Project SV/MV/RC30/Ducati/GSX-R
By Chris Baker

I can't leave anything alone. Never have been able to. I just like bikes that are unique. I' ve been riding a really trick Honda NSR 250 and RVF 400 for the past few years. But this is the story of how my "make it special" approach has impacted a 2001 SV650S.

The SV is great! Love the V-twin. Always have. In fact, I had recently sold an RC 51 and was wondering what I'd get next. The RC 51 is a nice bike but unnecessarily fast for the street, at least the way I like to ride. Imagine riding an RC 51 and then hopping on an NSR 250. I found myself riding the RC 51 less and less. But I loved the power delivery of the V-twin. A friend of mine was racing AFM 650 twins and I started to pay attention to his SV and thought, "This is a great bike!" Then one day I just went down to the dealer and bought a 2001 SVS. I really like the SVS bodywork: not a full sport bike look, but some nice lines. It was perfect�for about 600 miles.

As most of you know, the stock SV could use a little help in the suspension and brake department. And I happen to have a group of buddies who own a shop here in northern California called Motomorphic. As the name implies, they can do just about anything to metal, preferably metal associated with motorcycles.

So this project began, innocently enough, with a front-end swap. If you couldn't tell, I'm a sucker for a pretty face. I could have upgraded the stock front end but was seduced by the inverted look. Had to have one on my SV. Motomorphic helped me source a complete 2001 GSX-R 1000 front end. I like the look of the gold tubes and the TiN on the sliders. Those 6 piston calipers look great, too.

The conversion is very straightforward:

1. remove the SV front end
2. press the SV stem out of the lower triple
3. weld it up then machine it to the appropriate size and
4. press it to the GSX-R 1000 lower triple
5. modify the GSX-R 1000 fork stops and
6. bolt the whole thing back on

During the conversion, I thought I'd need to get a set of TL-S bars to get the same rise and clearance as the SVS bars. It turns out that the stock GSX-R 1000 bars work fine. They are about 1" lower but all the controls and cables clear everything just fine.

OK, that's the front. I then installed a Penske 3-way adjustable on the back. Done and done! And let me tell you what a difference it makes. The SV is transformed into the canyon carver it was always meant to be. Suzuki should have made it this way in the first place. Plus, visually, the whole front end looks more balanced. I always thought the SVS needed something "meatier" than those skinny stock forks poking out from under that front fairing. And the gold TiNitride looks great against the blue of the bodywork. It stops a bit better than it used to, to say the least.

So, with the suspension sorted, I started thinking about the next set of modifications. I was surfing the web one day and I saw what was clearly a Photoshop-modified picture of a red SVS with an Agusta MV F4s tail pasted onto it. To me, it looked great. I thought, "Now we're talking!" and my search was on.

I have a buddy who calls me one day and says he found an Agusta F4 Strada tail, complete with seat, tail light, all the brackets, etc. I told him I' d take it. Next, I posted on an Agusta forum that I was looking for an F4 subframe. Turns out a number of F4 owners are being harassed by their girlfriends and are converting to the bi-posto set up. This requires different tail plastic, seat, etc. Anyway, I got a response from a guy in Florida who had done the conversion and ended up with a spare subframe. We agreed a price for the subframe (they retail for about $1000!) and during the conversation it came out the he also had the mono tail, seat, taillights, etc. Can you say SOLD!? I also posted for a set of stock MV mufflers. Well, this same guy contacts me and we agree a price for those. In the end, I found two complete tails (seat, tail light, etc) and two sets of stock mufflers. (Any ideas for what to do with the "spare" MV tail section/seat and exhaust?) For the record, the retail price for the MV parts alone is near $4,000. I was fortunate to have paid significantly less than that.

So, I had all the parts I needed for the tail and exhaust conversion but in order to fit the exhaust, I first needed a single sided swing arm. Motomorphic to the rescue!

You may have figured out that Motomorphic was the key to this project. I fancy myself the �idea/design' guy but Motomorphic did all the machining and fabrication work and sourced a bunch of the interesting stuff. Like the complete Honda RC 30 swing arm/eccentric/rear brake set up, etc.

They had previously installed a VFR 750 swing arm on their shop SV (see their website for pics) but to my eye, the RC 30 arm, which is about 1" thicker in terms of it's visual height, looks more appropriate on the SV. Plus, I much prefer the way it carries the rear brake caliper underneath, rather than on top of the swingarm. I think it makes for a much cleaner look. But let me tell you, it was a big job to fit.

First, the RC 30 linkage is �backwards' from the SV. That is, the swingarm itself lacked the boss that the SV dog bones fit up to. The whole underside of the arm had to be hogged out and then a block/plate was fabricated and fit to make it work. Then the hole that the shock fits through had to be moved over and back and then re-plated. It took better than 22 hours of machining and fabrication work just to get the swing arm on.

Now, those of you who want a single sided swingarm on your SV, have no fear. The mid '90s VFR 750 arm comes with the boss set up essentially the way you need it. All that' s required is to widen the boss and fit the appropriate bearings. OK, it requires a bit more than that but it's a great deal easier and faster to fit than the RC 30. The Motomorphic SV has the VFR arm on it and it was a far simpler mod. Ah, the joys of "going first!" Anyway, the RC 30 arm looks great, it fits great and it works great. It confuses people when they first see it. Most people ask if it's a Ducati swing arm. I guess because they recognize the rear wheel as Ducati. Plus, based on my conversations with people, it appears that not many people know what an RC 30 is - can't blame them, how many people have even ever seen one?

To finish off the swing arm, I had a custom, one-off carbon chain guard made by a local composite fabricator.

Then it was time for the rear wheel. I wanted to keep the look consistent with the GSX-R 1000 3-spoke front wheel. Motomorphic sourced a Ducati 916 wheel, which interestingly, has the same 4-shear pin spacing, etc. as the RC 30. Go figure. Anyway, the chain line was figured as we fit the swing arm so all we had to do was to fabricate a spacer to get the rear wheel alignment right. That pushed the wheel to the right far enough that we had to machine the RC 30 wheel nut spacer to work with what was now a �shorter' axle. We also machined the thrust side of the spacer to fit the Ducati wheel. The whole idea with all this is that I can now run a standard Ducati rear wheel. Can you say 5-spoke Dymag Carbon�? Soon, my friends, soon�

Next, we fit the tail section. I have to say, it' s really interesting how well the tail fit up to the SV tank. A number of the style lines just plain "work". The seat height went up a bit but I like that. It puts me over the front wheel a bit more. A few folks who' ve sat on it say it feels a bit like a Ducati. In any case, the F4 subframe was cut to clear all the SV parts it had to clear. Once the tail was positioned, it was a matter of bending some aluminum tubing to fit and fabricating a set up that holds the tank hinge. As you can see from the pictures, the seat flips up, just like on the F4. It' s all very tidy. All I had to do in terms of wiring was to slice the loom and pull out the tail light, turn signal and license plate light wiring as it needs to be able to hinge up with the tail section.

Next Motomorphic fabricated and fit the exhaust. I ran the stock SV header but you can see all the work that went into this. The rear head pipe had to be re-routed to get around the swingarm and then it was a "simple" matter of mating up the F4 mufflers to the rest of the header. It ended up being a 2-into-2 that uses the stock crossover. Well, OK, you could call it a 2-1-2-4 but that' s really more of a visual description.

EVERYONE who approaches the bike wants to hear it. It' s a little bit of a disappointment as these are stock mufflers off a 750. They are a tick louder than stock but breath better. It really is nice that it' s so quiet. I wanted a bike that wouldn't upset my neighbors as I left for my weekend early morning rides. Actually, it could be a bit louder and still be OK but it does have a nice rumble and it just plain looks so cool. I could not be happier.

A few things on the list of "little things" are:

• Fitting Race Tech Gold Valves and Race Tech springs and getting a softer rear spring to compensate for the fact that the RC 30 swing arm is a bit shorter than the SV. The recommended spring rate is now a bit harsh.
• Molding the tank to exactly match the F4 tail section
• Having a few decals made. Actually, this should be pretty cool. Let me explain: Agusta has six letters. So does Suzuki. My plan is to make a set of decals that look just like the Agusta MV decals but say �Suzuki SV�. It should be subtle enough that you have to look twice to notice
• Paint the front fender in the body color
• Relocate the shock reservoir inside the tail

I do have a bit more work to do and that' s most likely to be the case forever�But to me, that' s the point of a project bike, isn' t it?

In closing, Project SV/MV is turning out just as I' d hoped. And yes, it is available for purchase. The guys at MotoMorphic know how to reach me, so if you're interested, give them a call.

Ride Safely.

MotoMorphic SVS-S650T: It's finally presentable! It's also just a plain ole SV-650. Well, you know, with a single sided swingarm, dual over/under high exhaust, 916 wheel, inverted front end, FCR carbs, and a few other details. We left the SV motor in it, and in its stock form, at least for the time being. We took our project SV apart, and trial fit an Aprilia Mille motor into the frame. After complete disassembly, a couple things were immediately apparent. First, it was clear that the engine could be made to fit in the frame. Well, more correctly, the frame could be made to fit around the engine, at least with the removal of a few cross braces and similar pieces of interfering aluminum, and the addition and modification of several mounts and brackets. The second thing that was made apparent was that the SV frame is really heavy, and not particularly well suited to such an engine transplant. Our reasoning is if we were going to modify the SV frame to the extent needed to fit the Mille mill, it would probably make sense to build a complete frame. Then it could have the geometry we want designed in, tailored to fit the engine with the mounts in the right places right from the get go, hopefully lighter that that SV piece of chunktainium, and we could call it our own. We did check to see how a TL-1000R motor fit into the frame, but it wasn't great. It was closer than the Mille mill, but not very close. We figure that there are a lot of SV-650s out there, and their owners might like to see a modified one, instead of going to extremes, and making it a complete bitsa. We're confident that we'll get enough, "What the heck is that thing?" questions the way it is.

So, now that that's been addressed, the following pieces make up the MotoMorphic SVS-S650T: Stock frame, engine, radiator, seat, taillight, and gas tank. Custom or modified components are a 95 VFR-750 swingarm, modified to fit the SV linkage and frame; stainless dual over/under high pipe exhaust system with internal disc mufflers; Ducati 916 rear wheel; revalved 98 GSXR-750 front end; Ohlins shock; carbon rear brake disk; tasty IrfenBirk rearsets and dual headlights; SharkSkinz subframe (modified), tail, and fender; machined billet bar end halogen turn signals; billet dash with Stack tach, digital temp gauge and speedo, and idiot lights. The frame, swingarm and wheels have been powdercoated, and the bodywork has a fresh coat of paint. Maybe you saw it at our booth at the San Francisco Motorcycle Expo, or you can come check it out at MotoMorphic in Petaluma. We'd like to hear what you think!
Now on Sale for $8999

Cratey: CR-80 road racing bike, with revalved and lowered suspension, RS-125 wheels and brakes, slicks, clipons, and dual radiators. This little thing flat out hauls booty!

V3R-400/2: This is a NS400R V3 two-stroke engine grafted into the VFR400 chassis. Was going to be an SV engine transplant; Now it's going to be a V3 two stroke! Pix to follow.

Here are a few shots of the preliminary V3R-400 motor chassis fittment. Please note the unobtainium milk crate.

RSF-S935T: The Folan 935cc V-twin engine is beautifully mounted in the Honda RS-250 chassis, no more unobtainium wood block. The next steps are to fabricate an exhaust system, fit a cooling system, modify the underside of the gas tank to clear the rear head, and also to fit the manifold and carb for initial proof of concept test running. It's coming along! Check out the new pictures.

Newby SV: Just another SV...with an R1 front end, courtesy of MotoMorphic, specially fitted with the stock bars, and featuring the use of the stock SV wheels, or the Marchesinis that the owner uses for track days. It is a MotoMorphic point of pride to make specialty work such as this appear "factory" – in this incarnation, even the steering lock works.