SuzukiSavage.com - New Experience

Barrett

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New Experience
08/20/12 at 13:24:55

Hey everyone,

I just became a member of this forum today. Let me first start off by saying, I have learned so much from this website in the last 5 days it's unreal. I've been browsing for hours just searching through different topics and getting as much as I can out of all your posts.

I've been riding for almost 3 years and I really enjoy it. This is something I will definitely do for the rest of my life so I would like to start working on different projects besides just the absolute basic maintenance on my bike. I am impressed by all of your knowledge and hope to learn quickly using this site Cheesy

I have a 97' Savage with a Jardine slip-on muffler with 13k miles and it rides incredibly well. My girlfriend also just bought a custom bobber style 07' s/40 with 4k miles (really jealous!). So far, I have done oil changes, cleaned the air filter, and installed a Raptor Petcock on my motorcycle, but there are so many other things I would like to do after reading different topics on this website.

To be quite honest, I am only able to understand about 15-20% of most conversations that I read here. I do not have much experience working with motor vehicles and engines. This is all new to me but I really enjoy fixing things

Does anyone have any recommendations to help me understand the different topics? I think if understand how the engine works it will help me exponentially with the comprehension of all these topics. Anyone know of any well written literature on this?

Any projects I should start off with first, like checking/cleaning the carb?

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Routy Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 2280 Winston Oregon Gender:	Re: New Experience Reply #1 - 08/20/12 at 13:31:54 You clean the carb when it needs it, not before. But welcome here
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WD Serious Thumper 2005 No Login Offline Professional "scooter trash". Posts: 5207 Rosemark TN Gender:	Re: New Experience Reply #2 - 08/20/12 at 14:35:29 How are the brakes, tires, sparkplugs? 13K miles is too much if you have IRC brand tires. The other bike with 4K is pushing it. Welcome aboard. Where are you located? Stateside, Canada, northern Europe? Kind of hard to tell, lots of pine trees in the pic...
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hotrodbobber

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Re: New Experience
Reply #3 - 08/20/12 at 14:37:51

hi there, i think your in usa, is that right?, im in england and seems not so many savages here, glad to see a new commer with so much enthusiasm to learn more, there are loads of ebooks out there but just learn about how a four stroke engine works, there all the same from a single cylinder like the savage, up to a large V8 just more parts, when you understand the basic princibles you can look at a diagram and find all the parts, just pic one thing at a time.
regards
dave

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Barrett

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Re: New Experience
Reply #4 - 08/20/12 at 14:51:39

I'm from Guilford, CT, USA. The breaks seem to be in good shape. I used the Savage motorcycle manual to figure out how to check them. When I bought the bike with 6k miles on it, the dealer put new tires on it. The tires say "DURO BLVD" on them. My older brother helped me take off the engine and inspect the sparkplug and the tip was tan so I guess that's good?

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J C Stokes Full Member Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 159	Re: New Experience Reply #5 - 08/20/12 at 15:57:19 Your girl friend may wish to consider the fork brace thing from TKAT as she doesn't have a front mudguard to brace her forks. She would probably have tov dwestroy the plastic fork protectors to install the TKAT or pehaps revert to a stock front mudguard. I hope knowledgeable people will comment on this.
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Dave YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 18105 Camp Springs, Kentucky Gender:	Re: New Experience Reply #6 - 08/20/12 at 18:55:52 Buy a Clymer's manual......it will help considerably.
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verslagen1 YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline Where there's a will, I want to be in it. Posts: 28890 L.A. California Gender:	Re: New Experience Reply #7 - 08/20/12 at 19:15:19 I'd take it easy, there's no rush to learn it all. learn what you need to learn, it'll stay with you longer. Look at your bike, it'll tell you your next project. How about your brake fluid? what color is it?
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Paraquat Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 2206	Re: New Experience Reply #8 - 08/20/12 at 19:22:46 Guilford, eh? I'm over in New Britski. Let's ride sometime. You have a lot of scenery down there. --Steve
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ToesNose Serious Thumper Offline Pardon me, do you have Hot Sauce? Posts: 1993 Mooresville, NC Gender:	Re: New Experience Reply #9 - 08/20/12 at 19:24:43 Dave wrote on 08/20/12 at 18:55:52: Buy a Clymer's manual......it will help considerably. +1
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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: New Experience Reply #10 - 08/20/12 at 20:52:50 I have a 97' Savage with a Jardine slip-on muffler with 13k miles Otta listen to the cam chain at least, if not have a look in there.
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Boofer

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Re: New Experience
Reply #11 - 08/20/12 at 21:12:40

Barrett, glad you're here. I like the Clymers manual or any manual I can get for any vehicle for the pics, if nothing else. When I bought my 2001 I started riding every chance I got and read the Tech Section on here almost every day. Lot of folks put some time into taking photos and and explaining the pitfalls, even small ones, of how to work on this bike. Since you like to fix things I take it you know your way around a wrench, so no trouble. Check out the Tech Section. And if you get 15 to 20% of what I post you ain't right. Just ain't right. Grin

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2001 Black, Spitfire windshield, Headlight upgrade, Sissy rack, Tool bag, Fork bag, Harley muffler, Memory foam seat, Crash bars. Hwy pegs, Raptor.

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Barrett

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Re: New Experience
Reply #12 - 08/20/12 at 21:18:12

JC, I have noticed that the Bobber handlebars will shake more than my bike when riding. It isn't too bad until I go over 55 mph though. We have the original front fender so if we decide to put it back on that should add more stability to the handlebars and front forks correct?

I will definitely look in to getting a Clymer's manual. Thanks Dave.

Verslagen, my brake fluid is a golden/bronze color. My girl's brake fluid is much lighter in color on her bike.

I'm down for a ride anytime Steve

JOG, I'm not sure what a cam chain is but I will do my research and see what I can do!

Thanks

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verslagen1

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Re: New Experience
Reply #13 - 08/20/12 at 21:59:28

Barrett wrote on 08/20/12 at 21:18:12:

Verslagen, my brake fluid is a golden/bronze color. My girl's brake fluid is much lighter in color on her bike.

This covers replacing the brake line, just look at the fluid replacement part.
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=tech;action=display;num=1155017333
and here's the cam chain check.
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1191167029

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Versey's Place
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J C Stokes Full Member Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 159	Re: New Experience Reply #14 - 08/21/12 at 00:20:53 According to some posts I've read replacing the front fender may help stiffen things up. I'm no expert but there are plenty here who are. Some speak highly of the TKAT which is possibly the way to go if you want the custom look. They are about $100US and easy to install so I'm told.
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