There's no doubt my bikes always run well, I've been a mechanic for a living since I was 18. I started at 12 by rebuillding a lawn mower that I used to earn the money to get my first bike, a Honda 90 at 14. I modified it with stronger valve & clutch springs, and a reverse megaphone.
When I was 17, I worked for a startup Yamaha dealer uncrating & setting up bikes. At 18, I was a mechanic at a VW dealership. Back then they were big on training so I learned a lot more. I've drag raced & ran circle track whenever I could all my life. When I was 20, I bought my RD350 from the dealer I used to work for.That bike had a very well spaced 6 speed gearbox & needed it to stay in the power band. I went in on a Saturday & assembled 4 bikes (2 to a crate) just so I could ride each one & choose the 'best' one. At 1200 miles it got custom ported Wiseco pistons & went from stock bars to drag bars & then Tommaselli clipons. I still have the clipons as a souveneir.
My XS650 got a 750cc kit, Alphabet header & for a while, flat track cams.
This ain't my first rodeo or bar-b-que folks.
I guess we got two exceptional '87s because my friends' black one was just as fast as mine. The only thing done to either of them was holes drilled in the muffler & the air cleaner side cover. I did change to drag bars for a while but that didn't effect the speed. Point is, we never really modded the Savages for speed, because that isn't what they were designed for.
My new bike, my XVS950, has a drilled muffler & airbox, & a K&N filter. No FMS, because the plugs look fine the way it is. No point in doing more, just get a bigger bike if you want to go faster or farther.
I'm starting to get a little itch for a silver Stratoliner, 113 cubic inches of highway cruiser. But even if I get one in 2-3 years, I'll keep my Savage to remind me where I started, on a single.
If the spread between gears was evenly spaced on the 5 spd like the 4 spd, it would be fine. I don't know what Suzuki was thinking when they decided on the gears for the 5 spd. It's worthless with the torque the 650 produces. Maybe the engineer was hung over that day.
Pages: 
