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The 2024 Suzuki SV650 is another upright naked motorcycle in the same engine class as the other posts.
The MSRP on this one is ~$8,000, and the general consensus is that it's a great starter bike.
This is what I took lessons on, not the 2024 one, but the same model. It really is a nice starter bike, light, agile and also forgiving. If I remember correctly it had a support system that helped with driving away without stalling.
It was also controllable. There is enough power there, but you could easily drive it slower, where some bikes, especially the higher power ones will accelerate very fast if you twist the throttle too much.
To be fair, if you are just driving on the roads, you don't really need more power. More power is fun though.
In the end I am to tall for a 650 cc bike, so I ended up on a bigger bike. But I will always like this model.
Wow that's super good insight! When I was looking to buy my next one the online community kept bringing me back to this bike for it's ease of use and versatility. With your comment I can see why.
What do you ride instead?
I am quite tall, and I currently drive a Yamaha Tracer 900 from 2018. It's not a naked, the naked version would be the MT09 which is pretty high value as well.
Be sure to test one from 2018 or later though, the earlier versions did not have the injection figured out properly, and the throttle was choppy because of that. Very on/off. Later versions are much better. The Tracer 900 and the MT09 use the same engine, so that is nice.
The SV650 really is a nice bike and it handles well. It's one of those bikes I can recommend anyone. Even experienced riders can have a lot of fun with it. Because it is light and agile it corners really well.
It really is a great bike.
My dad had a 2002 and I find it remarkable that they haven't increased the power after two and a half decades. Not saying the thing doesn't have enough beans, but I would expect some gains there. Especially since his first generation was still carbed.
Lots of bike manufacturers are struggling with emissions. They find a bit of power here or there, but they have to use it to offset some power loss because of environment requirements.
It's also a beginners bike and marketed as such. The competition for huge power numbers is really in other segments.