I think a fatter front tire will make you under steer even more. I think skinny front tires give you a more responsive steering, and fatter front tires give you a more stable ride.

 One thing that really helped me get a tighter and more responsive steering was new handlebars. What kind of bars are you riding? I went from the stock buckhorns to some crazy 4" rise z-bars and noticed a big difference in handling. much more responsive. I now have some 12" z-bars and I can still notice better steering than the buckhorns, but not as much as the lower ones, because with the lower ones I was more hunched over the bars, more like a mountain bike. just didn't feel good on my back, so I got the apes and love them.

I haven't tried it yet, but I've been told that just changing the front tire to a 90/90-19 for a lower profile will help the front grip better. It would certainly be something much cheaper to try before going to an 18" wheel.

Having said that, I was wondering how the fat little 110/90-16 tire and wheel from a GZ-250 would feel on a Savage; for as Five_Points said: a "more stable" feel. But I think that would probably be too extreme of a change. However, the GZ-250 does run a 130/90-15 on the back.

So... with the Savages 15" rim on the back, and the GZs 16" rim on the front, a person could mess around with the tire sizes on *both* ends and dial in a pretty good handling combination for more "sporty" handling. How about a low profile 140/70-15 on the back, and a 110/80-16 on the front? Combine that with the chain/sprocket mod, so you could correct your gearing; some rearset controls; a little faring, and you might be able to come up with a very interesting cafe thumper... huh? Of course, some runt on a 250 Ninja would probably still smoke it on a real road course.

Guess I'm lucky that both my bikes came to me with braided SS front brake lines, so I don't even know what one feels like without it. I will say though, for such a small looking disc, the front brake on the Savage seems to work extremely well. But then, I haven't subjected it to really hard braking for long periods where they can start to fade. Boy that's not a good feeling; when your brakes get so hot that they feel like they've been greased.

I'm not sure that this is what you are looking for, but I was able to easily drag the pegs all the way around the corners on my Savage. The OEM tires had plenty of grip and the geometry of the MC was OK to hold that lean angle through corners. Of course that was the limit, because once you start dragging hard parts it's easy to break something or lift a wheel and wash out. But with my Savage at least the limitation was not the tires or geometry it was the clearance (yes, I had my springs adjusted to the stiffest setting). My thought is that without increased ground clearance the MC in stock configuration will go around corners as fast as it can go.

Windrider, if "countersteering" means what I think it means, on the Savage the center of gravity is so far back I can only sense danger.

It's OK to countersteer on a SuperMoto, that's how they corner on track, and dirtbikes etc., but they have a completely different geometry !

Furthermore, on those bikes you countersteer to react to "power oversteer", which on the Savage seems a prett-tty steep wager... if there's one thing the Savage does not have, it's too much power.

It may well be the OEM drag bars are too narrow and high and the footpegs too far forwards to allow "proper" control, European style. So I assume I may have to pull the footpegs farther back, and get wider bars (like, Dyna bars)

???

Sorry, I'm stuck there, will research...

You can imagine or liken countersteering to a controlled fall. As you push the left grip to the right, the bike will fall to the left and vice versa. Scary init?