[rogue]

I needed a bike that wasn't as heavy as the cruiser I'd learned to ride on. I knew absolutely nothing about sport bikes, except they were fast and could land me on my ass in a heartbeat.

The SV wasn't what I was originally wanting. Sport bike to me at the time meant plastics....err...fairings. I was smart enough to know I didn't need anything bigger than a 600cc (or I was just to chicken shit, take your pick ). After looking for a bike for a few months, one of the guys at the local zook stealership put his wife's bike up for sale. She wasn't riding it because she was scared of it. At that point I did a little research on the SV. Reading everyone's opinion about how it was a great starter bike, I decided to go look at her. She was an 03 purchased in 04. In January of 05 she only had 1100 miles on her. She was clean aside from a little crack around the headlight where she had been scraped. Taking into consideration most people's opinions of the SV and what the guy wanted for her, she came home with me a few days later. I fell in love with her the first time I rode her. She wasn't pretty to me then, but I eventually came around.

The first thing I learned on her was where I got a much lighter bike, I could no longer get my feet almost flat on the ground. Tip toeing was a little daunting at first (and after reading about lowering, I decided to be hard headed and not lower her). The second thing I learned is downshifting a little early on a sport v-twin is NOT as forgiving as a v-twin cruiser and will cause the back tire to light up!



Overall, I've been extremely happy with her.