I took my 2007 S40 out on monday evening and on a straight-away I decided to open it up.  Mind you I am NOT all about speed in any way, I just got curious.  Last summer The fastest I had gone was about 77 mph.  I still felt like I had a lot of throttle left at that point.  

I just installed a windshield and a dyna muffler, so I am not really sure how much these affect top speed.  So on monday I was out having a fine time and opened it up to about 80 mph.  Again I felt like I had a lot of throttle so I kept opening it more and more.  Well, It topped out at 86 mph WOT.  

The next day (yesterday) I rode to work for the first time this year, and I totally ran out of gas way before I expected to, but hadn't calculated my mileage on the last tank.  After filling up and riding home under more reasonable speeds, I calculated 66 mpg.  Last year I was consistently getting 59-60 mpg.

Anyway, I guess I'm just glad to get out there again - Chicago still isn't quite sure if winter is over yet.

There's only one true sign that winter has left the midwest -- when the lakes and rivers start giving up the bodies of the fall and winter drowning victims.  It means the water has warmed up enough for decomposition to proceed, and the gasses given off make them buoyant.  

So far no town or village has figured out how to turn this into an annual tourist event.  It'd be a tough one -- "Bobbing for Bodies", "Spring Corpse Run"???   Hey, if Hinkley Ohio could turn buzzards into a tourist attraction...

Yeah, my pathology prof had done some summer gigs as a forest ranger -- funny you should ask!

I hit 90 2 days ago on my '96.  Last year I was able to hit 85.  I rejetted and cleaned the carb a few months ago.  I think I still had a little more in the throttle but I got stuck behind 2 cars.

My savage is pretty light though, no windshield, no front fender, chrome guard on belt is gone.... Im also pretty light, only 175, so all that could add up.

Chopped wrote on 04/16/08 at 12:29:25:


Indeed, last year I had a problem with cross-winds at high speed and I thought it was just from fact that I hadn't really been on a bike in 15 years.  I assumed that this year I would feel more comfortable, and in some case I have been.  

Yesterday was quite gusty in Illinois and on my ride home from work (30 mi.) I had a near constant heavy side wind that would push the savage almost off the road.  45 mph certainly takes care of it, but I can't really go that slow on most of the roads I need to take.

When riding with my brother last year, however, sometimes if I had trouble with the strong winds, he would switch bikes with me (his is a ninja 650) and say that the savage is as solid as a rock and he didn't notice anything at all.  I figured it was just the rider.