I scored a set of left and right  

given the proper rear wheel    
can these calipers be used on the rear?

So my biggest problem will be finding a disk.  

Rotor makers assume all you need to know is your bike model number, not the dimensions of their rotors. There are eBay sellers from China that go to the trouble of putting up spec drawings, though. From those I found a painfully close-but-no-cigar rotor used on various Kawasaki and Suzuki dirt bikes.

Four mounting holes? Check.

250mm diameter? Check.

Bolt circle diameter 110mm? No, 100mm

Bolt hole size 10.5mm? No, 9.5.

Rats.  

EBC does offer a custom rotor service, but you know it wouldn't be cheap.

Here's the new plan:

I bought the hub from a GS450. It's supposed to have the same axle size as the Savage (and many other Suzuki bikes).  It will arrive next week.

If it fits, I'll get an old GS rotor. If it aligns properly -- wheel centered on the axle and rotor in position for the caliper -- I'll send it out to be turned down to the right diameter, then surface ground perfectly flat and drilled.

Then I'd have axle spacers made.

There are two reasons I want to go this route. First is that modifying the caliper mounting section to fit the stock rotor would require filling the existing holes, adding material to the bottom part, then drilling and tapping new holes. That's a lot of work with more to go wrong, especially compared to the simple procedure of turning down a rotor.

The second is that if you turn down the stock rotor so the SV caliper fits without modification, there's not much rotor surface left, and the swept area of the pads would be off the inside edge and onto the rotor spokes. Also, the only aftermarket rotor for the Savage, made by EBC, comes drilled. There's not enough outer edge to cut away without cutting into the holes. The old GS rotors have gobs of swept area. It's no problem to cut away the extra diameter. And they're cheap.

The down side in most cases is the cost of lacing the rim to the GS hub. But since I've already cut out the stock hub to polish it, and since I'm switching to an 18" rim, I was going to have to re-lace anyway. The other down side is it's hard to find an old GS hub since most people bought the models with cast wheels. But if you want a cast wheel, here's your chance.

So, I'll know if this is workable once I check the fit of the hub and rotor.

Of course, the other option is and entire GS front end, but that would mean more work, too, like modifying the top triple clamp to work with 1" bars, or getting new switches and controls for 7/8" bars -- plus the general rehabbing of skanky parts.

verslagen1 wrote on 02/26/11 at 09:11:52:


But since the Savage steering geometry is very cruising friendly, GS geometry would quicken things up for those who like the twisties.

GS forks are shorter, so the rake would change. And you can change it even further by raising the forks in the triple clamps. Of course, you can do that with the GR forks, too.

Also, some GS forks -- from L model bikes -- mount the axle on the fromt of the slider instead of at the bottom, which also changes rake.

Surprise, the GS450 hub arrived this afternoon. It is confirmed the Savage axle fits.