Suzuki has listed the price for its 2018 SV650X neo-retro, and it’s going to be the budget-friendly neo-retro option this year.
We’ve seen a few takes on the neo-retro theme coming to our showrooms next year. Kawasaki has its Z900 RS and Z900 RS Cafe, which both recall the glory days of the inline-four UJM. Yamaha has brought its XSR700 to Canada this year, to accompany the existing XSR900 models, both of which are really just retro paint schemes on fairly current-looking naked bikes. Honda announced both the CB1000R and CB400 Interceptor concept at EICMA, which look like the sort of machines you’d see in older sci-flicks, like Blade Runner (we haven’t heard confirmation that either is coming to Canada).
However, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be; all those retro machines carry stiff price tags, with the XSR700 going for $9,599 in Canada, and the Z900 RS selling for $12,999 in Canada (the Cafe version costs another $600).
The SV650X is relatively low-priced by those standards, listing for $8,299 at the Suzuki website, with five-year warranty included at this point (that offer may vanish at any time).
It’s hard to say whether or not that will be enough to make the bike sell, though. While Suzuki has been killing it on pricing lately, especially when you consider the five-year warranty, the bikes have mostly been rehashes of old tech (except for the new GSX-R1000). The SV650X is, at its heart, just another SV650, but with a bikini fairing and some slightly retro bodywork. Will that be enough to catch the attention of the jaded buyer? We’ll see, when it hits showrooms this summer.
Hey Suzuki, how about a SV1000X neo-retro. Spare the plastic puleez!
i’ve read that one reason for Suzuki not changing the DRZ is that if they do they will lose their grandfathered-in status and be required to make a leaner-fueled, thus hotter-running machine that is both less reliable and not as ‘mod-able’ as the current bike. i have to admit i dearly love my two current DRZs! While simultaneously yearning for a tad more oomph, smoothness, and a sixth
I don’t believe that. I don’t think there’s such as a thing as being grandfathered in.
Zac and Jimo I agree 100%. As it is I am probably going to add a Yamaha WR250X with SM and dirt wheels/tires. Suzuki (and all of the Japanese manufacturers) are missing the boat. The DRZ 400 is only 30 lb heavier that the 250. An FI 450 dual sport with 6 speed would hit the sweet spot for weight/power/price/reliability. It seems shockingly simple to me. What am I missing? Cam
I love Suzuki’s but just don’t know why they bothered with this. Put FI and a sixth gear in the DRZ already. They would rule the lightweight dual sport category.
Almost. Add another 50 cc on top of your suggestions, which would all be stupid easy, and they’d have a bike that would compete with 250s on price and with 650s on performance. There are big bore kits on the market, so it’s not as if they’d have to sink anything into engineering costs on that, and the EFI would be easy to sort. The only real challenge would be to fix the gearbox, and they could probably adjust the existing gearbox to get it close.