Howdy all! I've been lurking here for about a month and a half, ever since I brought my 03 Savage home at the end of August. Gotta say, it's not hard to see why it's got such a huge following!

While I'm no stranger to bikes, this was my jump from the dirt onto the pavement and it's been a fun learning experience! I picked this bike up from Cyclebarn down in Lynnwood WA for a song with 1200 miles on it. 1200 miles in 2 years and nary a scratch, ding or spec of dirt on it, so I consider myself pretty lucky. However, I'm under the inclination that the PO may have done something to it because it seems to have more huavos than some of you guys are mentioning about your bikes.

Just for instance, I was jumping on the interstate at one of those controlled onramps with a light that lets one car go at a time, and I figured I'd check the 0-60 time. I was just using a watch wrapped around the handlebars bwteen the risers but it looks like it did it in just under 4 seconds and still in 3rd gear! Is that normal? I also did a friendly stoplight drag against a buddies Sportster 883 (only after a LOT of razzing and metric bashing mind you, I'm not a showoff and didn't buy a small cruiser to go fast. If that's what I wanted I would have got a sports bike), and it ate him like a twinkee. I thought this was kind of anomylous because I heard his tire sqweek off the line but I can't make mine scratch ( though I have to say I haven't tried to hard, it's still my baby).

Now for the n00b questions. Do Harley handlebars fit? I want to get either tall bucks or mini apes to improve my ergonomics a bit, as well as a sportster seat and eventually some forward controls. Also, I got the backfires and don't really want to get rid of them. Everybody has a bike of somekind up here and kids love em. They cheer and wave at any bike that goes by, trying to get the sport bikes to do wheelies and stoppies, and trying to get the cruisers to rev up, and twisting the throttle and slamming it shut gives a shotgun pop that thrills the tikes. From previous experience I know that backfires can burn valves and blow up mufflers but has anyone left the backfire alone long enough to have either of these (or some other third problem) come about?

That's all the dumb n00b questions for now. Oh yeah, mods. So far I've added a spitfire windscreen and some boulevard Saddlebags. I love this bike and hope to meet some of you guys for some brews or something when I get back from Vegas. My wife and I eloped, so now we're having a ceremony for the families...with an Elvis impersonator! Peace!

Matt

A lot of owners here at suzukisavage.com (Welcome BTW ... I have an '03 too!!) have mod-ed their LS650's ... several have the Sportster seat mod (which looks killer!) and there are almost an endless variety of 1" handlebar (and riser combos) which will fit the Savage/S40 ... some here have done performance mods (Sportster/Dyna/Supertrap/Jardine muffler, re-jet, spacer shave, fuel-air mix adjust, etc, etc ...).
And guys like Vroom and Sluggo (to name a couple) have Bobber-ised and Ratted their Thumpers into creations so unique that they border on being "art forms"!!
You sound like you indeed have the "Right Stuff" to be a Savage owner ... Enjoy and Ride Safe!

stupid noob,my 100 plus hp yammy fz6 does 0 to 60 in a little under 3.5 seconds in first gear

as a (relative - bought it in May) newcomer to the site & Savages I'd like to welcome you, Thumpinsquid.

good people contribute & you will get a huge amount of help & ideas from it/them.

torque wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:10:

HAHA! So's your mom!

Thanks again for the warm welcome George, I really like the site and the people who are on it, that's why I came out from lurking in the shadows and joined up. Nice people and nice bikes, what more do you need, right?


thumperclone wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:10:

Don't underestimate me, I can out-stupid just about anybody! Sometimes I suprise myself with how stupid I can be.

nice response, Thumpinsquid.

and your mother's mother, torque! seems like 0-60 in first in 3.5 ain't much if Thumpinsquid can do 0-60 in 4 seconds & change gear twice in that time! are you sure you weren't more intent on impressing the 16 year old girls burning rubber off the back tire than actually going forward @ the time?

agree with thumper clone, Thumpinsquid - no suh things as dumb questions (maybe dumb answers as you saw from torque, but...)

Click the gears sweetly on a 3/4 trottle power surge and you can be going 65-70 right quick-like, enough so to surprise most Harley riders who really can't do any better until you go past 70 mph (then they immediately eat your cake).

I find that I have eaten up my rear tire over one summer.   I theorize that rolling on quickly and using throttle braking instead of a lot of front wheel mechanical braking has resulted in some accelerated rear tire wear.  Front tire is OK wear-wise, I don't have to brake heavily with the front brake unless somebody in front of me does something unexpected/stupid.

This bike is fun, it is easy to ride up through its total capacity and it corners well and handles pretty well around the twisties.  You can take lean angles that you know are going to kiss the pegs and you can lean back a bit coming out of those turns and hit the gas for a real traction bite and surge even though still at large lean angles.

The drive belt -- mine is now no longer a virgin and it makes deceleration noise (a mild churrrrr noise) that you have to tighten the belt to factory gage maximum to make the decel noise go away.  I theorize that belt wear results in rubber belt tooth to aluminum pulley tooth engagement that has a little bit of front to back clearance (thus the change in tone when accellerating to decelerating)

Mild side wear on the outer edge of my belt is apparent as well, the belt settles in on the left side of the rear pulley eventually no matter how well you adjust it.  I will order a set of new rubber bumpers for the inside of the rear wheel to match my first tire change -- I expect some wear has taken place on those surge bumpers as well.

It is a fun bike.  I can see why people who ride around town keep them long enough to modify them into personal creations.

Oldfeller

seems the insurance man holds out both hands on them as well - it's was one of the top 10 stolen bikes, can't remember if it was also a top 10 most likely to crash in the progressive insurance stats published last year - good ole savage was one of the least likely on both.

oh yea, and welcome aboard there t'squid, you'll enjoy the bike a great deal, looks like you already are