Yeah, I'm not trying to win any races or set lap records. I just enjoy my track days and want the bike to be capable of being pushed to some degree without getting all mushy and wallowy. I just want the suspension to be consistent over a session and be able to set it up to my liking (stock suspension has very limited adjustment obviously..). I'm leery of using a different bike's suspension components because of differences in linkage rates and things like that. I'll likely go Ohlins or Elka for the rear with Race-tech for the front. Like you say, I"ll spend the rest on tires and just going out and having fun.
I never did any track days on my SV without upgrading the suspension because I would have crashed for sure since the front end would have bottomed out on the second lap.
If you look take SV Cup history as an example you will find that most racers simply put springs and RaceTech valves (some didn't even do that) and heavier oil in the forks, and an Elka, Penske, or Öhlins rear shock. Yes I know that the SV Cup had restrictions that didn't allow front end conversions, but I wouldn't do that anyway. I agree that you're probably wasting your time with an OEM shock from another bike. Sure it's probably better than the OEM SV shock (hard to be worse) but you'll soon be struggling to get that set up right.
I'm about the same weight as you and I've got 0.95 springs and emulators up front, and an Elka rear (don't remember the spring, but I know it's a bit too soft for me). A huge advantage of a proper rear shock is ride height adjustment. You need to be able to jack up the back end of the SV to get the back end under control.
The way my bike is set up it works very well with Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SC's. In 2010 I ran SC1 front and SC2 rear and the bike felt amazing. 2011 I ran Dunlop GP-A's (AMA spec front and NTEC rear) and struggled to get comfortable with them. The front particularly. I know the tires are great, but I just couldn't make it work with the limited number of track days I did.
