This weekend's SV maintenance

[nitzer]

So I got a lot accomplished. I put the clip-ons back to the stock location under the upper triple clamp where they belong which also returned the bike to stock height. Felt a lot different. Much less twitchy. It raised the front end about 1.25" which is a lot. All the bolts were torqued to factory specs.

Along with that I noticed that the lower fairings were hitting the fork tubes when turning the bars. It seems the previous owner didn't mount the lower fairings right. There was supposed to be a spacer and longer screw used when connecting the fairings to the radiator bracket. He just used the short screw he had and cranked them down. A quick trip to Lowes (steel spacer) and Autozone (M6 screw) fixed that issue. No more fork interference.

My clear blinkers also arrived to replace the dim smoked front blinkers. I started pulling apart the wiring and realized why my front mirror blinkers don't work all of the time. The idiot PO had just wrapped the wires around the resistors for the LED lights and threw some tape on them. Out came the soldering iron and heat shrink tubing. He also left like 18" of extra wire in there. Don't think he knew what a wire cutter was for. I found the same mess on the rears, but since my rear blinkers aren't here yet I just fixed the license plate LED wiring and left the rear blinker wiring alone for now. It seems that between the Ninja and the SV I'm getting the impression that bikers have no earthly idea how to properly wire something. No offense to those of you that do...

Last thing I noted was when I was going to check the tire pressures on the bike and lube the chain. It seems that someone also jammed a 180/55/17 tire on the stock 4.5" rear SV rim. Stock size is a 160/60/17 for those who don't know. Been reading up on that and from what I can see there is no reason to do this except for looks because it pinches the tire too much. I believe minimum recommended rim size for a 180 is a 5.5" rim, but a 6" is better. Can I just run it the way it is for now until I wear out the rear tire or is it unsafe?

[Rhino]

If the tire is on and not leaking or rubbing anything I'd say run it that way. Handling may be weird, but that's something you can get used to.

If you decide to take the bike to the track you may want to put on new rubber anyway, depending on whether the rubber you have is sticky and how old it is.

[Striple]

I'm particular about tires, and would definitely replace it with a 160/60 tire. Chances are the you'd be fine running the 180/55, but I personally don't like taking chances with tires.

[nitzer]

Me too, I just hate to get rid of stuff that is functional before it wears out. Just me. If it's safe to run until wear out I'll leave it and replace it with the stock size at that point.

[DarcShadow]

If you're just doing basic street riding/commuting I'd say you'll be ok. If you're going to be pushing it though, yeah, you'll want to get the correct size.

[Striple]

I just hate to get rid of stuff that is functional before it wears out.

I hear ya, but tires aren't a good item to nickel and dime it over. Its a personal choice, but the whole "you should be iight" thing can become rather costly and embarrassing.

[Rhino]

What kind of tires are on there right now?

[nitzer]

Conti Road Attacks

[Haste]

Conti Road Attacks

I was on a budget and in a hurry and slapped a 180/55 conti motion on my bike (touring tire) and in my limited experince its been great. I can still get a good lean going and it feels amazingly planted but what you have to watch out for is how much throttle youre laying on.

If youre just street riding there isnt anything wrong with the 180/55 in my inexperinced opinion.