RACE SPEC
The journey from road bike to race bike – featuring Suzuki’s SFV650 Gladius
WORDS: CARL‘ PRETTY BOY’ STEVENS
PICS: JOHN MANCLARK, IMAGES2INSPIRE, IEVA
As the last few Race Specs have been pretty exotic and the next few I have lined up are just as tasty (warning – lock your wallets up now if you can’t resist shiny things), we thought for this one we’d bring things down to earth a little – and what better and more affordable way than with a trusty Minitwin? We check out Bemsee girl-racer Ieva Baublyte’s SVF650 to see what makes this commuter into a man-crushing race-day steed for the most cost effective way to go racing...
For starters, it’s worth remembering the reasoning behind Minitwins. The grids are always absolutely packed, the racing is super close, and it is a brilliant machine to get to grips with for the novice and the experienced alike; especially for building confidence before jumping onto a bigger bike. Then add in the factor that you can build (or buy) a competitive machine for just a couple of grand and you have a winning combination. I mean, it almost seems silly not to race one doesn’t it? So you have a Suzuki SFV650 Gladius that you want to turn into a trackday gladiator. Where do you go from here?