And that myth you felt was awesome was because you have not ridden a corresponding parallel twin like a laverda or a non V twin BMW R bike.
There was a bike called a laverda ghost 668 in the mid 90's. It was air cooled and not very high tech ... that bike actually felt and ran and handled so similar to the SV ...
Compare apples to apples and the parallel twin will kill the Vtwin in all aspects regarding maintenance and component costs for replacement and repairs and break even with it for performance ... and the 800 BMW is another case in point ... its heavy and more touring oriented ... but it is torquey ...
I dunno how else to put it ...
I guess the 1100 BMW R series - R1100R will be comparable to the 1100 guzzi whatever that standard the made was called ... was red and black (daytona ??) - and we can look up past magazine test or numbers for the 2, I think they were aimed at the same target market and had the same goal.
You have ridden a bunch of V twins for which there is no parallel twin. maybe the TRX 850 in europe or the TDM 850 in the 1-2 years in US ... Yea ducati 851 and TRX 850 ... we could compare those 2 I believe they may have been made in the same years.
I know this well from the V4 vs I4 arguments of the eliminator vs the madura, magna, Vmax ... the eli was a 1000 CC at its biggest. The others were 1100 and 2 1200's ... and the eli has 1000 cc because it only needs that 1000 to wallop 2 of the other 3 ... V does not do much other than make the argument that its a V ... BTW most of the ones you said are not 90 degree ... aprilia is 60, Guzzi is 45 transverse, HD is 45, the others are 90 ...
A parallel twin buit for the same target as a V twin with the same quality of design engineers and same type of materials will very much perform on par with the V twin in real world and be easier to maintan and cheaper to make. Here dont compare an EX500 type to a GS500 ... not similar technologies at all ...
The vulcan 500 is a parallel twin, honda 600 shadow is a V twin, both water cooled, both chain drive and a 600 shadow will be left beaten and  bloody by a Vulcan inspite of the 20% extra displacement ... arguably they are designed for looks vs performance in the vulcan ... OK. The hypothetical ... I think the Guzzi vs R 1100 R BMW is the closest we can get. V vs non V.

Dont confuse what a V twin will do because its a twin with what it will do because its a V and attribute one to the other ... that is harleys whole marketing game. You call it a myth, they call it mystique ... same BS.
Your riding cannot be counted as you are biased, neither will my riding ... we have to use a magazine or a review from somewhere. Or paper specs from the factory ... there is bound to be similar BS from either factory on that one it will cancel itself out.
Cool.
Buddha.

Iv ridden allot of different bikes, trouble is more often then not it's in different decades. The Parallel Twin, V-Twin same cc side by side comparison, no I have never had much of a chance with the limited availability of different P Twin sizes at my disposal. I do know that in a I4 to P Twin comparison the I4 is smoother and the P Twin is more responsive. I do know one other thing for sure..every time you add another cylinder you create more cylinder drag and then you have to sacrifice a bit of  HP to overcome this internal drag. This is why a 500cc Twin will always be more responsive than a 500cc I4. So on this premise without looking at any specs I totally buy the idea that a thumper can have more torque than a V-Twin. 

Quote from: tripleb on October 01, 2008, 11:30:34 AM
what do you do if you want to upgrade the exhaust?  Seems like that would get really expensive with a system like that....

Cut and weld my friend 

Would the Ninja 650r be a good comparison to the SV650?  If so, there's this dyno:  http://photos.motorcycle-usa.com/650hp.jpg

Quote from: Juan1 on October 06, 2008, 11:50:14 PM
Would the Ninja 650r be a good comparison to the SV650?  If so, there's this dyno:  http://photos.motorcycle-usa.com/650hp.jpg

Thanks for the link.  Was there a torque curve comparison?

Quote from: Paulcet on October 07, 2008, 04:53:37 AM

Quote from: Juan1 on October 06, 2008, 11:50:14 PM
Would the Ninja 650r be a good comparison to the SV650?  If so, there's this dyno:  http://photos.motorcycle-usa.com/650hp.jpg

Thanks for the link.  Was there a torque curve comparison?

That was easy...in the photo link I replaced the "hp" part with "torque" and guess what popped up?

http://photos.motorcycle-usa.com/650hp.jpg
http://photos.motorcycle-usa.com/650torque.jpg

Yea the kawi-ER and sv are good comparisons except the SV was a bit more targeted as a race bike, ER was a commuter. The steel frame vs aluminum gives me that notion.
SV prolly is more agressively cammed and higher compression prolly. I have a magazine article I can check into.
Cool.
Buddha.

And why do they start all these at 4K ... do these things not run under 4K I cant find my mag now ... may have given it away to a neighbor.
Cool.
Buddha.

BTW I had this XS 650 from like 81, It was old, looked ancient, and had a kick starter and a set of points that would have made grampa proud.
It would out run my friends V-star 650 easily ... just dont hit the brakes or try to turn ... not only was I saying it will out run the v-star ... so did he ... and the XS was heavy. Almost as much as the v-star.
Then the savage 650 1 cyl will cream the v-star and the shadow 600 and its 1 cyl. Of course its light as a feather and lighter still after I chopped/drilled the spot welds holding the inner bracing off the rear fender and tossed the grab rail. Lost 30-40 lbs easy no kidding. That and some other mods got it under 300 lbs from the 340 lb stock weight. Rear seat, dumbass buck horn bars replaced with aluminum drag bars and aluminum risers, exhaust can with a straight thin SS pipe crushed at the tip for a fishtail look ... exhaust carrier bracket - dont laugh that was heavy enough to use as a towing rig, I dont think it weighed 300 with a full tank of gas. Again the motor was so light to start with. Imagine a 650 motor that is a good 30 lbs lighter than a GS motor.
I plan to repeat these ideas except the fender drill out part on this blue one I am working on.
The bike I did that severe weight loss on is now a chopper with a KX500 front end and an aluminum 90 wide front wheel. I cannot imagine what a 300 lb chopper will be like. Have to ride it ... bad.
Cool.
Buddha.