gitarjunky wrote:I'd go with the SV if I were you, only because of the maintenance issues (and I guess since I have one..."if I were you", you'd already have one...weird
) Once you're past your 600 mile service on the SV, you pretty much have to lube the chain, change the oil, tires and brake pads. No valve adjustments (unless you're over 100,000 miles) or carbs to sync or any of that. But go with which one is more comfortable...and dont' get me wrong the Monster is bad a s s. Naked bikes rule!
The schedule for SV650 valve adjustments is actually 15,000 miles. If you get the valve mod done to the ducati, it brings it up to 18,000 miles. Plus, there are 2 valves/cyl on the duc, instead of the 4/cyl in the SV. The ducati is also fuel injected, so no carbs.
None of that should be a real deciding factor since they would be so similar in that respect, but I, like TechBMW, am getting tired of people talking about all the maintenance on these bikes, when they really don't know. He is a certified Ducati Tech, and he says adjusting the valves is a lot easier than on many japanese bikes.
Something else to consider: the SV650 is liquid cooled, the duc is air cooled. After messing with the radiator on my Interceptor, I'm very very tempted to stick with air-cooled bikes. It is just another thing that needs maintenance, and another thing that could break.
Now, the SV650 does have a bigger fuel tank (4.5gal) to the duc's 3.9gal. They both get similar gas mileage (depending on your throttle hand), so that is another thing to consider.
there are only 2 kinds of bikes: It's a Ninja... look that one's a Harley... oh there's a Ninja... Harley...Ninja...