Odds are thers nothing wrong with the head gasket. People are always thinking thats the problem, when its an oil leak from the head plug. 9,000 miles in 10 years? Carb must surely be gunked up. Its an easy one to mess with. Dont sweat it. Get some carb cleaner & a hand held impact ( the danged screws stick & theyre soft, so just cranking on a screwdriver will most likely result in stripped screws. NOW is the time to replace them, because youll be going back in to rejet it, but for now, I wouldnt do any mods, just get it running.

It might be smart to drain some fuel & see what it looks like & look in the tank, with a light.

9000 in 10 years... yes... it sounds like a good bike to work on. HOWEVER, the term too good to be true comes to mind. considering that there is a lot of snow here in Colorado i figured it would give me plenty of time to get this thing up and running by summer. i had planned on putting extenders on it. If I get the bike I want to look everything over really well and fix/replace anything that may look suspicious. Is there anything I should look at specifically when checking out this bike?

Don't Harley riders hate anything that isnt a Harley? hah I'm going to look at the bike on Saturday and see what type of condition it has been kept in. Is the frisco bike posted somewhere? I like the 99 because of 5th gear.

cool. Hopefully if i dont look like a gigantic ape on this bike it will all work our and I can get my hands dirty and fix her up.

We've had a couple of big apes riding the little Savage:
 

I have no extensions on there cause my wife rides it on occasion. She is not so tall. I am used to it now. I have put about 14000 miles on it in two years. I have been known to slide on to the back seat if I am doing a long ride. If the weather holds up I have to go down to portland about a six hour ride, we shale see how I feel after that.

replacing fork seals may or may not require a special tool. Some here have used a broom stick cut up on the end but that didnt work for me. I'll unfortunately be going to a crappy dealership i hate to get one bloody bolt. Other than that, being mechanically inclined you should have no trouble. PM verslagen about his modified cam chain tensioner. Whether the tensioner plunger is extended too far or not having one of his modified tensioners is worth the $100. The plug leak is really quite easy and if I can do it most anyone can. Get the new styled plug. I fixed my leak twice with the old plug and it started leaking again both times. Got the new one and havent had any problem since. Cleaning the carb wont be hard, just tedious maybe. I'm also 6'2" and the bike fit me well stock but I got a set of forward controls off of Ed L on here and it gave me much appreciated leg room. As far as looking at 5 speeds over 4 speeds...5th is practically useless. Its only 4-500rpms lower than 4th at a given speed so keep that in mind while looking around. Might get a super steal with mileage approximating the '99 on an 80's model.