Maybe every market is different.  I know the regional rep for Suzuki and he can't keep anything under 900cc in any of the local stores; and scooter sales are thru the roof.
As far as the Savage goes, he says it's a fine, simple bike that requires little maintenace and gets great gas mileage.

I have a buddy that runs a repair shop and the only thing he has seen is they over heat and trash the head. other than that they will run forever if you take care of it.


I almost fell outta my chair when I read this!.... I have a '06 S40 and I constantly complain about how it may run too cool!.... takes me at least 8 miles after a good warm-up period to warm up. On a cool day after a long ride, I can touch the Head with my hand and keep it there for a handful of seconds without cold hands! I broke mine in with regular dino oil and now have switched to Synthetic Amsoil 20-50, that may be a factor and have heard from other riders that any Synthetic oil may make it run cooler ( I know mine sounds and runs smoother, reduced the normal noise in Head to almost nothing with Amsoil ) but I cant say for sure. But to say this is a POS bike from your local dealer is nonsense. IMO, its an old-fashioned true bikers bike. I relate the V-Twins and all of its luxuries  as a car on 2 wheels, and an expensive one at that. I got some shocked looks just today when I was asked was it a Honda Rebel which I corrected them that it wasnt and told them I can run Interstate speeds all day long. One said " Yea, but you cant run with a group thats doing 100-120 mph. I promptly told em that I dont care to ride with idiots anyway.

LANCER wrote on 10/06/08 at 21:02:48:


In Europe I've heard of some snapped valves, most likely due to consistent high revs in Autobahn. Head and rocker arm damage is not unheard of, most famous was when Motorrad Magazine had a camshaft and cylinder head failure on their long term test bike in late 1980s. In Germany alone over 20000 Savages were sold so plenty of bike breakers have them in bits but decent useable top end parts are hard to find, they are among the first parts to be sold. I bought our 1991 Savage in 1996 which already had the whole engine replaced from 1993 or 1994 model. The engine has about 80000kms now and needs a rebuild soon.