To start, I love my wife's 2001 Savage.  Plenty of power for me, just not enough leg room.  She loves it for the light weight.  As I'm getting the bikes out this spring, I'm reminded of trouble she had last fall and wondering if anyone here had any ideas.

First off, we live in Colorado.  Home is at 5000ft elevation, which means less oxygen, so a leaner carb usually works a little better than one tuned for sea level.  A couple of years ago, I worked to adjust her carb (pilot screw only, not spacer, spring or jets) to minimize backfire and shutdown "poof" as much as possible, though it still certaily exists.  The bike has run great until a trip this summer.  We were cruising along at about 65mph when her bike cut out and shut down.  It started right back up (not a battery issue), but kept cutting out every 10 minutes or so.  It may be worth noting that we were at about 10,000 ft elevation, so a mixture that's too rich would sound like a likely culprit, but there was no smell of gas like flooding.  Also, we have ridden this route in the past with no troubles and I haven't made any adjustments since out last ride.  I haven't changed the plug in a while, so this is where I'm leaning, but wouldn't a fouled plug make it hard to restart the bike?  What about an ignition issue like points?  After limping it back to town, I haven't had any issues and can't recreate the cutting out.  Any ideas would be greatly appreaciated.

Thanks in advance!

I'm pretty much inline with Versy's thinking...
especially if you were perhaps, climbing,... the vacuum operated petcock may not have received enough vacuum at 65mph on a steady upgrade, close to wide open throttle, and shut the flow of fuel... on prime setting the fuel will flow steady even at low vacuum...
but,... be advised... on prime setting, you will have no reserve in your tank... When you run out, you're walking...
There is a manual petcock replacement... see here...

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1251932429

PS,..I'm at 2500ft, and often ride up to 9000ft... extra popping and less power up there is normal... you may blue your pipes too... all normal...
but the 65mph, plus altitude, and a slight grade can all add up to too low of an engine vacuum to keep the fuel line open... the factory don't care, they just need to pass EPA regs at sea level, where the bikes are delivered and tested...

I'm in Fort Collins.  The problem happend on our way to Steamboat Springs.  Made it over Trail Ridge road just fine, although that's a slower drive.  It started acting up between Granby and Steamboat.  A few days later, on our way home, it did the same thing just before Walden, but was fine on the climbs up the passes (Rabbit Ears, Muddy and Cameron Passes).  It seems like climbing is fine (Steamboat up to Rabbit Ears pass is pretty steep, high and fast.  It's the high, flat plains that were causing the problems.  I'll certainly take a look at the vac hose.  I appreciate the advice.

ColoradoSavage wrote on 03/19/10 at 16:18:21:

I know a family out in fort collins, they own land in the mountains an odd 40 miles away, I dont remember the property name, somewehre by estes park (sorry off topic)