I've gone hunting ... before and after the savage.
I've ended up ... who knows where ...
However I dont think a 1 cyl is the ideal design for the US roads and traffic realities.
That 2.5" offset triples are definetly not.
I would like to see a 2 cyl 500 like a GS500 motor in a cruiser. The single massive cylinder is a rather painful design compromise. I dont like it in the raptor motor equipped MZ skorpion either. However it is bloody light and with the 5 valve design lightning quick ... I can still flog a GS500 harder though and it is more robust overall.
A 500 parallel twin would do the savage's job quite nicely.
A 400 water cooled 4 valved Fuel injected beauty would easily do all that and more and let you never worry about carbs, and get 70 clicks to a gal.
SV 650 should have been a parallel twin.
The Kawasaki ER 650 should have had a steel frame.
And the blooming Gladius should never have been thought up by any of the bean counters on suzuki's payroll.

Cool.
Srinath.

I've gone through a seriously high number of bikes in the 25 years I've been riding. Big Twins, Sportsters, Indian Chiefs and Scouts, BMW, the Japanese Big 4 brands (1,2,3 and 4 cylinder models), British twins and singles... not counting dirt bikes I've had over 100 motorcycles.

I've pared the stable down to 2 for me, 2 for my wife. I have a 98 Savage that I bought new (and kept while my 44K mile in 18 months VN800A, VN800B-Classic, and 1957 Panhead bar hopper went away) and a 1963 Honda 250cc parallel twin (with an 11K rpm redline). Lisa has a 1996 VS800 Intruder and a 1971 Honda 100cc single (that she's has since she was 10 or 12 years old, her Dad bought it for her used).

Right now all 4 are down for various repairs due to age and mileage but those 4 are what we need for how we ride. The 2 Suzukis for the highway, the 2 Hondas for everything else (both are modified Scramblers aka dual sports).

Do I want another bike? Of course, but I don't need one. Although another Kawasaki Vulcan 800A or 1500 Drifter would sure be nice to play with. But since neither are made anymore and I'm tired of dealing with previous owners' mechanical nightmares...

The Savage is capable of just about anything you want it to do. A bar swap here, seat swap there, different tires or shocks, saddlebags (or not)... there are even a couple on the board that were turned into dirt bikes.

Hey gang.....I'm sorry if I posted in a manner that gave some the impression I was ready to get rid of my S40, heck no. I think, but based on not much experience, this will be my ride for quite some time, maybe forever in my riding sense. But I wanted to query those with experience of riding how they settled on this bike, SO, I could cement my like for it with validated, experienced, riders and ward off any of my emotions or unscrupulous sales folk who say chicks dig guys who have a big CC's tween their legs   or sumtin like that.......