I picked up my new-to-me 01 Savage at a dealership today.  It was a trade-in for them, most likely toward a Yamaha (they mostly sell Yamaha and Kawasaki) and was not willing to crank when I first checked it out.  Made a deal to buy it CHEAP if they got it running properly and put new tires on it.

They had to put on a new carb, as there was a problem with the old one that they said would take too much time to fix, so they replaced it.

It cranked fine, rode fine, went a good 20 miles (half on highway) and then started cutting out.  Restarting worked every time until about 7-10 more miles of residential driving when it cut out and would not restart.  Fortunately, it was a short walk to the house so I pushed it the rest of the way.

It tried to start when warmish, turned over a few times, cut back out.

I'm new to motorcycles but more than willing to pick up a wrench.  

Figure they just didn't tune it right when they put on the new carb?  Something else I should poke at?  As soon as I decided on a Savage, I picked up the Clymer manual on CD and Mr. Savage's photo CD, so I have reference material handy.

It is claimed (note claimed) by the dealership that it has a new plug, new air filter, new fuel filter, new fuel, new oil.

Just noticed that it will crank cold and run until I put it into gear, then it dies.  No clue on that one.

I'll give it a thorough once over.  Good advice.  I trust dealerships about as far as I can throw them.

try running it in prime

Try the easy stuff first.

One: turn up the idle.  Most people like to tune their engines to have that classic thump-thump-thump.  On a big single like the Savage, you need your engine to sound more like a lawn tractor at idle.  The idle speed has gor to be over 1000rpm.

Two: Check the vacuum line.  From the bottom of the petcock (on the left rear side of the tank) there are 2 hoses.  One hose is larger and goes to the left side of the carb (below the choke knob).  This is the fuel line.  The other hose (it shouid be wrapped in a steel coil) is smaller, and goes from the petcock to the middle right side of the carb.  This is your vacuum feed.  Since the shop you bought it from doesn't sell Suzukis, perhaps they didn't install the carb correctly.  The way you tell is start the bike and ride with the petcock in the 'PRI' position.  This is the priming position and fuel should flow regardless of vacuum pressure.   If it runs well on 'PRI' but doesn't at either 'ON' or 'RES', then you have a vacuum problem.  Easy fix.  Get a length of fuel hose from the autoparts store and replace it.  It takes less than 30 seconds...

Hey, we have all stalled our bikes by clicking into gear with the kickstand down -- don't feel like you are abbynormal, we have ALL done that.  We have all also had the terrible "mysterious dead bike syndrome" when the kill switch had gotten bumped a bit by accident too.  Better yet is the "What the F__K!??" syndrome caused by turning the ignition switch the wrong way into ACCESSORY power position.

All of us ... all  (give it time, you'll get there)

Wait until you try to park the bike in the Hardee's parking lot having forgot to PUT the side stand down -- then you have permission to feel stupid as you roll around on the pavement.

Got my official NCIS ??ABBY??normal tee shirt sent to me for that one.



Oldfeller

Sorry to bump an ancient thread, but I felt I should reply to my own problem now that it's 100% solved.

1.  Idle adjustment was low, as I mentioned.  WAY low.  I did it by ear and still ended up around 900.  After searching for a cheap tach that would be ok on a single cylinder, a pal sent me a link for a good one.  I bought a mini-tach for $35 or so and got the idle up to 1100RPM and it is much happier.

2.  Needed a minor tuning adjustment due to backfires.  I used Lancer's simple tuning instructions.  No more backfires.

Runs like a champ - so well, in fact, that I've not posted my results due to enjoying it too much.

I thank you all for saving me a ton of time and trouble.