Well, let's see how it runs next weekend! I've got it back in my garage now, and a whole bunch of little things have been cleaned up. I am deeply disappointed that the Michelob catch bottle is gone ...
The riding position is far better - the bars are lower, the pegs much more comfortable. The tail section is mounted in a much more stable manner. Lots of little stuff has been improved. The old throttle housing was trashed, so we adapted one from a Suzuki GS500 (I couldn't source an SV one in time). Because we used Woodcraft-CFM 2nd gen SV rearsets, the rear brake master cylinder from a GS500 bolted right on. I practiced taking the rear wheel on and off with the brake caliper under the axle, and it was simple as hell.
I'm not really going to worry much about lap times this weekend, just trying to make sure all the systems are good and the suspension and geometry are in the ballpark.
Thanks for all the kind words.
p.s. If it helps any, the rear wheel swap wasn't TOO difficult, I'm told. The face of the sprocket carrier where the sprocket seats had about 15mm taken off to get the sprocket to line up with the countershaft sprocket. The bearing in the sprocket carrier was moved inward an equal amount. We made spacer/sleeves to take up the slack between the SV bearings and the MZ axle, and to position the wheel on the centerline of the bike. Ed threaded the sprocket bolt holes and used hollow Yamaha bolts to hold the sprocket in place. All that was left was that rear caliper carrier. Ed cut up and welded the stock one, but I also liked Texoot's 10mm plate.
The wheel is light, modern in width, and looks nice. There's plenty of clearance for everything.