I am seriously unhappy if mine delivers just 40 mpg. The nice thing about it is, in your case, you can at least suspect you are jetted rich enough to not hurt anything. Do you have a shop manual? Clymers or Suzuki? If you need pictures there are guys here who post complete diagrams for the sake of others. Still, I suggest you get a manual. Checking the plug would be nice, just to see what color it is. OIl change, natch.

When you are done with the mods & have it running right, riding sanely should get better than 50 mog. I think there are some here getting better than 55 mpg.
I would change the oil, look at the plug, possibly change it to a hotter plug, Iridium, $$$ but sposed to really be the bees knees. Then ride it & have fun as I worked toward getting rid of the hard backfires & get the best performance/MPG you can. Set it up to do what YOU want. You may want all the grunt it has & accept crummy MPG or want all the MPG it can give & accept anemic performance to have it,or any place in between. It's (FINALLY) all about YOU! Squeaky brakes happen. Maybe after you ride a while it will go away, or maybe, who you bought it from was still  running OEM brakes with the Factory installed Suckaciousness still in them.

That's such low mileage. Good going!

welcome to site.

brakes are not too expensive - they are poor on Savage. could beef them up with EBC brakes (got mine locally - think a lot less than oem). when you install them put a smear of anti squeal grease on back of them (my local "Autozone" had it in little tube like toothpaste). make sure none go on pad surface that touches rotor.

many people swear the iridium are better - I know I (& I think thumperclone - Lon) could not tell any difference.

certainly would buy a manual (I got my Clymers ex Amazon) & certainly change oil  & filter (buy several online - again not oem ones - others are a lot less).

might want to check state of air filter & consider swap for K &N slip in - last lot longer & are either cheaper than oem or if more it is more than offset by their longevity.

as far as seat - I had tears in both my originals rider seat & pillion pad on mine - local reupholster who does bike & car & furntiure recovered them both for about $50 (obviously varies from place to place).

my bike had newish back tire but original front - replaced straight away as it was worn & showed signs of cracking/weathering to sidewalls with a Dunlop 404 (others recommend metzlers which I'll admit are better - have them on my other faster, larger bike) but cost a good deal more.

sure others will come up with other help - I'm @ 4,500 feet so cannot help with rejetting (also have different muffler.

reckon 40 mpg is a bit low like other respondent.

good luck - as a friend said when I got the Savage, "I'd bought a hobby."

Ebay is a good source of parts.  I purchased my harley seat for $40 including shipping.  The stock mirrors aren't symetric, but are identical in fittings and thread.  Good tip on the brakes, clean them regularly.  I'm beginning to like the squeak.  Nothing gets your attension better that the unmistakable sound of someones brakes squealing.  Loud pipe, everyone knows another freaking harley is near by.  But if you hear a squeal, everyone wants to know where it's coming from.

Hey, Jimsey, if it's already been "laid down" it has it out of it's system now. Just enjoy the ride. The Savage is a good bike, when I was young, 650 was a BIG bike. So I'm reliving my youth with this one

Lucky ME! I've been able to "USE" my nose ever since I was 3, when the big boy on the block said HI!

Hi People,

Ok, so I've looked over the carb from the outside with Reelthing's advice and the cover over the mixture screw is off. That leads to the assumption that the jets have also been done. It does have a lot of power and I am more than satisfied with that. Perhaps the blueing happened prior to the mods to the carb by one of the previous owner. so only two things left that bother me a tad. I believe it is running too rich as there is soot at the tailpipe and some on the brake lever on the rear wheel and yet it still backfires. I would assume from this that I have two things wrong. I have an air leak and the mix is too rich.

With that said, running the screw in leans it our right? That would improve my mileage, right (currently 40mpg)?

Next, what is the best way to close an air leak?

Thanks all!

Jimsey

Thanks Dynobob,

What about mileage? Anything I can do to improve it?

Jimsey