I am kind of curious about the SV1000. I saw an article about the bike, made it sound like one of the biggest flops since the Ford Edsel. Even though everybody seems to love the SV650, it would be hard to even give away an SV1000. Same bike, bigger motor, how bad could it be? I'm assuming it was a marketing problem and not bad engineering.
The bike failed to define itself. It wasn't really a sport bike, too heavy and yes suspension was too weak for track, although perfectly adequate for street and better than SV650's. It wasn't that much of a touring bike either with a short range due to a thirsty engine, and with tight ergos. Dual, side exhaust went quickly out of style as well. Nevertheless, it's a good motorcycle if you find it for $2,500 - $3,000. I don't think it deserved that much negative publicity. Writers sometimes have no clue and go with what market dictates, it doesn't sell therefore it must be bad. On the other hand, kijiji peeps seem to think that just because no one wanted to buy one 10 years ago, somehow it makes them super desirable today.