. Now it sounds like a hooligan gorilla while wheelying past the cop shop, and motors along like a debutante whilst traipsing by hospitals and animal shelters.

Now I'm just gonna ride it...till the FSD undertail gets here in a week or two....

Tom LaPorta