Thankfully, the SV is completely different. Hardly surprising, really. Those who've ridden twins know the trade-off of horsepower vs. torque all too well, and would very rarely trade back. In the same situation, you simply crank open the throttle and let the lazy 650 twin chug away between your knees, picking up instantly and hauling the bike forward on a flat torque curve. There's a minor pick-up at around the 5/6k mark, but revving Suzuki's sweet little twin is not what it's all about. That's not saying it's reluctant to pull all the way up to it's 11000 redline - it will - but it's a rather fruitless exercise when you can short-shift at 8 and enjoy more of the lovely sounds from that aftermarket Renegade can.

If you put the ZXR and the SV in a straight line and gunned them as quick as possible, I doubt there'd be that much difference, but the SV (and rider) would be considerably less stressed than the Kwak. As speeds increase the SV would run out of puff (it's geared for a much lower speed and the half-fairing nature of the bike means things get fairly blustery above 110mph).

If top speed is your thing, the SV will see 125-130mph with fair ease. Some internet sources reckon 140mph is possible... this might be true in respect to what the speedo says, or maybe mine just needs to loosen up some more, but any more than 130 takes a fair time to get up to. And as for the accuracy of the speedo? Well, that's anyone's guess.

But straight-line performance doesn't do the SV justice - it's punting the little bike from corner to corner using that instant throttle response and low-down flexibility that makes the experience equally rewarding (and a little less frantic). Riding the SV at anything less than 7/10ths is an easier, more comfortable and rewarding experience and achieves the same as the ZXR. It's only when you start pushing, particularly on the twisty stuff, that a committed rider on a ZXR would start to pull clear lengths from the SV rider, no matter how good that rider is.

But comparing the two is plain silly - accept them for their merits, and leave it at that. And if you're after mega-performance, think of something a little bigger... at the end of the day, while perfectly respectable, the SV is not what you'd call a sports sports bike, if you know what I mean.

One of the first additions to my bike was an aftermarket can, as the standard one didn't really make much of the lovely sound you get from a V-Twin motor. There were plenty of people on the discussion forum at www.sv650.org who recommended Renegade Exhausts so I check them out. This proved to be a worthy choice, and the titanium high-level end can I received from them fitted great, makes a lovely sound and thankfully is not so overboard on the volume stakes as some cans I've heard (Micron, for example). I've also written some instructions on how to fit the can, as you don't get any from Renegade. Not sure it makes the bike any quicker, but I was only after the sound as opposed to extra performance. Besides, the bike is only just run in so there's still some loosening up to be done.