SV Ready to Rock!

Got the little SV onto the bench the other week and gave her a thorough once-over. Lots of little bits n pieces but also made her look a bit purdy - touched up the bodywork, resprayed the seat and refurbed the battered belly-pan.

She's donated her discs to the Ducati 888 but has a fandangled set of Braking wavy discs up front now. I repaired and repacked the exhaust, gave her and oil change and brake fluid change. She also gets a new fuel filler cap that doesn't need a screwdriver to open it - my fuel man, Ian, will be pleased about that!

Back in May I had her down with Gary Smith of SDC Performance. Gary built the wee bike for me 5 years ago and his Dad rebuilt the engine 3 years ago with a mild tune-up. After that rebuild, she was putting out a healthy 84bhp at the rear wheel. After my mechanical numptiness and revving the knackers off her on only 1.5 cylinders for 4 laps in the 2012 Supertwins race, she was down to around 73bhp. I ran her like that last year and still managed 104mph from a standing start. She's been a good little bike.

Gary gave the engine a thorough check and managed to find and extra few bhp on the dyno. Competitive Supertwins have around 90bhp... I'm about 15% down on that. Oh well... will just have to ride her a little harder ;-)

I finished all the lock-wiring today, charged the battery, gave her a final check and slapped some numbers on her. #21 - happy with that start number... just oh so close to the privileged top twenty. Oh well, I'm used to being in the queue with the masses.

Tomorrow I'm dropping her off with Alan Birtwhistle (UK's own AMA Dirttrack hero) who will be taking her over to the Isle for me in the next few weeks. This is a big help as I've really struggled to take 3 bikes, all my tools, spares, paddock malarkey and gear for 2 weeks in my van and trailer in the past.

She's prepped and ready to rock 'n roll down Bray Hill!