It's not finished, but will it really ever be done? Who knows, who cares. It's the journey that counts. At any rate here's a few pictures of my 2k Savage with its new additions/mods on BikePics. I'm going to try the link to BikePics first. If that works then I'll maybe try to figure out how to get them to show up on here. I'm on an Apple Mac so some of the directions don't help me much.

Harley Softail 5 gallon tank-$50 with dent to repair
Harley 11 3/4" Sportster lowering shocks-$100 inc. shipping
Sportster muffler-$20 for two
Harley mini floorboards-$42 inc. shipping
V-Star saddle seat-$150 used (but really new)
Fairing type windshield-Forgot the price
4 gallon aux fuel tank on the back-Would have to go back and check

http://bikepics.com/members/jazzcarter/00savage/

I've also taken out the white spacer all together, removed the chrome goodies from the top of the engine so the tank would drop down and added a 12 volt socket under the right side of the front seat.

Now to see if this works.

Jack

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention the big honkin' oval LED tail/brake light on the back. The aux tank made the stock light un-seeable in the daytime in my opinion. I like to be seen out on the road.

Jack

I went to a local national home/hardware chain store (Menards) and found a PVC pipe coupler that was the perfect length and a PVC pipe end the same diameter which I cut down to make a cap for the back of the speedo case. I put about three layers of duct tape around the speedo housing and it went into the pipe snugly. I bent the two screw in brackets that hold the stock speedo to the tank, drilled a hole in each, put bolts through the holes, drilled matching holes in the end cap and then used nuts to hold the cap on the end which also pulls the speedo snugly into the pipe as well. The frame around the speedo is the one from the tank top so I could keep all the original lights. It is a perfect fit to the top of the PVC case but isn't needed if you don't want to keep the lights as I did. Cut a notch in the bottom back of the case to run the speedometer cable and the two light wires and you're in business. I used a 1" U-bolt to mount the whole thing to the handle bars.

The only problem for me is that the socket on the turn/hi-beam lights is so deep that I only could get one side of the U-bolt into the case and keep the case as short as possible. I may move those lights down to the tank since I've still got to figure out something to go over the Harley mounting bracket there. I've had a couple other mounting ideas to keep them up top though as well. We'll see.

If you want to move the speedo to the bars you need a longer cable. We are lucky 'cause, despite Suzuki's best efforts by using weird cable ends, their tach cables from one of their older three cyl. models is a perfect length. Just clean it up, lube with motor oil and away you go.

I suppose if enough people want to do this tank change I could do a step-by-step of the way I ended up doing it. Let me tell you it's nice not to need to find a gas stop every two hours. I'll be spending the summer out in western N. Dakota this year and the stations are few and far between. My nine gallon capacity is going to feel nice and comfy.

Jack

I suppose if enough people want to do this tank change

give us some idea how you did this please and I assume you used the harley fuel tap ?

Thanks
allan

Hi Jack,

Nice pics. You should have no problem being seen with your safety yellow color scheme.

A question. Does your V-Star saddle seat push you forward, back, or keep your butt in the same position as the stock Savage/S40 seat?

Actually, looking at the photos again, I have another question. You've replaced one of the gas caps with what looks like a clock. Did you do something to connect the two sides of the tank together so that one gas hole fills both sides? Or does the clock also double as a gas cap?

Thanks.

Cheers. Tammi

Thanks for the info, Jack.

You've given me some great ideas.

There's a motorcycle junkyard relatively close by that I've just got to check out someday.

Cheers. Tammi

I knew I should have save the message to Tammi.

First thing to do is to remove the rear mounting tab from the V* seat.

Then I made a square cornered "U" shaped bracket that the legs fit between the stock seat mounts that are on the frame. You'll need to bend those tabs upwards into a  close to vertical angle. Put the bracket "legs" between the tabs and drill a hole through each one so's you can put a bolt or something through it to hold it in place. I tapped mine with threads which have held fine and haven't vibrated out in over 5k miles

With the bracket bolted in place put a coating of construction glue on it and put your seat in place. The front tab goes under the tank pretty much like the stock seat does. Take a couple of your rachet tie-down straps and pull the seat down snug onto the glue and let it dry.

When the glue's dry, take everything off, turn it upide down, drill four or five holes for pop riviting the bracket to the seat and you're in business.

You will be sitting higher in the air 'cause the V* seat's a tich longer than the stock one and sits sort of half way up the front of the back seat. Give up the back seat or move the front-of-the-seat tab a little farther back to move the V* forward and thus lower.

Trial and error to find the height you want for the seat. I did three brackets in soft steel before I got what I ended up with. And there's a thread on here about mounting a Sportster seat (I believe) that uses a similar, but more with more glam, approach that should give more flexibility to seat altitude and placement. Plus he uses something called speed pins instead of bolts which should make seat removal MUCH easier on the knuckels. When I get a chance I'm planning on trying it out.
http://hometown.aol.com/managwa/index.html

Here's a crude visualization of the set-up with the seat upside down in position to be pop rivited using my method.

    l___________l      -  Squared off "U" Bracket
--------------------------  -  Seat pan

Jack

Nolan, check out the thread called "extended speedo cables" just a few slots down from this one. It's got the info you're asking about. I used a tach cable off of an older three cyl. suzuki bike.