I too am considering the chain conversion, for the following reasons:

1. When I'm on the freeway going about 75 ( and not liking it ) I sometimes pull in the clutch, wait a few seconds for the engine to de-rev and guess what - the bike glides along just like my old fat tire Schwinn bicycle....well sort of.

2. I like taking off in 2nd gear, maybe half way between 1st and 2nd would work too.

3. I too,  many times, am looking for a 6th gear.

4. The belt squeaks. No matter what I do, and I have done a plenty, It still squeaks arggggggggggg !

5. With all the mods done the bike has so much  more power it seems wasted on low gearing.

Can you still use belt guard  with chain?

... and once you've gone to the Sigma speedometer on the handlebar there is no need for that huge cavity in the gas tank.  This winter's project is to take my $20 tank and cut it up and rebuild it two inches taller and without the speedometer cavity -- gotta be worth two gallons!

Aviler wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:10:

???  That's a great Idea!  Really!  One of the things I was having to do on my trip was stop to hydrate.  I couldn't figure out how to wedge a cup/bottle on the handlebars.

Paladin. wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:10:


Yeah, Savages are kind of lacking in necessities such as cup/bottle holders

I can't take credit for that idea, though. I've seen it somewhere on this forum prior to this.

Quote:



If you take the speedo out of the tank you can insert a molded cup holder down inside...it works quite well.

I'm late to the thread as always, but I do love to add my 2 cents

I do like the chain conversion and am not sorry I did it. I also run the 17/43 at the moment. It's great on the highway. I have 18" ape hangers so my bike isn't exactly streamlined, but it looks cool (IMHO). I installed a nice sigma backlit speedo and it workded great. WOT in 5th I got up to 147.99km/h. Stupid .99, but still not too bad considering the aeirodymics and it will do 125km/h all day and it doesn't sound like it's going to explode. In the city however I have a few more issues with this gearing. I like to drive 60km/h in town or often have to, and that's fairly high rev's in 2nd, but it's just too low in 3rd. I find I'm constantly switching between 2nd and 3rd when following someone or doing 70km/h just so I can be confortably in 3rd. I'm going to drop the front to a 16 for a bit, because I do most driving in town right now, and to see the difference. It's AWESOME to be able to switch it up like that, and it was such a great cheap conversion.

Speedo... I hate taking off the sigma speedo at every stop and didn't really like the look of the wire going to the front wheel. ( I have no wires to handlebars, no turn signals etc.). While out I didn't take it off and someone stole the little gadget and made the decision to take off the speedo very easy.

I had taken to using the speedo hole in the tank as a drink holder, and had much success carrying plastic bottles. I then thought, why not put my tall can of beer in the hole on the way to poker.... I got sprayed with beer about halfway to the game when the can ruptured. I was very suprised, covered in beer and it cooked onto my engine. Note to self, don't put can's in a hole with somewhat sharp edges!

Metri
You are absolute right when you say second gear is to low and theard is to high, the problem is that its a to big gap betwen this two gears to be good in town, and on very small and curvy roads, thats the reason I changed to 16 at front, I did try the 17/43 for a few days but 16/43 suit me better.
I guess you will find that better as well.
Even if I liked the 17/43 on the highway.
Odar