[stu]

I’m looking to remove the two plastic knuckles at the front, they seem non functional but they do blockade the grill in between (but its not attached to them from what I can see).
Haven’t taken it on the local roads yet (minding the two year old on my own).

Not sure if I can change the rear preload on my own yet either…

[JackTrade]

Give us an up-close shot of the gauges, so everyone can see that these are near-perfect for information conveyance!

[Munch]

every time I see one of those I am waiting for it to transform. Gauges?….what are those for?

[owlie]

Very nice.

Munch, the gauges are so that you can slavishly follow the break in period, just like you obediently follow every other direction you are given.

[wbsprudels]

That bike looks like so much fun to ride! Congrats!

[A]

I have put about 3600 miles on my Gladius since late May, removed the silver plastic panels and tail pipe the fist day, as soon as I got the bike back to my house, tailpipe is about 8 lb. of dead weight on the bike, it off the bike makes it sound like a Ducati on decceleration.

I also changed out the handlebar to black annodized alloy bar and black plastic units that weighs 1/3 of OEM ones, removed barend weights.. altogether save another 4-5 lb. of the highest part of the bike.
Upgraded headlights to HID units, 55w bi-xenon.

Now that it’s getting colder, I’ve added a windscreen to block air off my chest and arms:

Here’s a generic pic of the instrument panel, the gear indicator is great..

[eternal05]

I really didn’t like the blue/white Gladius when I first saw it. I was pissed that the got rid of the SV650 (I was thinking of replacing my Ninja 250 with one eventually) and thought it looked girly. Every major motorcycle magazine editorial seemed to echo the same opinion.

The funny thing is, the more I see them IN PERSON, the more I find them to be rather sleek-looking machines. Certainly more sophisticated-looking than the SV styling. Now even the white/blue is growing on me. It really is a pretty cool machine; I think they just hit the nerve of the entire collective SV owners community when they released it and dumped the past favorite.

Cool bikes guys. Glad to hear you’re enjoying them!

[Munch]

“just like you obediently follow every other direction you are given. “

Oh wait… .I think you were actually serious. LOL… I think there’s maybe 4 times I look down. 1 to make sure I am in neutral when starting, and to see gas level. 2…. umm periodical check of fuel level. 3 wellll actually this is last time and thats if I see a LEO near by and want to know just how much faster then I should be going that I was actually doing.

[stu]

A, how did you remove the lower silver plastic parts, I’ve tried that but can’t figure out how to disconnect them from the black part of the seat, I can feel + see the clips, just can’t push them back through… dont particuarly want to break something just yet

any change in bike performance with the loss of the muffler? Its the one super hideous aspect I dont like, but a yoshimura or anything else is out of my price range, but at least can be changed..

I just gotta say it rides soooo nicely!

[JtownJJA]

Great pics of the new Gladius. They are starting to grow on me as well, but I hope to see another color choice with the 2010’s.
If you haven’t seen it already, you should check out the site http://www.gladiusstyle.com. It’s quite a hoot. It even has special MP3 music downloads, 1 for each bike color featured. I do like the look of the green/black model.
Keep us updated on how you like it, Stu, as you cover more miles.

[owlie]

That sounds familiar.

It is funny though; maybe it is just my inexperience on the bike, but I really feel the difference between 25, 40, 50, and 60 unlike I ever do in my car.

Frankly, I find the speedo to be a distraction rather than helpful…

[A]

It was over 3 months ago since I removed the lower silver pieces… as far as I can remember, they were pretty straight forward.

The mounting bolts near the back of the seat are the pressed-in type fasteners, center part of the bolt pops up from underneath, use a flat screw driver to push from under while push downward at the outter part at the top of the bolt, then you can remove the bolts from its location.

No performance change that I could tell, but I like the idea of loosing 8 lb. of dead weight off the bike.. spending $3-400 for aftermarket slip-on to add more weight to the bike is not something I like to do. If anything, I will go to my local exhaust place and get a tip fabricated to make the opening aim downward so rain water do not fall into the cat… that or just drill a drain hole in the cat.

[PVC panels]

Looking really good. What's its mileage?

[Author]

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