So I'm obsessed with orange bikes. Specifically YAV color code 2003s. Orange, or Copper, or whatever color you want to call them. Not quite sure why, but this can be boiled down to a couple reasons.
1) It was the first bike I got to up close and got to ask questions from the owner. A friend of a friend got a brand new one, and seeing it on the lift in his garage made me fall in love.
2) One year, not a lot made, different. It's kind of the ugly duckling of the SVs. part 1g, part 2g, a few unique to it parts, and a color which is very hard for paint shops to touch up (3-stage paint so even bikes from different days at the factory aren't quite the same color).
3) I kept tripping across them for a while. There was a few month period where orange 650s, sv1000s and parts bikes were all that was coming up. So I kept grabbing them, and between my friends and myself we ended up with like 5 of them. So I started stacking spares to make sure all these bikes are fed parts. This turned into a kind of "in" thing where every time something orange happened, everyone tagged the hell out of me.I guess that's kinda cool since it made me the orange sv guy :)
4) Hell even the Maisto models are rare. The yellow ones are all over the place, but the orange ones are either priced through the roof or unobtanium. The last couple I got I had shipped from Europe
Some things that are funky on 2003s...
- Subframe - about an inch higher. made of steel and not aluminum like later years
- Seat - only 2003 seats work with 2003 subframes
- Subframe triangle covers - same thing
- Undertail plastics which may or may not have a toolkit area
- Shifter like a 1g 99-02 and not like the rest of the 2gs
- ECU, Harness, Cluster, Fuel Pump shared only with 2004
I do have a noticeable stash of orange parts that I consider "mine" rather than inventory. They're usually not listed, but if you're orange and really need something and can't find it, I'm still happy to help. I'd rather have them get someone back on the road than collecting dust on shelves