Roughrider,
I do not see anyone here claim it is a miracle bike - we do believe it is quite a bargain compared to the cost of other bikes on the market - the exception for me anyway is the KLR650- but my arse is too close to the ground for the ride height.

Weakness of the savage/ls650 are noted here quite often - the stock seat is pretty bad for long rides - so we change it - at least lift the front so you stay off the tank - or add a air/gel pad, or replace it altogether.

Other areas, the brakes are good but not great, yes some squeal so we fix it. The range is too short for some - so we either carry extra gas, change the tank, or a new deal that looks good is the aux tail bag tank. Nuts and bolts vibrate loose - so we check them regular and tighten them, the speedometer rattles on some bikes so we fix it, the drive belt needs adjustment as do the valves when either starts to make racket, we check the oil before each and every ride - we only have two quarts to lube it and cool it - better keep it full and clean, the stock IRC tires are fairly low grade - so when they wear out on go better ones - for me that's Metz 880's - wish the '02 would hurry up and wear the IRCs out for that matter, the wires under the seat are a real zoo - but it's nothing a few minutes with split loom can't fix. The engine comes from the factory running very lean, very hot, and very quite. I do not like any of these, so I fixed it - new pipe to makes some noise, richer engine for more power, no backfires, and much cooler running.

I am not suprised your muffler cracked if you have heavy backfires, because the engine was running lean, and once the gasket blew out you most likely had very heavy backfires - the muffler was not designed to be a cannon.

Yes, motorcycles, take more maint than do cars but all of these things are not hard to do and once you have done them you'll understand how it works, be able to maintain it without much help from your dealer, the bike will run much better, and you'll have a lot more pride in your ride.

So what do you say RR - want to fix it?

although roughrider keeps sending me hatefull personal messages,which call me a homo,I agree that we should drop this issue once and for all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember 7th grade,... when the teacher was called out of the class room....same thing...still Savages.

Back then if we had spent 1/2 the time studying the stuff they were teaching vs. obsessing over bikes, we would be far better off now.  ???


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