While the SV650 Rally was always simply a body-kitted SV650, with a nose cowl, auxiliary lights, a pillion seat cover and a Yoshimura exhaust, it was still an effective job. It instantly converted the worthy-but-dull SV into a neo-retro bike with café racer overtones.

Suzuki is still shying away from calling the SV650X a full production model, instead intimating that an announcement about production and availability will emerge when the bike makes its public debut at the Tokyo Motor Show at the end of October. However, it’s clear that there’s a production future for it.

Compared to the Rally, the SV650X uses a normal, road legal SV650 exhaust system, the stock SV650 front mudguard – the Rally’s was skimpier – and normal SV650 mirrors instead of bar-end ones. Other than that, it’s largely the same. So compared to a normal SV650, the X gains dropped bars, a nose cowl, additional lights, small side panels and a reshaped seat. That means it shouldn’t be vastly more expensive than the base model, despite being far more attention-grabbing. 

Ben Purvis