Rocco wrote on 12/17/09 at 12:35:07:sweeet! i appreciate any teardown!!
Yeah! You really get to know the bike inside and out. It's like having sex with your bike!
I'm going to treat any exposed metal with a good wire brushing. I did it to part of my engine and it looks beautiful.
I'm going to try hardtailing the bike and mounting the seat on springs. If I like the ride then I'm going to have gussets welded between the swingarm and the frame and cut off the shock posts. The savage has a tall narrow frame and a narrow engine but with the belt drive the back end gets real wide.
The bars will be free from electronics and I'm going to replace the grips and levers with something more retro. I'm going to install a switch that cuts all power to headlights and have the high beam switch on the light or down by my crotch with the main disconnect. I'm going with a new headlight that sticks farther out from the trees to accentuate the tall skinny front end.
I'm going manual decomp. I'm going to fab up a handle on the decomp lever and mount the starter button on the frame right next to it. Push the lever, hit the starter button, release the lever, and keep on the button until she fires up.
I've got a $10 combo brake light/plate light that's going to be mounted vertically on the right to balance out the size of the belt drive.
Battery will be mounted either where the old muffler bracket went or in between the foot controls. I love the open look of the bike without the airbox or battery box. Electrics will be grouped under a plate underneath the seat. I tried to repair my burnt out wiring harness but the only wiring connectors I could find were ugly crimp and shrinkwrap ones so I'm buying another wiring harness and working from there.
I'm probably going to make a Diamond Jim straight pipe.
If I'm not burnt out from all this I'm going to take a grinder to the welds in the frame. There's slag all over it.
Since Im going for tall and skinny I'm going to mount a small (2 gal?) tank on top of the frame.