FFuture

Suzuki SV650 Kit

Suzuki have recently announced a pair of new machines for the '99 model year. These are 650cc V Twins that are small, light and are getting rave reviews in the press. They offer a genuine and interesting machine for 1st or 2nd time buyers but they have a number of features that make them very attractive for our purposes. Suzuki have gone to great pains to hide a lot of the pipe work. There's also no oil cooler to relocate.

It remains to be seen how well they sell and hence how many will be available cheap on the 2nd hand market. There are also some question marks about reliability as Suzuki are getting a bit of a reputation for releasing new models before they are really ready.

Dave Pearce at Tigcraft is now producing a 750 conversion and M4 make a very light exhaust. Together 90rwhp is easily achievable. This is now into the realms of Sports, rather than commuter!

Anyway on with the plot. Here's the base picture of the machine with it's clothes removed.

This thing is clearly narrow and compact with lots of room behind the front wheel and below the engine.

So the plan is as follows:-

Buy a nice new 650SV. Typical OTR UK price is <£4500, possibly less for a grey import
Remove all bodywork and rear sub-frame.
Remove the footrests and gear/brake linkages.

We're now left with something that looks like this.

Let's take a closer look at the frame and engine.

There are some key points here. The top of the sub frame bolts to the main frame on ears that stand about 4-5" above the cross piece.If we cut these off we're left with a narrow bar that sets the lowest point for the front of the seat. It might be possible to re-locate a shorter shock so it attaches lower down, but I think we can get away with leaving it, as the front of the seat doesn't need much or any padding.

The bottom of the engine has a mounting point that is presumably meant for some future model (maybe a trail bike).

There are several mounting points available for the front of the fuel tank, front cylinder and back cylinder.

In the next picture, I've cut the frame, moved the handlebars and instruments, removed the lights and added the front outline of a seat with seat back.

Hey it's almost an FF! So let's get down to business as for the other kits.

We now need to construct the following frame parts.

A secondary headstock to mount just behind or above the airbox. This has a drag link down the right hand side of the airbox from the top triple clamp. We may be able to mount this off the old tank mounts just behind the front headstock and something like the rear cylinder mounts. It might be necessary to weld a couple of tabs to the top of the frame but I think we may be able to get away wiothout this.
Forward footrests. We should be able to hang these from the front lower engine mounts and the mounting point under the engine.
A Fuel tank between the footrests and using up space particularly on the lower lhs of the engine.
A Rear sub-frame and seat
Assorted brackets and fittings to lose all the bits that used to be hidden under the seat such as the battery.
A new wiring loom or extensions to the old loom.
Extended hoses and cables so that the controls actually work. Interestingly, the clutch cable attaches near the front sprocket and the mounting is straight up so it's already going towards our new handlebar position without any bends.
The instruments can mount on the new headstock structure.
The front lights could use the existing lights possibly lowered an inch or two. I think we should be able to get them much closer to the headstock for a sleeker look as part of the fairing.

At this stage and after surprisingly little work (!) We have a rideable FF to terrorise the commuters with. Raw materials have cost about £1000 so far on top of the basic bike. But we have a bike that weighs about 365lb with 70hp. This should be fine for commuting through traffic and a top speed around 130mph.

If the materials above were produced as a commercial kit, for say £2000, we're looking at an all in price so far of £6500.

As ever, the next stage is to wrap the whole thing in fibreglass with an appropriately swoopy and far out design. If we allow another £1000 for a body kit. The whole shebang could be put on the road for £7500 and you would have something that got you to work in speed, safety and comfort while still allowing you a surprisingly fast bike in the twisties and capable of taking one person across continents.

Like the Bros/Hawk design, I reckon this machine could be converted with a kit by somebody who could wield a spanner. The only "edgy" thing needing doing is to cut the frame ears with hacksaw, but as with the TL1000S, these bits are not load bearing in the main structure so it's not dangerous.

Virtual Design

If anyone thinks the above is a good idea or has any opinion about it, feel free to develop drawings or pictures and email me at julian_bond@voidstar.com