The SV’s damper rod front forks are the most noticeable step Suzuki took to keeping the venerable V-twin affordable. For the average rider, these forks are just fine, and for even more a set of Race-Tech gold valves and some new springs is all it takes to make the front end behave.
I had the gold valves and the springs and still wasn’t happy. I wanted more! I wanted inverted forks, radial calipers and wave rotors. Looking around there was only one alternative that affordably offered all three features, the ZX6R 636 forks, despite the fact that many sources claim the damping rates on the KYB 636 forks are not near as good as those on the Showa GSX-R forks.
GSX-R forks are much more common mod. It’s what Mike fit to his SV and there is even a bearing kit you can purchase that makes the job as easy as easy cheese. But what could I do when a lost pair of 636 forks were left on our doorstep, bundled in a wooden basket, swaddled in a blue blanket – there was even a note attached that said “please take care of these forks – I’m afraid I’m not able too” (I’m making this up!). While the 636 forks aren’t reputedly as good as GSX-R forks, the 636 seemed to score second place in most magazines 600 shootouts, and they would in all certainty behave better than the OEM damper rods that were already on the bike.
A quick search on the SVRider Forum found that a few other brave souls had attempted the same mod – only they all omitted the specifics on how it was done. All this made the job that much more appealing!
I did a few measurements and found the 636 fork legs were about 20mm shorter than the SV damper rod shocks. However, the SV calls for a 60 profile tire. 
And for those who may not know, the profile number is the percentage of the width. In other words, when using a 120/60 tire – the 60 means the tire is 60% as tall as it is wide; in this case 60% equals 72mm tall. So, therefore a 70 profile means the tire is 84mm tall. That’s a 14mm difference in height.
Divide that number by two, because that’s what you do when dealing with round things because only half of that difference is below the center, or axel, of the circle, the other half is above the center (confused yet?). That means that if I fit a 70 profile tire, the forks would be 7mm shorter than the stock height of the OEM forks on the bike, and since it’s very popular to lower the front of SVs by 10mm, I figured 7mm lowers was more than acceptable.
I started by pulling the SV damper rods, complete with tire, brakes and clipons, off of the SV and rolling them into a quiet corner of the garage. The triple clamps were removed from the frame and sat next to the 636 bits. Careful assessment revealed that I would be able to remove the stem from the SV’s lower triple clamp and then have it press-fit into the 636 lower triple-clamp. That’s pretty easy.
Unfortunately the upper triple-clamp would need to be modded as well. The stalks that hold the key in place are way too long on the 636, so I would have to have those cut down and re threaded to accept the SV key. If I was willing to ditch the key/ignition system I could have avoided this step, but I really wanted to maintain the key in case the bike ever finds its way onto the road.
The forks and wheel I had obtained were from a 2003/2004 636, which did not have the cool Petal Rotors like the 2005 and newer Kawasaki’s. So I utilized the infinite power of Google and discovered that pretty much all Kawasaki rotors are universal. So I hopped onto ebay and obtained a pair of petal rotors from a ZX-10. Now it was time for more math; the rotors on the 03/04 were 280mm and the ZX-10 rotors were 300mm. That’s a 20mm difference. And since we already learned that when dealing with round things, you divide that number by two, I realized that I would need 10mm spacers to relocate the calipers farther away from the center of the wheel so they would clamp onto the rotor correctly. I was discussing this with my father, who was getting interested in the project, and said he’d have some spacers milled for me.
While the parts were all off getting metal magic work done to them I took the opportunity to change the fork oil and freshen up the KYB fork legs, so when the triple-clamps and spacers arrived, I’d be ready to start assembling.
The 636 lower triple-clamp, with the SV stem pressed in, slid right into the SV frame with nary a problem! However, another problem arose when I fit the 636 top triple-clamp. The 636 top triple-clamp has a goofy sloped design that positions the center of the triple clamp 10mm lower than the SV’s upper triple-clamp. Had I been aware, or done more careful measurements, I would have asked the machinist to thread the SV stem 10mm lower, and then cut 10mm off the top of the stem. Rather than take everything apart again, I simply asked for another spacer. One that would essentially eliminate the slope from the 636 upper triple-clamp. As long as I didn’t put the spacer beneath the 636 upper triple-clamp, it would not affect fork leg length.
The last step was to order a set of 50mm Vortex clipon’s as the 41mm SV clipons surely would not fit around the inverted Kwak bits.
View all of the photo's related to the modifications on the SV650 by visiting Dave's Track SV in the Gallery section.
Keep checking back as we continue to update this page as progress continues.
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