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I too will always love the SV650, as it was my first bike. A great-riding machine, and with an aftermarket pipe, they really sound amazing.....by far the best-sounding motorcycle I've owned.
I've always wondered....does a V-twin offer ANY advantages over a 270-degree parallel twin? I suppose it can be a bit narrower, but literally everything else seems to favor the inline motor. I do remember replacing the rear plug on the SV being a particularly annoying job.
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(09-04-2020, 02:31 AM)Jim21680_imp Wrote: I too will always love the SV650, as it was my first bike. A great-riding machine, and with an aftermarket pipe, they really sound amazing.....by far the best-sounding motorcycle I've owned.
I've always wondered....does a V-twin offer ANY advantages over a 270-degree parallel twin? I suppose it can be a bit narrower, but literally everything else seems to favor the inline motor. I do remember replacing the rear plug on the SV being a particularly annoying job.
Ask Ducati and Harley Davidson. It seems like they are married to the V-twin concept historically. In Ducati's case, with a narrower engine, there is less frontal area and drag.
A vertical twin has its connecting rods far apart largely determined by the piston bores and location of cam chain. This causes a "rocking couple" vibration. So all the newer vertical twins have counterbalancers, which means a little larger crankcase add a little more weight.
But that's still less than a second cylinder head, etc. And only the Triumph and Royal Enfield twins have the cam drive between the cylinders. And the location of the intakes would be more compact, and allow for a bigger airbox and bigger gas tank.
A v-twin can allow the connecting rods to be side by side (or forked in HD's case), so the vibrations from the "rocking couple" are minimized. Now with 270 degree crankpins and counterbalancers, I can't see any real advantages of the v-twin.
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Great insight Peking, thanks. I never thought about the rod spacing and the vibration issues you mentioned.
There are some very bright and knowledgeable people on this forum!
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We take for granted the huge improvements from balancer shafts. Back in the '70s and '80s we had XS650s and Triumphs and BSAs that shook badly. Now we have balancer shafts down to 250cc bikes. and in most 4-cyl cars. Open the hood of a Civic or Corolla and you can't tell the engine is running by looking except for the belt.
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Hmmm
https://www.visordown.com/news/new-bikes...zuki-sv650
My $ is on a xcross between the WeeStrom and Dr650...
The adv market has gotten too big, displacement wise and too costly.. KTM 790, Yamaha Tenere t7 (awesome) gs800/50 all the way up and over 1000cc .. All great for the occasional dirt road, but pricey as your looking at throwing around 10k+ of bike on anything rougher.. it’s why I didn’t off-road my ktm990adv
The All purpose dirt touring kLR is gone... So if Suzuki has a smaller compact parallel twin and parts bins the rest, so you can do both off-road and highway without a big tag.. it’ll fill the niche left by the Klr and offer more
The new strom made a point of saying it was inspired by the DR Big of old, but never actually called it the Dr Big
I think we’re gonna get a DR Big.. The orig sv was a hoot (I had one, along side a hawk gt). It was bang for your buck one of the best out there.. I think Suzuki is gonna try and do it again for the adv crowd
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I used to have a 2002 sv650 which really helped me getting comfortable in riding and understanding the twistes / lines etc with safety and the right amount of punch and power without killing myself and I did own the Ninja 650 twin a few years later which was great but the v-twin on the SV was a bit more fantastic
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All counter balancers do is get rid of the " charachter". Bwahahaha