I recently bought it 4 just under 2k. It has less than 6k miles. It has sine rust on pipe,dent in gas tank and scuff on turn signal. Probably not the best thing for the $ but it is what it is. Buyers remorse. Anyways I rode the bike mainly 10 miles round trip for a couple weeks with no problems. Then it began to back fire. I went on my first highway trip to go take my riding test & the bike completely shut down after a huge backfire at 55 miles per hr. Wouldn't restart or anything. Had a backyard mechanic look at it. He said it was the voltage regulator & battery. He got it to start. I rode it home. Battery died once home. I replaced the battery & now the bike won't start like it should. Got it to start 3 times snd the longest of those was 10 minutes with a ride around the block on full choke. 0 choke and the bike died & now will not start. Bike acclerated on it's own too. When I try to start it acts like it wants to run but doesn't get that last kick. Muffler gets going & everything just no start. This is my first real bike,no mechanical skills but I'm starting a tech class soon. Any help would be great. Also since Savages dont have a horsepower gauge, what speeds should I be at in different gears. I've been doing:1st up to 15,2nd up to 25-30,3rd up to 50, & 4th was 60.

Have you tried setting the petcock to "prime" position.if it starts and runs in prime but not in "on" then you have no fuel flow through petcock (on the vacuum side).they're vacuum controlled on these bikes,there should be a hose on the bottom of it running to the right side of the bike (usually with wire coiled around the outside) that hose needs to hold vacuum to allow fuel to flow,the diaphragm in the petcock maybe leaking also.there's posts here that show how to change to a manual controlled petcock.

I have no idea what the petcok is. My mechanical skills go to spark plugs,changing tires,replacing battery,& oil changes. That's 1 reason I'm getting ready to take a motorcycle tech class.   :-/

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=tech;action=display;num=1138554254

download and read the owners manual, it'll help you get to know your bike.

I'd try the petcock test and if still doesn't go I'd pull the carb and clean it. These bikes are pretty easy to work on but the carb is a pain to pull unless you remove the battery box first. Just make sure you bag/label everything as you pull it off. It's pretty easy to forget what goes where in the heat of the moment and then you end up with stuff left over...

the '99 should have 5 speeds I think.