Hello,
I am considering buying a 1998 Savage.  But while looking at the new S40's the salesperson told me that there was little performance difference between a twin 250 Honda Rebel and a single 650 Suzuki Savage.
Can someone give an overall comparison of the two bikes?
Many thanks.

The Rebel's torque & horsepower are about half of the Savage, but it's only 50 pounds lighter.  

Sounds to me like he's got a Rebel he needs to sell.

I will add that although the Savage is underpowered as it is purchased new, for as little as $100 you can make a BIG performance difference as well as getting rid of the putt-putt sounding motor.  The Rebel is probably close to as good as you are going to get off the floor.

Let's put it thid way:
The sales guy did not lie. He jus presented only part of the truth. I have both bikes and many more. If You take stock Savage and stock Rebel both bikes will have almost the same top speed. Here ends the similarity in the performance.
If You don't like or don't want to play with the bike and modify- go for the Rebel ! I don't care how many loughs will there be when I make this statement, but the Rebel is one of the best bikes for what it is. The engineering and the quality are way better than the Suzuki's. The Rebel reliability is notorious.  It is hard to think about a better gas milage.
And in the same time I am riding a Savage in the city and I am selling my Rebel. What everybody said before me is truth. The key word is  MODIFICATIONS and I will say  CARE and MAINTENANCE. With the Savage You will have to love the idea of a BIG SINGLE and start working on correcting what the engineres screwed. If You are ready to go this way You will never be sorry about buying a Savage.

Chances are the dealer not only had a Rebel he needed to sell, he also was hoping for you to come back within a year to get something bigger. Get the Savage and tweak it, it's a great bike.

last year when i went to purchase my savage at the local dealer, the salesman balked at "ordering" one for me, bad mouthed the machine, tried to sell me something i didn't want. the owner then stepped in an assured me if that's what i wanted he would find one for me.  that he did, had it shipped in two days. when the machine arrived they all rode it and were totally suprised at how well the machine performed. now that i've bobbed it they think it's one of the coolest bikes in town.   and well it is...     8)

I find this comparison all very intereting.

"for as little as $100 you can make a BIG performance difference"

I just bought a savage and I am wondering what these mods include?  

Thanks

Weez wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:08:


Since I wrote that I thought I would answer.  I bought a set of screaming eagle II mufflers for $45, K&N drop in for $42 I think, jet $3.50, 10 stainless bolts for putting the carb back together, and some spacers and bolts for the seat.  Together including shipping I figured my final cost was $130.  Don't worry about the seat, buy a regular sportster muffler and find it all locally and what I did could easily be done for less than $100.  But the SEII sound awesome.  Highly recommend.  As mentioned there are plenty of recommendations as to exactly how you want to adjust your carb depending on your particular set up.  I was going to just do the K&N half the white spacer and up the main, but when I found a cheap SEII I decided to just get it all done with so I wouldn't have to open the carb up again later.  Took about 8 hours spread out over several weeks.  Should have been done in 2 hours if I had any idea what I had been doing.  All I can say is don't strip the screws of the carb.  Especially the little ones on the inside. That reminds me I forgot to include the $25 for the impact driver.  Wished I had bought it first.  Didn't help for the little ones though.  I had to drill them and then get one of those reverese drill wedge bit deals to get them out.