Just got back from my road trip the other day and wanted to give a shout out to everyone on the forum for all the help in getting my Savage ready for the trip. Went about 3700 miles up and down the east coast, and mid east of the USA. Saw pretty much everything from the open plains, to the mountains, to the beaches! Small towns, large cities, highways, back roads, no roads! What an adventure!

Despite my original plans, I opted to bring none of my camera gear, so all I have is these two really poor cell phone pictures, but at least its something  





Best MPG I got along the way was 71. The lowest I got was 40. Usually I averaged about 55 though.

I can say the larger front pulley mod held up nice along the entire trip and certainly made the highway much more pleasant. Fastest I got the bike up to was 90mph and I'm pretty certain I will be getting a speeding ticket in the mail from Maryland soon....

Changed and topped off the oil at 1500 miles halfway through the trip. At 2700 miles I suddenly realized I was 1 entire quart low! I had no idea I was burning so much oil and really wish I made more of a point to check more often! I wonder how much extra wear that caused  

Maryland was full of more bad luck when my windshield decided it didn't want to live anymore and shattered to pieces. However, after picking them back up and duct taping the mess back together, it held out the for the remaining 1000 or so miles. Haha! Got to love that stuff! (Currently open to ideas for replacement windshields though haha!)

The most mechanical trouble (besides a blown headlight fuse in North Carolina) was after a burst of heavy engine braking in Kentucky (people towing large boats shouldn't suddenly pull into the fast lane and try passing slower trucks uphill!!) when my carb jets suddenly plugged up with debris. One coffee stirring straw later, and the obstructions were soon rectified. Back on the road!

So yeah, everything was great! That you all so much for everything I've learned!  

Congrats on the trip, I'm jealous!! The wife and I are doing a two up trip on the Spyder this year, but maybe we'll take two bikes next time.
 On the windshield, I have a Memphis Shades "Slim" and I love it. Amazing how effective it is for being so small. Probably not a whole lot bigger than the one in your photo.

Gosh i hope they don't come get me! But that speed trap camera flash nearly caused me to go blind! Dang, do they really think those are safe to use at night? Well, at least that's the story I'll tell them if something shows up  

Memphis Shades Slim eh? I'll have to look into it. I do believe it is only a matter of time before the duct tape shield fad goes out of style and I'll be left in the wake. lol.

Miles a day depended on if I was going into a town where I knew I had a friend I could spend the night with. I think the longest I drove was just a tad over 600 miles in one day. That was Florida to North Carolina. Other days I just found a quiet spot off a road and setup camp. Those days I usually traveled less. I will say that I reshaped some of the foam in the seat to make it more comfortable for longer drives, and I also had my backpack thing to lean up against. Both those helped a lot in ride comfort.

For navigation I did use a GPS. I bought a refurb Garmin Nuvi 2555LMT off eBay for I think $150. And for anyone wondering about refurb units, I can say mine looked brand new and worked just the same. After traveling with it for so many miles, I can definitely recommend the 2555LMT. It served as my map, my speedometer (since my stock speedo would be incorrect with the new front pulley), and my trip counter (again, stock is off). It has a great mode where you can pretty much turn it into what you would see on a car dashboard. I mounted the GPS in a waterproof box made by RAM Mounts directly centered above the front forks. I'll see about getting a picture of that for everyone a little later. RAM Mounts makes a GREAT waterproof box. Top notch!

I want to do a long trip like this. A bed roll tied to the bike and just go.


--Steve

Wow congrats and great job

I'm curious as to the front pulley mod you mention. Did you do a chain conversion? I'm all for getting my gas mileage to go upwardly as I like to do the long trips too.

It would appear that you travel light compared to me. And I never leave home without my camera stuff. I never get around to printing anything, but at least if the night landing UFO thang happens, I'm ready.

http://www.bikepics.com/pictures/1162560/

Jack

Memphis def seems like a popular vote! Cool! And, haha, I think I missed a lot of people on my trip   But you just get on, and you want to go, and well, one state leads to another  

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The pulley mod! No, it was not a chain conversion or anything like that. You keep the same stock belt and rear pulley. There is a front pulley that is made for a Kawasaki that is nearly a direct swap. You'll need to machine it a bit to make it work, but after you do, its several teeth bigger and helps keep them RPMs at bay. Check out these two threads for a good run down on the project:

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1334871333/0
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1335731903/0

The biggest thing that effected MPG for me though was driving speed. The difference between going 65 and 85 is astounding!

And yeah, dang, you have quite the setup on your bike Jack. Haha, maybe one day I'll get to that level!  

I would wonder what all the road vibration would do to the mirror assembly in my DSLR though. That kind'a worries me. A shock absorbing box project may be in the works for me soon!

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It was my first time trying to find places to sleep on the road. I remember one night it was raining and I slept under a park bench gazebo. Another night a quiet parking lot. And of course the highway rest stops were always there (that's where I got woken up). They always say you aren't allowed to sleep and stuff there, but nobody ever made me leave. Of course, I always picked a good out of the way place and slept with the biggest D-Cell club-looking Maglight I could find haha!

RandomHero wrote on 08/04/12 at 01:31:22:

The first night on my trip to Yosemite, Moccasin campground wanted $30 so I slept at a Don Pedro Lake backroad access. The house up the hill partied into the wee hours which kept me up , and the animals away .