OK, great....  Now I've technically said two things which aren't necessarily true...

I'll need to explain more...IF there is no valve overlap, both valves will be closed at TDC regardless of which stroke.  But, that is rarely the case, particularly on motorcycles.  Therefore, the amount of the overlap determines how far the valves are open when the piston is at TDC.  The only thing we can say here and be totally accurate is, the valves will never be fully open at piston TDC, though they might be fully closed, again depending on the cam grind and valve overlap in particular.

My main point of my original post SHOULD HAVE BEEN:
you have .137" to play with to sort out your valve overlap with a new piston.  A milder cam grind will give you more piston-to-valve clearance and a hotter cam will give you less for a given piston.

Therefore, if Lancer's setup works with a particular piston, so should everyone else's...

Not sure that's better, but its the best I've got today

I don't know the numbers on the Savage's deck height, piston heght, various cam's lift/duration etc... to even know what the valve-piston clearances are on a stock Savage engine, much less once once we start doing modifications...

But this I know: I'm not real keen on engine designs that have a built-in potential for valve-piston interference; like my wife's Plymouth (Mitsubishi?) 4-cyl. If the timing belt breaks on one of those engines, there is a very high likelyhood that the the valves-pistons will clash, and CRUNCH... the enging is toast. I had the timing belt changed on that car 10-15k before the recommended interval because I didn't want to risk that possibility. (Plus that engine has a cyl head plug problem much like the Savages cap/plug leak, and it needed fixed anyways. So the belt was a must-do as long as you're in there.)

Once again, I'm good for one 96mm @ 9.5:1 to put on the shelf; whenever everyone is confident that we have a good design. And if the company is worth their salt, they won't let us order anything that would make them look bad. After all "they" are supposed to be experts.

The interest shown to date is ...

7 want 96mm/9.5 cr
1 wants 97mm/9.5 cr
1 wants 95mm/9.5 cr
2 want 97mm/10 cr
1  ??

So what do you all want to do?
At this point there is no way we are going to get anywhere close to enough orders to get us a savings on the pistons.

well, considering I have managed to get down to 35 MPG, I don't see how I can afford to jack the performance anymore. The cam & jetting have me just about turning around at the end O the driveway at the gas station & refilling. Also, I can happily report that the performance is such that I can no longer "Ride the snot" out of it! It is more bike than I am rider, & hopefully, it will stay that way a long time. It's finally stiut enough to force me to not "Dial on the beans" fully when I take off from a stop, leaned into a turn, cuz it Just might slide out now. It does pick up the front end a bit when I am just taking off hard. Shimming the clutch springs seemed to have been a good idea. I think I should just leave it alone. I may regret that later,I hope not.Maybe, if I decide I need one later, there will be demand enough to make another run by then. The new folks coming here & starting where I was a year ago , making mods & moving forward, there may be a few of them who can get an order up with me. I wish I could do it, but just now doesn't seem so smart. I wish the best for you other folks!

Awwrite, well as soon as I get the power steering on the backhoe straightened out. Ill walk back off into the carb. Maybe I did the white spacer wrong. It did stink after that. AND, I busted one ear off the pilot jet & never was sure what became of the piece. Dunno if its in the carb somewhere.. Ill get a can O Berrymans & shoot the carb out.. maybe I sould just use Keyboard Cleaner compressed air, cant hurt anything with that. Berrymans is some mean crap to get on skin.. &the carb is in no way gunked up,

vroom1776 wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:05:

Oh NO not that! - guess school is about over?

What is the subject area?  Specific title for this one?
Will you be a Master or a Doctor?

Inquiring minds want to know ....