Top test Suzuki SV 650

Top test Suzuki SV 650

And the beat goes on…

Suzuki completely renovated its successful SV 650 model. The most important change: The lively twin received an intake manifold injection. The MOTORRAD Top-Test clarifies whether the Japanese also had a lucky hand.

Made it, but happy. Every motorcyclist knows this feeling. Several hundred kilometers of country roads have been taken under the wheels, then ?? Finally ?? Allowed yourself and your motorcycle the break you deserve. And in the evening in the local pub, you can review the long day with your declared favorite drink. Everything went like clockwork. No complex combination of curves that would not succeed, no tricky situations that one would not have mastered. It couldn’t be more beautiful. AT rare moment of satisfaction.
It was the first trip to home this season. In the morning the thermometer still showed refreshingly low temperatures, the asphalt of the house road gleamed suspiciously damp in many places, in others a white-gray veil heralded the last salt spreading by the road maintenance department. You learn to wrinkled a motorcycle every spring? The author still has this old and true saying of his driving instructor in his ear. The old man should know. Is it now well over 70 Lenze? and is still traveling quickly and safely? with a stately heavy touring 900er.
How much easier and faster could he get fit with a motorcycle like a Suzuki SV 650. One for everything, one that doesn’t take anything wrong, makes it easy for you. That sharpens the senses after a few meters and instills tremendous confidence in your own driving skills. And gives you the time to familiarize yourself with the most beautiful minor matter in the world.
Properties that already marked the character of the predecessor introduced in 1999. Now Suzuki has stepped up and fundamentally revised its mid-tidy bestseller. Make something good even better? During this attempt, many manufacturers who were used to success suffered shipwreck. Searched compromised where none were necessary, ignoring known weaknesses.
Suzuki, on the other hand, skilfully circumnavigated such cliffs. The Japanese initially took on the mixture preparation of the 90-degree V2. Electronic manifold injection instead of constant pressure carburetor. A must for today. Not just because it’s good form. The strictter emissions standards alone make this investment necessary. In addition to a secondary air system, the SV 650 therefore has an uncontrolled catalytic converter and easily meets the Euro 2 standard.
But the injection system helps the twin to do much more, namely noticeably more temperament and liveliness. Two throttle valves per intake manifold control the gas flows, the engine presents itself as a wonderful compromise between controllability and aggressiveness. The predecessor’s constant pressure carburetors, on the other hand, repeatedly caused criticism because they only responded with a certain delay when applying the gas after the apex of the curve. There is no longer any trace of this bad habit with the 2003 model. The twin reacts crisply to the smallest movements of the throttle hand, load change reactions are noticeable, but are kept within tolerable limits.
The subjective impression is confirmed on the dynamometer. The SV has a squeaky 75 hp on the clutch, which means it exceeds the official power rating by three horsepower. This time, mind you, with the correct control unit homologated for Germany. The driving report (MOTORRAD 6/2003) accidentally got the wrong one in the test machine. With that, the little twin made a hefty 77 hp, but also consumed an extraordinary amount of fuel.
With this SV, on the other hand, the world is all right again: She swallowed 5.0 liters on the country road, her very own domain, that’s absolutely okay. Its half-cased sister S, aerodynamically at an advantage, needs a little less, but demands a lot more from the pilot because of its decidedly sporty seating position. The changed ergonomics has far-reaching consequences. Almost the same chassis, the same drive, but two very different characters. The S looks more grown up, more serious, the naked version is livelier and ?? if you like ?? wonderfully unreasonable.
Wait, that calls for a little insert now. Entry-level motorcycles and unreasonable things don’t seem to really correspond at first. But it does. Because with its unique mid-range concept, Suzuki has cleverly managed to keep the SV 650 out of the "bread and butter" corner right from the start. This applies to the processing quality. But everything around it also fits perfectly. In a class of its own, how Suzuki managed the seating position. Even tall and heavy people feel right at home on the compact and 195 kilogram lightweight Suzuki.
And then the already mentioned engine. A real cream cake. In combination with the good chassis, the SV mutates into a real road sweeper, whose super sport fright is surprisingly high. You read that right. It does not necessarily need a radical single cylinder of Austrian origin. No no. It may have a radical, glass-hard chassis. At the same time, the said singles simply lack steam.
Which the Suzuki twin always has plenty of. You never get the feeling that you are underpowered. Just for comparison: The skilfully short translated SV 650 loses only a few tenths of a second when pulling from 60 to 100 km / h on its 1000 sister. That speaks volumes. The twin allows virtually any pace: swing through the area with a lazy shift and enjoy the landscape or, if necessary, quilt the gnarled, but precisely working gearbox and enjoy the brilliant second air above 6500 rpm? acoustically angry and determined by the staccato that is so typical for two-cylinder engines.
Before the next corner, the Suzuki can be caught again just as casually and precisely with a decidedly brisk driving style. The well-known and proven Tokico brake system on the front wheel requires increased hand strength, but convinces with a clear, hard pressure point and formidable deceleration values. When turning in with the front wheel still braked, a noticeable righting moment is noticeable, but this hardly affects the choice of line. It is always astonishing how tightly and precisely the SV drives around tricky corners, how high the liability reserves of the new Dunlop D 220 L tires are. The only point of criticism: Suzuki continues to rely on a front tire with a 60 mm cross-section. Years ago, this was seen as promoting handling. The fast-paced SV does not need this doping at all. In addition, this tire has very little self-damping.
D.he weighs twice as much because the fork itself is still underdamped. If you drive quickly and brake hard enough, it locks up too quickly. Fork springs with a slightly higher spring rate ?? how about those of the SV 650 S? ?? and a different fork oil in combination with a tire in the common size 120/70-ZR 17 would certainly help. But maybe Suzuki has deliberately kept this model upgrade measure in store. So that next time there is still something to improve on the SV 650.

This is how MOTORRAD tests – price-performance ratio

MOTORRAD explains the individual criteria of the 1000-point evaluation (part 14)

Money does not matter, this motto probably only applies to very few of us motorcyclists. Most of them have to manage their hard earned earnings and therefore rightly expect a corresponding value when buying a new machine. How much horsepower, what displacement, what equipment or workmanship the customer gets is already assessed in the corresponding criteria, and this is exactly what the detailed evaluation with a total of 42 criteria is for. The price-performance ratio should bring the financial aspect into play at the very end of the rating table, reflecting at a glance what kind of service is being delivered for the money, so the total number of points achieved up to that point is divided by the price. This factor is converted into points according to a table. Numerical examples for a better understanding: Full points, i.e. 40, are given for a machine that costs 5000 euros and a good score of 610 (no price-performance ratio). The SV 650, which costs 6,460 euros, scores 652 points, which is rewarded with 21 points for the price-performance ratio. This puts it way ahead in this criterion.

Conclusion – Suzuki SV 650

There’s not much to criticize: The Suzuki SV 650 success story is entering the next round. Your twin is simply in a class of its own. Thanks to injection, U-Kat and SLS, it easily meets the Euro 2 standard. In addition, there is a lot of driving fun for the money, the price-performance ratio offered by the SV 650 is unique.

What else caught my eye

New initial tires Dunlop D 220 L: They offer a good level of grip even at low temperatures, but are not as neutral as the Metzeler ME Z4, the previous initial tires for the SV 650. In return, the Dunlop improves handling and accuracy. New injection with two Throttle valves per intake manifold. The second is controlled by an electronic servomotor, it fulfills another purpose: when you shift down hard from high engine speeds, the electronics use this throttle valve to briefly increase the idle gas to minimize the rear wheel stamping. Perfect cold start behavior. A changed steering stop increases the turning circle of the SV 650. The main differences to the Suzuki SV 650 S: Changed chassis geometry with longer caster due to different triple clamp offset (26.5 instead of 28 millimeters), fork springs with a lower spring rate , shorter secondary ratio

Technical data – SUZUKI SV 650

Engine: water-cooled two-cylinder four-stroke 90-degree V-engine, transverse crankshaft, two overhead, chain-driven camshafts, four valves per cylinder, bucket tappets, wet sump lubrication, electronic manifold injection, Ø 39 mm, engine management, uncontrolled catalytic converter with secondary air system, E Starter, three-phase alternator 375 W, battery 12 V / 10 Ah. Bore x stroke 81.0 x 62.6 mm, displacement 645 cm³, compression ratio 11.5: 1, rated output 53 kW (72 PS) at 9000 rpm, max. Torque 64 Nm (6.5 kpm) at 7200 rpm Pollutant values ​​(homologation) CO 2.01 g / km, HC 0.44 g / km, NOx 0.11 g / km Power transmission: primary drive via gear wheels, mechanically operated multi-plate oil bath clutch, Six-speed gearbox, O-ring chain, secondary ratio 45:15. Chassis: Bridge frame made of cast aluminum, load-bearing engine, screwed rear frame made of aluminum profiles, telescopic fork, standpipe diameter 41 mm, adjustable spring base, two-arm swing arm made of aluminum profiles, central spring strut with lever system, adjustable spring base, double disc brake front, floating brake discs, Ø 290 mm, double-piston calipers, rear disc brake, Ø 240 mm, two-piston caliper. Cast aluminum wheels 3.50 x 17; 4.50 x 17 tires 120/60 ZR 17; 160/60 ZR 17 tires tested Dunlop D220 L Chassis data: wheelbase 1440 mm, steering head angle 65 degrees, caster 100 mm, spring travel f / h 130/137 mm. Service data Service intervals every 6000 km, oil change every 6000 km / 2.3 l with filter every 18,000 km / 2.4 l engine oil SAE 10 W 40 fork oil SAE 5W20 spark plugs NGK CR8E, ND U24 ESR-N chain 5/8 x 5 / 16, 108 rollers idle speed 1300 ± 100 / min valve clearance inlet / outlet 0.10-0.20 / 0, 20-0.30 mm Tire pressure Solo (with pillion passenger) front / rear 2.3 / 2.5 (2.3 / 2.5) barWarranty two years with unlimited mileageColors silver, blue, blackPerformance variants 25 KW (34 PS) Price 6330 euros Additional costs 130 euros

MOTORCYCLE measurements

Driving performance1 Top speed * 200 km / h Acceleration 0-100 km / h 3.6 seconds 0-140 km / h 6.8 seconds Pulling speed 60-100 km / h 4.8 seconds 100-140 km / h 6.1 seconds 140-180 km / h 6, 8 seconds Speedometer deviation display / effective 50/48, 100/97 km / h Fuel type Normal consumption in the test at 100 km / h 5.0 l / 100 km at 130 km / h 6.0 l / 100 km Country road 5.1 l / 100 km Theoretical range 333 kmDimensions and weightsL / W / H 2150 / 800/1250 mmSeat height 810 mmTurning circle 5950 mmWeight fully fueled 195 kg Permissible total weight * 400 kg Payload 205 kgWheel load distribution f / h 47/53% tank capacity * 17 liters Deceleration 9.8 m / s² Comments: Hard pressure point with good controllability. Slightly worse deceleration values ​​than with the previous year’s ME Z4 tires. Gabel goes to block.Handling-Parcours I (fast slalom) Best lap time 20.6 sec vmax at the measuring point 102.5 km / h Comments: The playful handling enables the SV 650 to turn over quickly with little steering effort. The stiffer rear end is positive, the underdamped fork is still negative. Handling-Parcours II (slow slalom) Best lap time 27.9 seconds vmax at the measuring point 55.6 km / h Comments: The touring sports tire Dunlop D 220 L builds up grip very quickly, after the first bends it can drive around the pylons at a maximum incline will. Very tight bend possible at the turning point. Circular path (46 meters, best lap time 10.8 sec vmax at the measuring point 51.9 km / h Comments: Clearly noticeable righting moment when braking. When driving over the bump, the 60 mm front tire delivers too little self-damping in the maximum lean position, which is why the front wheel can lift; 1 Measurement conditions: temperature 10 degrees, light wind, measurement location Neuhausen o. E.; ² MOTORRAD test course, values ​​from handling course and brake test averaged from the three best driving tests

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