today was my first ride on my savage, or any bike on the street for that matter.  I recieved the bike monday, but they dropped it off wth a bad battery, and I could get to it yesterday, but they gave me a new battery today and I put it in there and she fired right up.  After about 3 minutes I pushed in the choke and she idled kinda funny, almost dieing a few times, but I figured this was cause it was 32F out and, well, carbs aint the best under freezing I hear, unless they are tuned for it.  so I leave the choke in for another couple minutes and when I push it back in again she runs smoothly and the fins are hot so I figure shes good to go, by this time I have all my riding gear on.  Roll her down the driveway out onto the neighborhood street, pull in the clutch, press down on the shifter, give it a little throttle and ease out the clutch, jerk, stall.  ooops, well 4 or 5 more of those... and I've pretty much got the feel of how to get going.  go around the neighborhood loop once, then take her out on the outer loop, where there are intersections and cars and turns and such.  Didnt stall it again, turned just fine, real stable, boy when I twisted that throttle back did she move!  not used to that, so much different than a car, its like in X-men when wolvarine takes cyclope's bike out and hits the fast button, just all kinda blurs a bit, but I got used to it quickly, I only brought it up to 30mph around the loops though, 2nd gear and all.  Really liked backfiring with the dense cold air and lean factory settings though, rappa-pap rappa-pap.  You know, I even like how she sounds stock.... odd I know.  But I've had the seat off and the battery taken out and installed a battery tender too, and when it started I felt a little proud that I got it working, if only just replacing a battery.    I plan to do some of the mods on this site, including the seat lift and carb mods.  Though to be honest this is a training bike for me, I'll keep it through this season and then in the fall or spring put it in the paper.  So far I love it though, just a beautiful bike.

took it out at lunch today, got it up to speed on the main road, not many cars but a few.  started getting windy (30mph gusts) so I rode back and garaged it again, but I hit some twisty sections of road, got it up to 60mph on the straights, felt really nice.  got back in the jeep to drive back to work, felt sad, just wasnt the same.  Now I have never thought of my jeep as smooth in any fashion, but compared to the savage its friggen sliky smooth.  I like and miss that rough pull of the big single 650 already and its only been an hour.....

I like it when u accidentally catch a little air.  Scarry but almost fun.  Too bad the fork seals aren't designed for wheelies