I have a 07 with 8345 miles on it. I have drilled out the brass plug and made that adj. and thats it. I change the oil and filter every 3000 miles. MY bike has never given me any problems. Now my ? is this, how many of the problems that show up on this site are caused by suzuki or by those modify the bike. Not looking if they are right or wrong, just want to know how good our savage really is. I am 58 this is my first bike I bought it in 08 with 79 miles on it, if I take good care of it how long will it keep going?

It's pretty good...
I'd say,... "I------------------I".... this good...

If you keep it long enough,... you will have a petcock leak, maybe a head plug leak, and eventually the cam chain will go... at some time between 10k and 50k....

All bikes have a weakest link,...and well maintained ones will usually end up predictably finding it...
Depending on miles ridden per year, it will either be the petcock or the cam chain...

Replace the petcock with a Raptor,... put on one of Lancer's strengthened cam chains, when it wears out, and ride on for at least that amount again...

60 to 100k is possible.... by then the whole bike will start decomposing.... as will any bike...
Bmw's and Harley's, and some other bikes have a history of going for many 100k's, but they have mostly had so many parts replaced and rebuilt that very little of the original machine is still left....
Anything will run forever, if you replace every part that breaks or wears out...

It aint gonna stay new. Run it. Have fun with it. When it needs stuff done, do it & have fun doin that. Dont be stressin every time you crack the throttle "Gee, is this too much? Will I need a cam chain later if I do this?" Ride that sumbitch & grin.

I am not a very nice guy when it comes to my equipment.  I got my '00 in '04 with 5,000 miles on it.   Nothing but oil, tire, and brake pad changes until 28,000 miles when I figured I should do the cam chain thing.  Oh, yeah, also fixed the leaky plug thing, after putting up with it for nearly two years.

It is a tough little bike.  I ride daily.  I rode it to OKC in '07.  I'm planning on Seatle this year, and Biloxi in '11.   When it finally dies it's getting replaced with an S40.

I bought my first bike at 68 last year. I hope to be able to get a few years of riding out of it. I think that I will probably wear out before the Savage.

The Savage is very easy to work on and maintain. With the help of the peeps on this forum, just about anything is possible. After reading threads about the cam chain tensioner thing, I asked the local dealer about it. He told me that the dealership had never had that problem. He said that to mess that up you had to have the "petal to the metal" most of the time. Not the ordinary riders treatment. He also said that the regular maintenance was important. I assume he meant oil and filter and valve adjustment. I am doing a muffler, air filter and carb thing this winter. I would have never tried it without the help on this forum.

Enjoy your bike and don't worry about it. If you have a question or a problem, this is the place!  

Yes, to your point earlier you CAN mod the bike to pieces.  

Lancer, Verslagen and I are having a race to see who can blow our bike up first.  So far Lancer is ahead in that contest, Verslagen is in second place and I am a late entry who is pulling up third place in the "skilled mechanic, but busy wicking it to pieces" contest.

Mescapatori holds first place for the "most damage done by skilled mechanics with the bike still left in running shape" category.

Serenity holds the highest mileage rebuild gone wrong (56,000 miles on the original cam chain, but dead within two days after rebuilding.

Somebody has the highest mileage bike, highest ever on the list was one of the original purchasers of an '87 that put over 120,000 on his scoot before lunching it out with some sort of piston wear out death.

Let's see, we have the mods gone wrong category with a oversized piston weight adder getting loose causing the harmonic balancer front part of the crankcase to bust off and hit the road in front of the rear tire at full highway speed.

We got dozens of engines killed for no oil (simply let it run out, never checked it) and we got low idle rpm killing cam journals (a few) and we got cam chain adjusters spitting their guts into the primary gearing and all the other forms of just plain didn't take care of it death forms.

BUT THE NUMBER ONE KILLER OF THE SAVAGE IS THE HORRIBLE DREADED "I just stopped riding it for a few months and then the battery went dead and I put it in the shed and forgot about it for a year or so and the carb got all screwed up and I couldn't ever fix it and after a few more years in the shed it seized up tight" category -- i.e. death by neglect syndrome.    More bikes of all brands die from this reason than from any other reason.

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The Savage is remarkably easy to take care of and easy to ride bike.  It is in current production after nearly 24 years of constant production and some of the earliest ones made are still running.

The ones that just busted the cover housing from the oil pressure build up, that doesn't count as destroyed.   It happened quick and when the new cover was correctly assembled with the oil filter, etc put in correctly the bikes went on with life.  

("skilled mechanic" Joe strikes again ...)

The ones that ran that way a while and the covers held up against the oil pressure and the engines died head deaths from no oil flow, yes they count against the "skilled mechanic" death count.

OldNewGuy, your dealership has never seen a Savage wear a cam chain to the point the tensioner let loose because the dealership never sees a bike that goes much beyond the warranty period.

Verslagen keeps a spreadsheet on the list somewhere where he tracks all our cam chain mileages -- we were tracking data for a class action suit if we can prove the bike has a built in flaw that Suzuki should repair at N/C under legal action.  I think we have proven there is an issue, but we will never get it fixed for free because we never leave our bikes alone for 15,000 miles .... we mod them before then and that destroys our case.

Oldfeller,
I am, as usual, awestruck and amazed by your knowledge. Your ability to sit in SC and know about the local dealership that has been run by the same man for over 50 years is mind boggling. I take my hat off to you and look forward to future pearls of wisdom from you.
Regards,
Oldnewguy

P.S. The dealership has sold many used Savage and Boulvards that were well out of warrenty, including mine!