2022 Suzuki SV650 Review | Daily Rider

good day everybody Zach cords here with RevZilla and welcome to another episode of daily Rider on today's show the Suzuki sv650 that is of course a midsize Naked Bike for sale for about eight thousand dollars and you've probably heard of it considering it's been on the market for going on 25 years now so I suppose the question we're looking to answer today is is it a legend that deserves its status or is it getting a little bit long in the tooth in today's market all right let's ride to work and find out everybody everybody before we get going here today a friendly reminder this episode of daily Rider is brought to you by Michelin Michelin makes tires for all the vehicles we cover here on daily Rider and many more but more to the point as you've heard me say before Michelin is a fan of daily Rider which means for every Michelin product we sell on revzilla.com daily Rider gets a little bit of credit so the next time you need tires for your dirt bike your scooter your sv650 whatever it may be click the link in the description of this video shop Michelin products and you too will be supporting daily Rider okie dokie team sv650 where to start here gosh well we always start the engine I suppose I got a puddle that's running down the alley here this can inconvenient situation I don't want to stand in the puddle so I'm going to move the bike just bear with me for a second here [Music] okey-dokey so we'll start with the engine this is a 645 cc 90 degree V Twin as you can see there sort of a Japanese knockoff Ducati engine basically and a pretty good one at that as we'll find out it's the same boring stroke that it was in 1999 I believe although some changes have been made over the years of course to the exhaust system the intake course that start off as carbureted now it's fuel injected that happened years and years ago there's different cams eventually over time but at its core it's the same engine it was when the bike first came out which is oh yeah we'll talk about what that means as we ride the Fairly basic equipment elsewhere you get a little sliding pin tokiko calipers here not enormous discs I forget the actual size um and yeah basic structure of a motorcycle you got a steel trellis frame again a bit of a nod to European style bikes um and uh yeah 17-inch Wheels uh seat handlebars round headlight and an engine it's pretty basic at its core and also obviously famously good motorcycle people that has satisfied many a rider over the years so I don't know what else to do really except fire it up and get riding little two color LCD screen there and we can do the old evidence 2017 I think Suzuki's have had what they call Easy start single press on the starter button and uh there you have it a little uh little V-Twin cool little sound cool little bike let's ride shall we you're right all right so as usual we can talk about specs right off the bat I said that the bike is for sale for around eight thousand dollars this 2022 model I believe is seven thousand seven hundred and forty nine dollars uh 2023 bikes will come in a slightly different colorway and be for sale for seven thousand eight hundred fifty dollars I believe so up 100 bucks for 23. but yeah pretty fair price I think after all these years I don't know it's neither here nor there really but I did do some inflation calculations and as the bike was for sale in 1999 for something like 5700 bucks or something like that I think actually fifty seven hundred dollars in 1999 would be like I don't know I think it was like ten and a half thousand dollars now so in some ways it's an even better value than ever the sv650 more to the point it holds 3.8 gallons of fuel in this gasoline tank and when it was full it tipped the scales at 440 pounds at RevZilla West and the seat height is 30.9 inches three zero point nine and you can see I got a pretty healthy Bend in my knee there so if someone my size six foot two it is going to be exceedingly approachable maybe even too approachable as we'll talk about green night time to go and uh as for horsepower figures I do not believe Suzuki actually makes a claim about this current model bike but of course the sv650 has been around for decades now and Dyno charts are pretty easy to find so if you look up rear wheel horsepower for an sv650 you're gonna find anywhere from 64 to 72 I think depending on the dyno and the model year of the bike which incidentally I hope that this daily ride can offer you Insight on your sv650 ownership experience or potential purchase because they're not all the same bike but they're pretty similar right all right cool glad we got that out of the way just like that I'm behind the eight ball to talk about ergonomics which are quite nice I think in general it's a sort of like sporty but upright riding position like I said the seat's Plenty low if you're tall if you're six over six feet or you know especially if you're six three six five something like that I think you're gonna find the leg room to be a little bit tight as I do and you might look into a taller seat which I can only assume the aftermarket has some options even Suzuki's website has at least one option I think that bases the seat a few tenths of an inch and that's probably what I would do if this were my bike right merging out onto the free free way on the sv650 and uh just like that we're going freeway speeds it's never been known for its massive horsepower numbers the sv650 but in getting this bike around and and I haven't been a few years at least since I've ridden an sv650 and I I don't know it's sort of like punchier than I remember it's nice I like the amount of power it has it's not overwhelming but it's engaging and fun so what with the Fairly upright riding position and the lack of weather protection of course you are kind of up in the elements on sv650 but I find the riding position to be quite nice for this kind of thing you can sort of like sit back on the seat and lean into the wind a little bit if you want to and anything under 75 or 80 miles an hour is pretty comfortable in my opinion my only real criticism is one that I will reiterate from before which is the seat to Peg distance so if you're tall you might find your legs to be a little bit cramped and I think the seat is quite scooped and not especially thick in the padding Department with the effort to make it low so if you are taller and can't afford to put more padding on there thicker seat than I think you'll find that to be more comfortable on your longer stints in the saddle but here we are go and say 50 55 miles an hour in Top Gear and if I roll the throttle open surge past these trucks don't have to grab a downshift or anything it's nice good good amount of power good job little fella so as for fuel mileage I will raise my hand right now and tell you that I failed to get accurate fuel mileage during my test with this bike I dropped the ball on that one I did do some research on other stories I've written on sv650s of years past and also check some forums and articles about the journalists looking for fuel mileage figures to try to report and the truth is you're going to see a wide range with a bike like this if you have an old sv650 that's carbureted you really Hoss on it you might get 35 MPGs something like that as low as that that's unlikely more likely to be in the high 40s to low 50s but a previous test that my colleagues and I did at motorcycles magazine way back when when the round headlight SV came back out to the market our high figure was 60. so it's really going to depend on your riding Styles off and say either way with a 3.8 gallons in the tank you're going to go 150 175 miles probably and that's decent range for a bike like this you know it's not famous for its long legs that's not really what it's for but aside from the lack of Creature Comforts it's a pretty Pleasant place to be come to think of it the bike is calculating range right in front of our very faces here you can see it says they're 81 miles left on this tank and we've gone 72 miles so it's predicting 150 miles before it wants us to get gas or before it's empty I'm not actually sure uh point being there it is right there Plain Sight the one thing that I would like to note about the range on this bike is that it is dynamic which is kind of nice so if you ride around real slow it'll range will drop if you are cruising in six that this kind of speed range will go up which I find kind of baffling especially considering a bike like yes he does it anyway fun fact speaking of fun facts as we change lanes here we can talk about mirrors now this mirror shape is one that I think is quite good in general it's just sort of trapezoidal-ish looking thing they're a little bit vibey if I'm honest so I don't know I'd say three and a half stars out of five for these mirrors nothing's right I'm about all right into the neighborhood and I have not done a lot of stop sign challenging on this bike up to this point but it is awfully direct from a Powertrain standpoint oh yeah that was good we've got a little roll back there it's just a simple connectivity with a cable clutch and decent fueling from the fuel injection on the spike nothing really special about it I just think that the engine dynamic in general is quite good and in reading some old reviews of sv650s I know the first generation the carbureted ones and even the first generation of uh EFI bikes I believe um journalists sometimes complained about herky-jerky fueling and think one of the things that the SV benefits from from being around for 20 or 25 years now is that the you know that's kind of been ironed out and the fueling is not perfect but it's really good it's easy to get used to in my opinion there we go oh yeah okay a little you know a little shaky little shaky but we're still batting a thousand all righty this traffic light usually takes approximately forever and the dash on this bike is very very simple got a big bar tack across the top uh you got your trip meters down at the bottom there and you can toggle to odometer and then range and then a temp gauge and then a clock and a speedo and gear position indicator it is not complicated oh there we go I almost wish the sv650 had the old analog tachometer from yesteryear you know it just sort of feels like the bike is kind of venerable and legendary enough that it could get away with it you know like yeah it's got an analog tack with an actual needle on there but uh you know been around since before some of you had your license or even born so so so it's okay I don't know just a thought maybe I'd retrofit mine with an old Dash or something would you really exact no not really I don't care as we trundle through this neighborhood here I suppose a good time to mention that if someone does put an aftermarket exhaust on an sv650 I think it sounds delightful however I as always appreciate uh stock exhaust as well for being quiet as it trundles through the neighborhood I think there's a there's a wide gray area there's a sweet spot there somewhere you know it's all subjective I guess okey-dokey Lovers Lane on the sv650 something tells me over the years many a first date has happened on sv650s regardless if it was on the back I reckon they were fairly comfortable it's not quite as aggressive or uncompromising as a sport bike but also there's not a ton of security either there's a little bit more leg room than a sport bike but there's not like a ton of padding not a ton of room on that passenger seat so I think appropriate passenger accommodations for going across town or something but I don't think you'd want to do a road trip or anything like that twisty Road section of the daily Rider route and the sv650 over the years has dominated many many a Twist and Turn on a Mountain Road or a racetrack you name it it's a very well-balanced easy bike to ride it's just sweet handling it's predictable there's just not a lot of bad things I can say about it except that certainly the suspension is budget there's not a lot you can do to the stock suspension if you really feel like you want to make large adjustments the good news is that I think people make too much of a meal out of suspension anyway and there's too much wisdom and moaning about damping this and preload that this bike isn't really tuned for me at all it's a little bit harsh and it's a little bit a little bit soft but like I just don't find myself caring I think if you if you kind of look through the turn literally and figuratively it just it works really well it's a nice bike is it better with a whole bunch of kitted suspension on or a GSXR front end yeah it's almost certainly yeah but I don't think it's bad in a way that will absolutely hold everyone back I think it's just ostensibly budget but gets the job done for being honest okie dokie out of the twisty Road section and back on to surface streets and that's v650 is still enjoyable still good still fun still sounds sweet all right here's red light finally we can test these breaks um and uh the brakes are kind of comparable to the suspension nothing special and basically the same thing the bike's always had uh but I find them totally adequate and satisfying um I'd probably put sharper pads you know pads one more bite but uh I don't have a lot of complaints to be honest all right this is probably the guy waves to us a little nod but he didn't want his friends to see it he was waving to the dweave on the sv650. okay where were we sometimes this point in the ride I like to talk about whether or not the engine is I don't know worth buying the bike for and I would say in the case the sv650 yes I mean it's not special from a I don't know horsepower standpoint or anything like that but it is unique these days they're awful lot of parallel twins right and this is a sort of a classic machine with an engine that aside from Ducati isn't used much so I think the engine does feel cool and unique and worth buying and uh in my research for the bike I actually tripped over an anecdote whereby this engine was derived from the sv400 it came out in Japan in the late 90s maybe 1998 or something and of course 400 cc sport bikes and engines in Japan were all the rage because of regulations in that country and the United States didn't get a lot of the 400 cc bikes that Japan did but the sv400 ended up spawning the sv650 which I think is kind of interesting right it was seen as in sort of was a clean slate design as it came to North America and that's fair but it's also interesting to think about it growing from a smaller bike that didn't necessarily catch fire in Japan and I think that may be part of the charm of the sv650 is that it grew from something even smaller rather than trying to be built to some sort of price point or you know imaginary customer that they weren't sure existed and of course I glossed over a lot of history come on buddy I glossed over a lot of history of the sv650 there was this whole Gladius phase which I don't remember exactly when that was that 2009 to 2000 15 or something like that is that right I don't know something like that and of course the Gladius got an awful lot of hate from people especially those people who love the sv650 because the Gladius was it's like bulbous and strange it had a chrome handlebar and this weird headlight that looked like it was designed to probe some sort of deep sea fish it got a lot of hate for the way that it looked and I think rightly so however the bones of that bike still quite good which I wanted to bring up in the context of a larger review of the sv650 lineage that I claimed that this would be so as we near the end of the ride here we can go back to that original question is the sv650 deserving of its legendary status or does it just feel kind of old and tired and sad and I think that it's both mostly the first thing I think that's really what struck me the hardest when I started riding this bike around again for the first time in a few years like I said it's absolutely delightful and it's really really good at its core it it foundationally is a great bike the engine is good the controls work well it's confidence inspiring it's small it's narrow it's easy to ride for someone who's new to this kind of thing and it's engaging and fun for someone who's been riding for years it's such a good bike then again there are some things that it doesn't have right I mean doesn't have a TFT Dash which you get on a 390 KTM it doesn't have Bluetooth connectivity which you get on a Triumph Trident doesn't have led blinkers or lights which you get on lots of new bikes these days so it doesn't have a lot of stuff that you know its competition does but it does have that name and that lineage and and it's it's real it's good such a good bike oh my God what is this oh my God this this I didn't expect holy Moses all this rain in Los Angeles is um we can havoc on the daily Rider route and I I don't really want to do this on an sv650 take it down the railroad tracks that are all muddy and but you know no TC either that'll be fun wow you guys we're we're getting in we're getting in over our heads here this is this is not a good idea oh Jesus there's a dog barking at me now oh my god oh gosh really we're doing some serious ADV you want you v-straw Motors you watching this keep your V Strom look at this sv650 go huh might as well be halfway to Patagonia by now all right we're through the worst of it and we can mess around with no TC rap still no jump it's on my New Year's resolution list to build a new Jump that people can't dismantle right away oh it's so slippery what am I doing what am I doing ah Let's test the EBS also that's all right very conservative ABS but that's okay that's okay everybody how'd you do SV oh geez all splattered mud son of a gun now I got a bike to wash later I suppose I deserve that whoa spun up on the railroad track see that's why trash control can be good people you know just when you least expect it you end up with a full of it sideways when you didn't mean to all right more to the point can it do a wheelie let's find out shall we yeah oh my gosh can it ever do a wheelie sv650 excellent wheelie bike you'd go for miles and miles like that if you had the skill to do it really fun second gear wheelies too you know like I said kind of Punchy maybe a little more punch than you uh than you expect from a bike like this now Legend has it that if you do a wheelie for long enough or the front wheel stops while you're on the back wheel ABS will shut off not that I would ever suggest you do such a thing that would be ridiculous but if you do you will find that with abs off yes you can quite hilariously back it in I'm a big proponent of anything like brake systems as any daily Rider fan knows it's a very smart thing to have on bikes and of course ah when you shut it off it can be pretty fun okey-doke into the RevZilla west parking lot it doesn't look like we're gonna have enough parking spaces do a full test but we'll line it up here one thing I have a complaint about this bike is the steering lock it's kind of it's a little bit narrow it feels like it could go another few degrees and that would be a lot more satisfying we'll see how the the actual U-turn goes here to line up here along this line crank it to the left feet up um I mean two parking spaces a little bit more than two parking spaces that's that's not so bad rolling it in and out of my garage I've kind of noticed it I wish I had more lock but you know that's why we test everybody Pokey dokey sv650 now a muddy sv650 oh my God look at it oh no uh what a mess that's good good Fender test you know it's one thing about sport bike fenders and an oil filter that dangles off the front of the engine like that is it'll get all splattered with detritus should you wander down a muddy Trail radiator did okay that's why v-strom's got a big Dopey flap there to try and keep that stuff off of there back Fender is it okay shock is a little bit dirty swing arm's a mess anyway okay let's get a couple Reds in here shall we pipe I'll give you that but it's a delightful engine to use and to listen to in my humble opinion okie dokie everybody Instagram questions let's dive into this manager we got a meeting in 15 minutes so that should be enough time uh to get through here what I got here what do we got here what do we got here first question is with regard to that Ducati comment I made earlier I suppose this comes in from no I cannot really who asks there has been plenty of commentary on Suzuki basically copying ducati's homework when creating the SB 650 Charles frame 90 degree V Trend Etc have the sdn monster finally diverged enough to be considered different experiences does the SV feel like a monster that's missing something or does the monster feel like an SD with extra character or are they just different animals entirely good question I think if anything the monster in SV are sort of more similar than they've been just because the monster has become liquid cooled it's become kind of I don't know not sedate but kind of um you know a little bit more generic for a while it was a real kind of Flagship for Ducati you know when SV came out the monster was I think it was still the 900 then right I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong the point is it was really kind of a beastly machine in a lot of ways and the SV was this sort of like polite Japanese version of that and now SV hasn't really changed aside from experimenting a little bit in college there and the monster has really kind of like been set up as much more of this you know entry-level bike for Ducati they're still different animals and I think they always have been and I think that the way that Suzuki copied ducati's homework on this bike I don't know I've always thought of it as really kind of a Charming rendition of Abu Ducati if you will or not even a rendition of a Ducati it's it's its own thing it just happens to use a similar engine type but it's its own bike in my opinion I've I've always appreciated it I hope that helps here answers your question in some way next question is from epic motorcycle Channel who asks any intel on if this will be canceled in favor of the gsx8s right so those of you familiar with motorcycle news these days will know that Suzuki came out with a new engine approximately 800 CC parallel twin which will be in a new V-Strom and a new jigsaw GSX 8s which is a Naked Bike and this doesn't I don't think necessarily mean a whole lot but I did ask Suzuki about this and Suzuki said no the little V-Strom is staying the sv650 is staying they're seen as different models it's there's not a lot of crossover there's no plans to get rid of the these spikes so could that change based on sales yeah like I think if everybody buys GSX 8s's and nobody has SVS anymore then yeah I suppose Suzuki will phase it out but as of the publish date of this video Suzuki has not announced any plans to remove this bike from the lineup and I guess I hope they don't I don't know maybe I'm just nostalgic for the whole V-Twin thing but I like it next question is from benson80750 who says sv650 Triumph Trident Yamaha mt07 which would be your pick to turn into a beginner track bike good question uh the obvious answer here is sv650 just because it's been around for so long and there are so many parts for it whether it's you know Freer sets clip-ons Bodywork um body kits whatever I think you'd be kind of hard-pressed to go wrong with an sv650 that being said the mt-07 is a great option and there's a lot of people who have taken mt-07s to the track and there's a big aftermarket for that bike now and with you know similar mods to what an essay 650 would need to get an mt-07 is also a really fun track bike so um I would I would give the favor slightly to the SV mt07 not far behind a trident I wouldn't bother with that don't don't take a shot into the track I mean you can of course you take too attractive if you want to have fun but um it's not really um it's not as good for that kind of thing in my opinion here's from Mecca of speed I really like this question the question is at your 20-year class reunion is the sv650 that friend that you instantly fall back in Pace with like graduation was yesterday or that guy who's still trying to live his glory years where he's not as good as he remembers it's a really fun analogy I like that and like I said about the sv's evolution near the end of the ride there I think it's more a friend that you fall back in love with or maybe not fall in love with whatever you you pick up conversation with just like that it's a great bike it's so good it's so easy to get along with and it's so fun and and you can take it down a muddy Trail evidently and survive anyway it's sort of more versatile than people give it credit for I think it's better at its core than people give its credits for it just because it's been around for so long and it's kind of like oh yeah I've heard of that thing and it can't be as new as good as the new thing but it just about is aside from a few of the little modern features that we mentioned before which is not nothing but in general it's such a good bike it's so good and I think that if you've ever ridden one uh before or even if you haven't you find yourself really really enjoying a ride on sv650 okay that's the end of my ride on this sv650 thank you so much for sticking around wait a little bit longer and we'll put it on the daily router leaderboard give me a second here all right everybody here we are inside RevZilla West and we got some updates to talk about here at the dailyrider leaderboard you will see that I finally got my act together and we have a 2022 archive board which was not prepared when the CBR1000 went up last time that sits next to the 2021 archive board you can see that the 2021 board is bigger that is because 2021 board includes um a year and a half of bikes basically because that season started in July of 2020 so that's why there are more bikes there but uh yeah we're at um 50 or 60 bikes now uh almost 60 bikes I think so thanks for sticking with me if you have stuck with me and if you're new here welcome to the mad house today's ride Suzuki sv650 oh gets a smiley face right so we talked last year about giggle scores and some bikes really made me happy and I uh um and I promised I would bring around a way to document bikes that really make us smile you will notice the Honda Grom gets a smiley face Yamaha mt10 mt-07 love those uh love those Mt bikes they're probably a Toronto V4 these are bikes that I recall they just always make me giggle they're so good they're so much fun um and yes there is a trend of high-ish horsepower naked bikes I suppose but not the grommer the mt07 right so the sd650 also gets a smiley face it's just too good the seat is low and it's too stiff and I don't like that and tall people are going to be shy on legroom and the brakes are fine and the suspension's fine and the dash is a little outdated and fine but foundationally the SV is such a good bike it's so versatile and good and uh it is better than a CBR 1000 Triple R SP as a daily Rider I don't think anyone will be hugely surprised to see that ranking as for where this bike might Stack Up on the 2022 leaderboard since we have the very nicely equipped archive board here with us is it better than an mt-10 maybe not but but it's but it's I'd sooner recommend it probably and it's cheaper which is something you know um is it better than a tiger sport 660 um practically like I'm really if I'm really wearing my pocket protector no it's not better than that better than the KLR 650 yeah probably makes me laugh more anyway uh it would be in the top six or eight there um for 2022 so quite a bike that sv650 um and like I said you know it's not just an aging legend that doesn't deserve to be mentioned anymore it's it's so good despite its imperfections and long teeth you might say speaking of qualifications stickers I did update the CBR 1000 triple RSP with a fire emoji and a dollar sign because it is both spicy and pricey as we like to say here on daily Rider um thirty thousand dollar bike that'll sort of Bend space and time in a way that uh non-free mini bikes can I think that's all the information I have for you here we are well on our way to a successful fun and Wheely ridden 2023 thanks for hanging out as usual I hope you learned some of you had fun and hope to see you next time on daily writer see everybody snow in the distance there can you see that winter here in Los Angeles I tell you it's brutal you can even see snow in the distance sometimes how do we survive nobody knows hoping for a red light to test these breaks but we're just getting so lucky

Channel: RevZilla

Views: 267,691

Keywords: Suzuki sv650, suzuki sv650 review, 2022 suzuki sv650, 2023 suzuki sv650, sv650, sv650 review, suzuki, daily rider, sport bike, naked bike, best bike for commute, best motorcycle for commute, review, revzilla, revzillatv, motovlog, motorcycle commuting, motorcycle commute

Id: IIBRpzQgIKc

Length: 32min 15sec (1935 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 21 2023