SFV650 – Renthal Ultra-Low Handlebar

One thing I have been wanting to change on the 2013 Suzuki SFV650 is the handlebar.

The primary reason is that it feels very narrow to me after riding the 2016 Ducati Multistrada 1200 or my mountain bike and the sweep makes it feel even narrower. It is not easy to quantify the reach and rise to the handlebar on different vehicles, but the width is fairly straightforward to measure. The OEM handlebar is approximately 675mm wide while the Multistrada is 830mm wide and the mountain bike is 750mm wide. I found some additional reference measurements that were specific to the SV650 (same as SFV650, but no one liked the name) vs the SV650X.

Ergonomic Measurements

Dimensions 4 and 7 were easy to replicate and I could make my reference point for dimensions 5 and 8. I could also measure vertical from the ground to the end of the handlebar to determine the change in height of the handlebar. My main goals were a little more width and reach with a little less sweep.

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OEM Handlebar

Renthal has a wide range of 7/8″ diameter road bars and a comparison tool on their website. Unfortunately, they did not have reference dimensions for the OEM handlebar for direct comparison, but there are a few other sites that have a bunch of OEM handlebar dimensions that can be reviewed. I went with the Renthal Road Ultra-Lows to achieve the added width and less sweep. This is my approximate comparison of the OEM and Renthal Road Ultra-Low handlebars:

Dimension	OEM	Renthal Road Ultra-Low
Width	26″ (660mm)	29″ (733mm)
Height	3.5″ (89 mm)	3″ (74mm)
Rise	??	1.7″ (42mm)
Sweep	3.7″ (94mm)	7.5″ (190mm)

Basic Comparison of the Renthal Road Ultra-Low vs the OEM handlebar

It shouldn’t be very challenging to remove the existing handlebar. The first step was to remove the bar ends so that the fixed left grip and the throttle grip assembly could be slid off the end of the bars. I am the original owner of this bike as well as the third owner. The owner in between changed out the OEM bar end weights for a set of R&G Racing bar end sliders. The right side came off with no problem, but the screw on the left was just spinning and not loosening grip inside the handlebar. I had to drill off the top of the screw to release this bar end. The internal nut was badly corroded and I am not sure how so much water got into the bar for this to happen (this is the low side of the handlebar with the bike on the side stand). I wanted to give the previous owner grief about this, but the R&G bar ends that he installed utilized the original mounting hardware and maybe more the fault of Suzuki.

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Corroded Bar End Removal

The clutch lever and throttle grip assembly need to slide off the length of the handlebar while the front brake lever and master cylinder could be unbolted entirely from the bar. Removing the handlebar from the bike mount gives enough slack in the clutch and throttle cables to work the bar back and forth and slide these items off. Throttle grip assembly followed by the clutch lever was my order.

Reverse the process to get the clutch lever and throttle grip assembly on to the new bar before attaching the handlebar to the bike.

The left side controls (lights, turn signals, horn) and the right side throttle grip assembly have location pins to make sure that they stay aligned on the handlebar. There is some debate on whether these locating pins are necessary or not. Some just file the plastic pins off of the controls and others opt to recreate the location holes. When I wanted to adjust the angle of the clutch lever on the 2016 Ducati Multistrada, the locating pin would not allow my to rotate the lever they way I wanted too so I removed it, but the clutch lever had much beefier construction/mounting bolts than the SFV650 controls. In this case each control was only tightened to the bar with two Philips head screws each into the plastic bodies of the controls, so I recreated the locating holes. Both holes are in the bottom of the bar approximately 165mm from the end of the bar. Easy to do on the left side with nothing in the way, but I should have marked this dimension on the right side before installing the throttle grip assembly and mounting the handlebar. There was no way to measure precisely once the throttle grip assembly was in the way.

Left Side Control Locating Hole

Left Side Control Reinstalled

New Bars Ready to Go

I did reinstall my RAM Mount for the phone and confirm that there were no clearance issues between the handlebar and tank or any cable issues with lock to lock movement of the handlebar. No issues and no re-routing of any cables was required.

Handlebar Clearance

When I purchased the Renthal bars, I thought I would be able to reuse the R&G bar ends, but the Renthal aluminum bar has a smaller interior diameter. The existing bar ends weren’t going to work even without the corrosion issue. I purchased another set of R&G Racing BE0023BK bar ends that were compatible with Renthal bars and were intended for Ducati Monster handlebars. They have a narrower section at the bar that I don’t really care for the gap created to the handlebar grip, but they will work for now.

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R&G Racing Bar Ends

Best I can measure after installing the new bars, the bars are now 1.5″ (37mm) lower vertically, about 0.5″ (15mm) further away as shown in dimension 5 above and about 0.3″ (10mm) closer to the foot pegs as shown in dimension 4 above.

Overall, I am happy with the change in handlebar and, at least for me, feel like this is the bar that Suzuki should have put on the bike from the start.

Suzuki SFV650 Tail Tidy

One of the first projects since getting the 2013 Suzuki SFV650 back is to remove the huge rear end of the motorcycle and the SW Motech pannier system that was installed by the previous owner.

This is how the 2013 Suzuki SFV650 looked shortly before it was traded for the 2016 Ducati Multistrada.

Previous SFV650 Configuration

The Givi V46 top case was transferred at that time to the Multistrada and the area at the rear of the bike circled in yellow is the project for today.

With the experience of working on the 1981 Suzuki GS650, OEM parts will be available for a long time, but 2016 was the last year of the SFV650 and after-market parts specific to the SFV650 may become harder to locate.

Looking at options for the tail tidy, the products from R&G Racing and Evotech appeared to be the best solutions available. Availability was the deciding factor and the R&G Racing tail tidy was available directly from R&G in the UK while the Evotech seemed to be out of stock everywhere.

Before we get started, another picture of the existing rear end and the SW Motech pannier supports that will be removed. The existing rear turn signals and the seat lock are the only parts that will transfer to the new tail.

Existing Tail and SW Motech Pannier Supports

The written instructions for both the R&G Racing and Evotech tail tidies are surprisingly similar and also pretty useless. The SFV650 Service Manual is much more useful in figuring out how things come apart and go back together.

The SW Motech pannier frame was the first to go. There was just two Allen head bolts/spacers connecting to existing body mount point under the seat and two band clamps attaching the brackets to the forward section of the motorcycle frame.

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Allen Bolts below and Band Clamps on the sides

The Allen bolts and spacers replaced some shorter bolts that were original equipment. Luckily some of the bolts that were no longer needed after the tail tidy could be re-used here.

Removing the existing tail and installing the tail tidy requires removing quite a few other items: the seat, the passenger grab handles, the body side panels, and of course the existing tail with associated turn signal and lighting wiring connections and seat lock mechanism.

Once you have the basic pieces out of the way, there is a single Philips head screw in the rear wheel well that releases an access panel to the mounting bolts of the tail.

Access Panel to Tail Mounting Bolts

Once the access door is removed, you have access to the four bolts that attach the tail.

Four Mounting Bolts for the Tail

With the wiring and lock connections disconnected and the four bolts removed, the whole tail just drops off in one big piece.

Tail Piece Removed

Before moving on to the install, you need to remove the existing turn signals and the key mechanism for the seat lock to be reinstalled. The turn signals simply unbolt with a 6mm socket. Getting to the key mechanism requires removal of the two Phillips head screws that hold the license plate bracket. With these screws removed, the tail separates into two pieces to access the interior of the tail.

Interior of the Tail Section

It is just a simple slide clip that retains the lock mechanism. Slide the clip off, pull everything out, and transfer to the new tail.

Lock Mechanism Transferred

At this point, the tail tidy starts to get mounted to the bike. The instructions were not clear on routing of the lock cable or the turn signal and brake light wires. I left the turn signals outside of the tail tidy enclosure and both the lock cable and brake light wires up and out the right side of the enclosure.

The existing four holes are used to mount the tail tidy to the bike with the supplied Allen head bolts. Two are straight forward towards the front of the mounting plate. The last two need to be inserted through the lock enclosure up the to existing mounting points. I was balancing the bolt on top of the Allen wrench and working blind while realizing if I dropped one I would be starting over as there was no way to retrieve a bolt dropped inside the enclosure.

Mounting Locations

Before putting everything else back together, the wiring and lock cable connections need to be completed. The turn signals just reconnect to their existing connections. The new rear brake light is generic across all of the R&G Racing tail tidies, so unfortunately, it was necessary to cut the connector from the old tail wiring and splice it to the new brake light wires for re-connection.

Splicing Rear Brake Light Wiring

Other than needing to splice in the wiring for the rear light, I am very happy with the quality and appearance of the R&G Racing tail tidy for the SFV650. Had to get the bike back outside for some decent pictures.

Side View: R&G Racing Tail Tidy

Rear View: R&G Racing Tail Tidy

One thing that I have left to do is configure the rear reflector requirements. The kit came with a single, stick-on round reflector which might work in the UK with their larger number plates, but no where to stick it on the MA plate or meet the side reflector requirements.

MA Reflector Requirements

After trying to figure out how to piece something together to mount the reflectors, I realized that the Ducati Multistrada has the perfect setup for this with a bracket that mounts behind the license plate for the three reflectors. I have ordered the part from Ducati and will be installing that when it arrives.

Ducati Multistrada Reflector Mount