Ok, I know that the bluing on the pipes is due to the lean mixture...and I know that there are products to take it off...to that's been covered.

However, here's my story:
I bought my bike from a dealership, used.  It had 412 miles on it...but lately, I'm beginning to be a little suspicious of the bike history.

For one thing, when I took the bike to the shop for the belt adjustment, the mech there asked me several times if I'd ever replaced the rear tire.  I told him no and told him where I got the bike and the mileage...

Second, and this is my question:  The discoloration on my pipe, up near where it attaches to the engine is NOT blue, but gold.  Somebody told me that means the mixture is too rich.  Is that possible?  Is it possible that my carb has been modified and I didn't know it?  How could I know?

I don't have a lot of backfiring issues but there are some.  When I stop the bike, I get a little muffled "poot", and I've only had one real shotgun blast all season.

Any thing specific I can look for without taking anything apart to know if modifications have been made?

EDIT:  Oh yeah...my bike is a 2003

The gold is about what you want with the stock header.  I don't think you can stop that from occurring.  Blue is what you usually get from the stock setup but can take a while to occur and gold happens first.  It's possible it's still stock and simply has not blued yet.  I got mine with 1600 miles on it and it was only barely gold.  It was stock and I have since modified it.  The questioning on the wheel, well I don't know what that's about...  The thing that would make me wonder if it's still stock is the fact you get very little backfiring.  The "chuff" at shutdown is normal and it's possible that the way you ride minimizes backfiring.  The only way I know to see for sure it to look at your carb in a few places.  The mixture screw on the right side should still have a plug over it if it's stock.  The main jet is relatively easy to reach (bottom of carb has to be opened) to see if it's been upsized.  To check the white spacer, you'll have to pull the tank and open the top of the carb.

Savages come with IRC tires, bar none, the worst tires ever factory installed. Anything else on either end of a Savage is a replacement tire. I've never even seen IRC tires in a catalog...
-WD