I would like to start with a sincere thank you. During the few weeks I have viewed this site as a guest, I have observed that almost everyone here shares a passion for the machine as well as for the pure joy of riding it provides. This mutual passion proved to be the catalyst I needed to start my journey. Thank you; I think.
I am 62 and have never ridden. I hope to retire in a year or two and wanted another activity. A guy can’t play golf all the time. After research and some good advice to start small and simple, I purchased a 2007 S40 from a well established local independent motorcycle repair shop for $1,500. As the story goes, the previous owner had left it for routine service and never returned to claim it. After 18 months or so, the shop owner went through the steps to obtain a mechanics lien and received a clear title. The bike has 3640 miles and appears stock except for a set of saddle bag mounts.
To date, my journey has consisted of buying the bike, getting a learner’s permit, signing up for the MSF class, joining this forum, buying liability insurance, a helmet, and a good set of boots. I also have spent many hours in a cold garage; waiting for spring by sitting on the bike and doing my best to imitate the sound of the big single cylinder at idle.
Best Regards

Hello everyone. Last saturday I bought a 1986 Suzuki Savage with the intention of using it as a RYCA build. I have been riding for over 15 years and owned many motorcycles with my current collection at 5.

I stripped the Savage down last Sunday to fix a few known issues and I really like the design so far. Simple, elegant, and easy to work on.

I ordered about $150 in parts and in about 3 weeks, all the minor issues(like a bad clutch switch) will be fixed. Then I can give her a proper long distance shakedown ride before I start to plan out the build.

This forum is quite awesome with the huge amount of knowledge I've found and the service manual has already come in handy to solve the electrical gremlins.

Thank you all for this great place and hopefully I can contribute some good knowledge, ideas, expierences over time.

Hi, I am Pascal from France.
I live next to Biarritz.
I am 52 years old.
I pocess a LS since january.
This is a very good bike to ride cool.
Has read you soon  

Hey everyone,
First post, just wanted to introduce myself. Name's Josh and I'm a grad student in Salt Lake City. I've decided my first real bike is going to be a Suzuki S40 (I had a '78 Yamaha GT80, more of a scooter though). Thank you for all the great information, its been very helpful. I hope to add some valuable info myself one day

Yeah.....Hi everybody. LOCOMOTIVEMAN up here in Minnesota USA. I LIKE this 2001 LS650 I just bought. Looking forward to gleaning this Site for tid-bits.
Yes, I 'tweaked' the LowSpeedMixture on Day#1. What a difference! Mine was FactoryCherry...set @1/2 turn out. Pluggin' the Mixture Screw at the factory.....How dumb.
Now I'm havin' Fun in the Sun.             Locomotiveman

Hey all, my name is alex, im 26 and live in norfolk va. ive been lookin for a savage for a while now (wanting to do a ryca build on it) and it brought me to your website. almost have all the money needed to buy the kit and the bike, but also want to upgrade the motor as well. this will be my first bike ive owned myself and i can honestly not wait lol.

Mr Hyde wrote on 03/02/12 at 07:00:14:


Dude, sorry to hear of your drop.
Have you talked to Oldfeller or Verslagen yet about this ?
At least you are back up and functional again.