My little brother got a 2007 Suzuki SV650S recently, the first year of the twin spark head, and I have put a few tanks into it now. It’s EMBARRASSING how much better fuel economy it is getting than my CBR250R. Me and my dad did a sport touring ride up to West Virginia, and both my bikes would be terrible for that kind of distance riding, we’re talking 550 miles in a day, twice. So I took the SV, and my dad took his VFR 800. I was able to maintain a full tuck about 90% of the time on the way up there, and used pulse and glide. Me riding for a whole tank doing that gave my current record of 71 mpg. Keep in mind that this was on the expressway doing 70 mph keeping up with my dad. The fuelly average for the bike after 10 fillups is now basically matching modern CBR250Rs on fuelly at 64.4 mpg. Also, this bike is running stock 15/45 gearing and a very open delkevic exhaust.
Fuelly for it:
Harley (Suzuki SV650S) | Fuelly
That was the best I was able to get unfortunately, because the kind of riding we did when we got to West Virginia while fun, was not efficient.
I’m really digging that SV, it’s got serious torque, it accelerates even better than the 800 down low. Just think of the mileage I could pull out of an SV with full fairings, 16/42 gearing, milder V-Strom 650 cams, and a less ridiculous exhaust! I might be flirting with 90 mpg!
So, yeah. I want one now
. I’m probably going to sell my VFR 400 after fixing it’s problems and then get me one of these fuel sipping torque monsters.
I also did an airbox video for it, so here is that: