you could sell you bike and buy a sportser for $7k. $7k minus $2k (assimung you get what you paid for it) and your $5k in the hole. OR you can spend another $2k and turn your savage into a harley eater.
Wiseco piston $200
Cam carb kit from Lancer $650
Exhaust porting $10 for the dremel bit + a little time
Motolanna exhaust to match the port $150 (raask $450)
Head shave $150
Overbore $150

Lancer's expecting 55-60Hp with 300# of bike with stage 2 cam, 97mm wiseco piston, .04" head shave, and I forget what carb he's running, with an opened exhaust port and custom header to match w/ supertrapp muffler.

The Savage will handle easier, quicker, and more nimbly than the sporty

The  Savage weighs basically 1/2 what the sporty does, try pushing the sporty around after doing the same with the Savage...BIG DIFFERENCE, especially if trying to back it up hill on a driveway or something

The power to weight ratio is pretty close to the same, and with a few tweaks the Savage will outrun the sporty up to about 80.
I had a sporty for a couple of years and liked it, it was smooth and I liked the sound, but the performance was not comparible...my Savage ate up the sporty.  And I got really tired of pushing the 550 lb sporty around at home...very hard.

Keep in mind that a sporty is built to a higher state of tune than a Savage is in stock form, so some mod's need to be done to thSavage to bring it up to an equal starting position.  At this level the Savage takes the first half of the run and the sporty takes the top half.  Top speed for both is about the same in the mid 90's.

Savage is half the price of the sporty and maintaining it is MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE and a whole lot easier to do yourself.

Performance parts for the sporty are everywhere and even under the rug.  The Savage is another story, but some performance parts are available for it and I think I know someone who has them available...REALLY GOOD DUDE TOO !  

If you want a Savage to be made to RUN, then this is DOABLE.
I think mine will be well into the 50+ hp range, but the dyno will tell here shortly...we shall see what it will do.
One thing for sure I learned on the previous build, with a 42+ hp engine, I never ran into a HD of any model that could hang with my Savage from 0-85 mph

For a long time I REALLY WANTED A SPORTY...REALLY BAD and I finally got one; a great deal for it.  Riding it was nice for sure, but everything else was much more of a chore and the desire for it faded within a year so off to ebay it went.  Now I have one primary Savage, my '96 that goes by REX, and also an '85 & and '87 model that may be brought back to life once other things in my life setttle down.  total cost for both of the older models was $500 and I have all the parts needed to make them both run.
Yes, life is pretty good that way.

Oh, just a small correction from some above info:
-Performance Carburetor Kit $400
-Performance Camshaft $200
-NO NEED to shave the head if you get the high compression piston to start with from Wiseco


Notice indents on each side of piston top for valve clearance and the center portion of top is raised 2 mm above normal, which for the LS650 engine with this 97mm piston/bore brings the compression ratio up to 10.5:1...A VERY NICE NUMBER INDEED.

thanks lancer..btw i do plan on getting jet kit from "that dude" here in about a month... it wasnt really the speed or the acceleration of the sporty that caught my attention but what seemed like purely the quality of the bike. it was really solid. i am novice rider and the only bikes i have ever been on besides this have been suzuki's...s40,s50,m50. the sporty just seemed like a better build. BUT i have a savage and i ride it  A LOT. like i was telling my wife..i got a hell of a deal and i love the bike. i have done the head plug thing and the dyna thing so i have gottne my hands dirty on her . i am just trying to keep my eyes from wandering like an adulterous husband

RTC wrote on 04/29/10 at 21:27:38:



YES, I understand the adulterous wandering eye thing.

forgot to mention that in my ten minute sporty ride i scratched my buddy's peg protector rod thingy on a turn that i didnt think was all that challenging. i guess learning to ride on a savage has tricked me into thinking that all cruisers can corner like me

It's paid for (I assume from the way you were talking). That's reason enough right there.  

I can tell you why I like the Savage (even though it's my wifes bike ). It's nimble. Yes, it's lacking in power (nearly all cruiser are to me) and it doesn't get the respect it deserves from the "big bad" V-twin riders but it is so nimble it will run circles around them all on a curvy back road. It's such a fun bike to ride it leaves a smile every time you get off of it. W/ a few simple mods it can be made to run like the "big boys" or out run them in some cases.

I can tell you this, it's a heck of a lot easier to make a Savage run like a Harley than it is to make a Harley handle like a Savage.

What you think of as "solid shifting",... I always thought of as "clunky"...
Harley's shift like a box of rocks.....

but,.. if you like them, it's not for me to talk you out of it...
Life's short, ride what you like...
Plenty of others must like them,...they're all over the place...