Hello, my name is Mike and I am from northwestern suburbs of Chicago. I bought a Savage for my girlfriend 3 weeks ago and have lurked around here reading about carb mods, exhausts, tweaks, and maintenance. I'm actually a automotive ASE master technician who works on Honda's for a living. Naturally I ride a Honda, a SP2 RC51.
G/F wanted a S40 for a while and I picked up a 97 Savage w/4500 miles for dirt cheap. Since they haven't changed much over the years I figured it would be perfect starter bike for her.
As far as I know the muffler is some kinda super loud un-baffled can that does look pretty good. It makes my (what I thought was super loud) RC sound quiet. I got a set of new front pads for it, oil change (Spectro Gold) and air filter. I'm gonna toy around with the carb because when I ride it, I want more power
She seems to be tuned pretty well, doesn't run too rich or lean cause the pipe stays constant color and there is no filth on the tail pipe. I've had it up to 100MPH easily, so my guess is there is little to be gained from the carb work, but I want to be able to pull from Sportsters