The first weekend I had the bike, my wife and I rode it two up to Baton Rouge from Long Beach MS, about an hour and a half each way. The bike was, umm, loaded down. No problems. Other than that horrible pillion pad.

With some very minor tweaking, mainly the idle air screw at that point, it ran and pulled flawlessly.
You might have gotten one of the "Made on Friday night, gutless wonder specials" as opposed to my "made on Monday morning hangover special" ...
All kidding aside, some Savages seem to be considerably different from the rest of the production run. I'd start modifying the intake and exhaust systems. Pull the airbox door, turn the mixture screw out a bit, and put on a more freeflowing muffler if you haven't already. Carrying a passenger? Try running 38-40 or 42 PSI in the tires, it will help the bike roll with a bit less resistance courtesy of the smaller contact patch with the road. It will respond to throttle, brake, and lean inputs more readily as well.
If those don't help, and you like riding two up, you might need to investigate a different ride. The V-stars, Shadows, and Intruders (oops, Boulevards

:'( ) all seem to have power to spare when modded out like all of us do our Savages/S40s.
-WD