SV handlebars and gearing (Oct. 05)

I had put lower Suburban Machinery handlebars on my sv (after crashing at t-hill and bending the stock ones :) but recently realized how much better I like the riding position of the NX. The low racer body position is great at the track, but since the sv is just a street bike for me I decided to modify it appropriately. After looking at several types of handlebars, I decided on some Renthal motocross-style handlebars which are several inches higher and about 6 inches wider. As always, this ended up being a bigger project than I had initially expected (surprise, surprise).

1. The control cables and wires were too short. Most of them I just re-routed to the outside of the fork tubes, making sure that they were not going to get snagged or pinched with the handlebar movement. This worked fine for everything except the clutch cable, which did still bind at full-lock right. I called Motion Pro and ordered a custom clutch cable which was 3 inches longer than stock. I also had them make it with their longitudinally-wound housing, since it was only like $6 more. My experience with Motion Pro was awesome, since they were friendly, knowledgable and I had the custom cable in 2 days! I may eventually get longer throttle and choke cables as well as extend the wiring so that I can get everything routed back between the throttle tubes, but I do not see any functional need at this point.

2. The bars are thicker but retain the same outside diameter, which meant my existing bar-end mirrors would not work. I tried an acerbis plastic mirror, but that just slipped out of position at speeds over about 50 mph. I helped my friend Chris do the suspension on his SV and in exchange he bought me a set of CRG mirrors! These are really cool billet aluminum mirrors which seem to do quite well staying put at freeway speeds :)

 

The other thing I did was put on a 14 tooth front sprocket, which is down one from stock. This in combination with the 47t (+2) rear sprocket has made the bike quite torquy and, well... the front end quite light :)

 

So far I really like the new setup. I find the bike way more comfortable and easier to control with the upright position and wide bars.