j
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SuzukiSavage.com Rocks!
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I'm sure you get posts like this all the time, but I've spent awhile going through forums reading them, and I still can't make a decision. I live in NW arkansas and need a bike mainly for commuting to school. It's a brief drive with speed up to 55, and I will be riding 2 up at least 50% of the time at this speed. My wife is tiny and our combined weight is 270. I also want to be able to make the occasional trip home to see our families, or an occasional road trip. Nothing over 800 miles round trip, most of the time 400 miles round trip (maybe doing this once a month). Also, an occasional 10 mile interstate short cut would be nice, but I wouldn't mind making road trips on back highways at 55-60 mph.
The main thing we want, though, is fuel efficiency. We're really poor and plan to be for awhile. The bike is really an investment to our future poorness, buying it now while I have a little money.
Between the savage and the v-star 650 I've read a lot of different gas mileage claims, up to 60+ mpg for the both of them, but what I think I believe at this point is that the v-star's gonna get slightly less, maybe 5-10 mpg less.
My gut is telling me to get a savage and deal with less power on longer trips. The low maintenance side of it sounds great, but it seems like the backfire mods and leak fixing will require a lot of initial work - which, as a complete newb - I have no idea how to do. I've read about drilling out the brass plug, turning the mixture screw, switchin' the spacer around the needle for a couple of #4 washers, etc - but reading is different than doing, and i don't even have a drill. Also, I've read alot on people needing to rejet, which I have no idea how to do and only a small idea what it means, but I usually like learning this stuff and picking it up.
Once you turn the mixture screw, change the spacer, and maybe rejet - have I lost the fuel efficiency advantage over the v-star? If I'm gonna see less than 5 mpg difference between them, should I opt for the v-star to keep us powered during brief interstate travel? Thanks, sorry this is so long.
Josh
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