Project SV pt.1: Lets get NAKED!

There are two versions of the SV650. The SV650N, like J.B.’s light red bike in the pic below, has no fairing and high handlebars.

The SV650S has a half fairing and lower clip on bars as can be seen on my bike.

I bought an S model because I wanted the lower bars and that change is harder to make later, but I really loved the look of the naked bikes. To this end I started gathering the parts necessary to strip my bike.

The first thing I needed was headlights. I’m not sure how long I’m going to keep this bike, so I didn’t want to invest too much in the headlights, so I settled on the hella optilux 4” round driving lights. They are more than bright enough and look great in my opinion.

The next thing I needed to round up was a mount for the lights to attach to the front fork. I initially bought these…because they were cheap. Once I got them I realized that there was a reason they were cheap and quickly discarded them.

I then got these mounts which are much more substantial.

The last thing I had to sort out was my gauges. The stock gauges are mounted to the fairing, so I had to remove them to convert my bike. I decided that rather than remounting the stock ones, I would go with the Trailtech Vapor. It’s a cheap digital dashboard that gives me my idiot lights, a tach, speedo, and temp gauge. I mounted it to my lights, wired it up and it works great.

What took me the longest was tucking the unnecessarily long wiring harness from the SVS into the area under the tank. This harness usually hangs out behind the fairing, and takes up quite a bit of space in the bike, but I finally got it all hidden away.

While I was at it I installed some frame sliders to protect the bike from a drop or fall. Next on the list are bar end mirrors and making a mini fairing for the lights.

-W.W. SBSS