Hi, I just bought myselft a used '97 Suzuki Savage. It has 10,800 miles on the odometer. Previous owner, had it last serviced 1-2K miles ago. I'm planning to take it to a local motorcyle shop, and having a service tune up done to it. They're charging me $130 plus parts, compared to the Suzuki dealership that wants $230 plus parts. Should I go to the local shop or the dealership?

Previous owner also told me the bike was always hooked up to a battery tender when it wasn't being used/ridden. Unfortunately my parking space doesn't have any outlets for the battery tender to be hooked up. And sure enough after a day and a half of not riding the Savage, it was hard as hell to start. Took me about 10 mins. of on/off restarting until she finally fired up. The weather wasn't cold, it was a warm 75-80 degrees. I don't want to always rely on the battery tender, so I was wondering what could be the problem? Do I need to buy a new battery or is there any electrical gremlins that I need to look into.

There's also an oil leak at the cylinder head. It leaks pretty bad when ridden. I'll see drops of oil on the left side of the engine after riding. But it doesn't leak when its not being used. My initial thought was that a valve adjustment would fix it (included in the tune up), but the local shop said that the source is from the pistons towards the middle/bottom part of the cylinder. And that a valve adjustment wouldn't fix it. They quoted me $500-$600 to get it fixed. They also suggested, just to keep riding it that way, and just maintain my oil level and I should be fine. The previous owner also did the same thing for 3 years, just kept the oil level checked. I haven't taken it in to the dealership. They're charging me $80 just to look at it.

So anyway, I just want to know ahead of time what could be the potential problem with the battery/starting, and the oil leak quote I got was a fair quote or should I even worry about it? The previous owner rode it for the last 3 years with the oil leak, so? I just want to get a heads up, so I don't get blind-sided by the local repair shop or the dealership with tacked on fees.

Thanks guys for all your help/input.

If the battery survived 10 minutes of starting & dying, the problem isnt the battery. It STArted the bike, so Id look at idle speed, carb needs cleaned, antique gasoline, maybe? Flush the gas & pop the crab off & have a look. Bet it aint the Piston leaking oil & whatever it is, YOU can fix it. Grab a manual & stat to work, the money 7you save on mechanics will pay for the tools.

Odds are 99+% the oil leak is the infamous plug above the short stud up and behind the exhaust pipe. Read all about it in the tech section, print the cap screw diagram so you keep the cam cover cap screws in the correct places. Order the plug/cap, the special pear shaped o-ring and the 7 special sealing washers that go under the specified cover cap screws before you start or you'll be down another week waiting for little stuff. The 8th one goes under screw you do not need to remove. At 10 K miles I'd check the cam chain tensioner while it is down. Will need to have a clutch side cover gasket and exhaust to head gasket on hand for that. Unless the cam tensioner has extended past limits you are good to go and do the cam chain bit in the Fall. Hint, buy Savage Greg's CD, it has lots of helpful material to supplement the manual(s). Max

Tech Section Contents with links, plug/cap with pictures of Julie holding up the cam cover. Max