Barry, I have noticed that the weight seems to be less relavant through all the feed back I have received. That just shows the geat torque and versatility of the Savage engine. The chain conversion definately brings out the best in this bike, no matter how you gear it.
                                                          Hutch

Barry, I always have kept about 1" of slack in chain. Just like the belt, it needs room for the swingarm motion.If you are going to be riding double, the more slack is a better idea, because of the longer travel. STEALERSHIPS, they love it when your chain stretchs and your sprocket teeth get pointy,$$$$$.Either that or their set-up guys went to the same school as the ones trying to fix my tire. 3 weeks and still no tire. I know it is apain to figure out with the speedo being off, but what was your mpg on that trip?    Hutch

Hutch, I'm getting 55 to 57 mpg around town with the 17/43 combo... I have a Bike speedometer/odometer installed and it is very accurate !!  I could probably get better mileage but I don't really baby it much !!  ...

              Ride Safe , John

I haven't filled up yet, I looked in the tank after the trip and it looks like I've got a good deal more in the tank.  I'll let you know after I fill up this week...

Greg, I charge $85/hr so with 15 minutes of grinding on the washers, they would have cost me $1.20 plus a $1 (beer) plus $21.25 for my time for a grand total of $23.45, so my $14 dollar "spacer" which took me no time at all was actually $9.55 "cheaper" (which I spent on a new bottle of Makers Mark)  

On a more serious note, when I took the pulley off, I found a bunch of red dust which looked like rust but may have been thread lock.  After the pictures I've seen of the chewed up pulley teeth on the counter shaft floating around this site, I was actually glad to have that extra splined "washer" clamped next to the sprocket to keep it in place.  Again, not sure if it matters but the two sprocket setup (17-tooth and 13-tooth) will definitely be stronger and hold more torque.  I'm just not sure how much overkill it is...

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It may be rust, but while you don't put thread lock on splines, you might put it on the countershaft nut.  If it is rust, then I'd be concerned about the strength of the splines on the countershaft.

I don't mind admitting the washers are cheaper than the sprocket, but if I had to do it again, I still wouldn't spend time grinding on a couple washers, just like everybody there are some conveniences I'm willing to pay for.  I don't mind a bit how anyone else spends their time, just realize that's the only non-renewable commodity you have.

Maybe we should all be replaced by immigrants.    It's likely we will anyway  

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While that may be enough, you can't really think that the friction between the two sprockets adds nothing?  How do you think a clutch works?  It relies on friction alone.  Theoretically, you could grind the splines OFF the section beneath the primary sprocket, and with splines and the friction of the second sprocket you may still have enough strength to hold it.  In fact, there may be enough friction between the countershaft nut and a sprocket to be ok under light load with no splines at all.

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Unless you don't like beer    

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Yep.  And I'm starting to see the application.

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This statement seems to indicate you have no idea how a clutch functions.  Even though I find that hard to believe.  So are you just arguing for the sake of argument?  So what is the difference between a clutch and a brake?  What physical properties other than friction dictate how they work, or don't work?  Functionally, can a brake be used as a clutch and vice-versa?

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And by what mechanisms can torque loads be transfered?  If it is through static friction, the radial distance from the center of the load, the amount of pressure applied, and the coefficient of friciton between the two materials is directly proportional to the torque that can be transfered.  So how again do brakes differ in function from a clutch?  Two plates forced together under pressure CAN act as a clutch regardless of how you prefer to label them.

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Unless you assume the countershaft on the Savage was designed for use with sprockets vs. pulleys.  Do you know that for sure?  Is the Savage countershaft exactly the same as the GS550 countershaft?  I happened to notice the pulley spline area was twice as wide as the sprocket spline area.  Is that because of the pulley material (one could reasonably assume) or the countershaft material, or pulley design?  In any case we either assume (more theory that you don't like), or we know the design specs for certain and the intent of the design engineers.  Again, a little knowledge IS INDEED dangerous...

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No, radial distance.  Which is much greater on the outside of a sprocket than the splined area.  Same principle by which larger disk brakes are better than smaller ones, and larger clutches are better than smaller ones.  Remember that "little knowledge" quote?

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Not to take anything away from your experience, but that's like saying "we've assumed the earth was flat for the last 300 years, and it hasn't failed us..."  While that may be ok in some instances, it certainly doesn't lend itself well to new ways of doing things and new discoveries.  The premise of this entire site flies in the face of convention which says you should keep eveything stock and have the dealers do all the mnx.

To illustrate my point here, my son has a chinese made dirt bike that we decided to re-gear but couldn't find anything that fit the bolt pattern of the rear sprocket.  So I used a plain rear sprocket and sandwiched it between the original sprocket and the rear hub.  It was not bolted to anything, only held in place by the compression of the original sprocket forcing it against the hub...  What's my point?  He's ridden that thing hard for the last year with no noticeable slipping between the two rear sprockets.  It transfers torque to the rear wheel just fine.  If your "experience" were relied on with my son's bike, I'd either have to live with the original gearing, or have a non-working m/c.  Did the friciton between those two sprockets do nothing?  If that's the case, then my son's m/c works by "magic".  If that's what you want to conjecture, fine.  But I'll rely on my own "experience" thank you.  However, my "experience" was generated by the theory that it would work in the first place.  That's not to say that every theory works in practice, I've had my fair share of failures but I've also learned a lot from each one.

In the end, I agree that two washers is cheaper and will work just fine for a Savage chain conversion, it's just more time consuming.  And, I didn't "waste" my 13-tooth sprocket.  I could get a different spacer and test my setup with a 43/13 gear, even though I'm not likely to ever take the gearing the other way.

BTW, why didn't you get 1" washers so you wouldn't have to grind on them?

For the record, anyone who reads the thread should see that I never "disputed" Greg's suggestion.  The tangible/concrete difference in technique is time vs. $ which should always be a considersation.  No theory, no feeling, straight fact.

I'm out.