Say "Well met and hail good fellows" to our departing moderators Suggo and Bouletard, both of which served long and well here on Suzuki Savage.com -- they have rolled on now to other things.

Say hello to the newest generation of moderators, Serowbot and Dave.  Both were picked because they were genuinely nice guys, very patient and knowledgeable about the Savage engine and running gear.

Verslagen (who remains) gets a very special thanks because of the most excellent organization of the Tech Section that he has done, mostly all by his lonesome.   He is very good at that stuff, BTW.

The rest of your elderly, worn out & barely still kicking third generation moderator staff will now quietly go seek their rocking chair up by Bill and Justin up on the porch where they will make only occasional senseless comments¹.  





Footnotes:

¹  Example Senseless Comment corrected with GyroBob's actual cost inputs:  Original configuration RYCA modified motorcycle costs $2-$3,000 for the base motorcycle and (corrected) $4,200 worth of parts from RYCA, wheel bits, tires, paint shipping and fabbed pieces, and endless man hours of dedicated personal fabrication time to create a very visually appealing motorcycle.

Shame you can only ride it for 30mins to an hour before it attempts to rearrange your wrists and your legs knees and butt into pain racked contortions.

The first generation RYCAs are showing up on Craigslists now, for about $7,000 asking price (cost of parts -- yeah right,  apparently including the original bike as a "part").

New Moderators -- log out and log back in, go to the very first page of SuzukiSavage.com and look down at the very bottom.

Yep, Moderator Section -- a little world of our very own.


Champagne and dancing girls are waiting next to the hot tub, so y'all come on in ....

caseyLA wrote on 11/14/12 at 23:55:07:


Yes, a good example of a senseless comment.  I don't even have $6,900 invested in parts for mine,... I have not broken through $11,000 total yet.



Both those amounts are true because,... actually,.... including the original cost for the 2002 Savage, the RYCA kit, and a group of things like paint and extra (optional put 'em on only because I like 'em) doodads, I have a little over $4k in the bike altogether.  Quite a hoot.  Quite a grin/dollar ratio.

HAIL THE NEW MODERATORS!!!

OF said, "So how much does ONE (1) RYCA really cost to build, really.  Fabs, mods, shipping, welding, wheel building, new tires, painting and all the other little stuff?   Got an estimate?"|

Yes.  If you count everything I have spent on it, probably $4,200.  Maybe $3,400 if you don't count things like:
-- doing the paint over and over and over again just to correct screw-ups and sometimes just to experiment.  I've probably spent $200 on Duplicolor and other rattle cans so far.  If I had it to do over (knowing what I know now), a can of bondo, two cans of primer, three cans of color, and a can of Spraytek 2k would do it, maybe $75.
-- digital flasher
-- extra LED brake lights
-- ad-libbed smog system parts
-- Avon Speedmaster tires (for a 1960s look),.. my buddy used Goodyear Deluxe Champions for the same reason.
-- bar end turn signals
-- parts for underseat tool kit storage
-- parts to redo the fork seals
-- carb rebuild kits
-- K&N fuel filters
The install for all these parts is in the Double RYCA build thread.

The welding expense was near zero because I have the equipment.  If someone REALLY wanted to redo the front mount on the battery box to get more room like I did, the welding would cost $50 to $100 and you'd have to take the frame to a shop.  An alternative would be to make one out of cheap strap steel or aluminum from Home Depot (or some workshop scrap), bend it to shape, and rivet it to the frame with cheapo pop rivets.  That is not a high-stress area.

Also, you can save a lot if you don't go to a larger diameter rear tire like we did.  That way you don't have to pay RYCA to cut into the swingarm,.. just use the stock swingarm and smaller diameter rear tire.

Yes, double the cost because we built two bikes, but we divided the cost in half.  Also he spent some extra on a Li-Ion battery.  I want one too.

On a bobber project a guy did last year in LaGrange, he used about $30 of Rustoleum rattle can automotive paint for the whole project.  Home Depot stocks it, as does Autozone, etc.  
-- A can of automotive black for the frame, etc.  Gray primer for EVERYTHING else, followed up by clear gloss engine paint.
-- It looks good and there are several colors of primer available. (white, light gray, gray, dark gray, black, brown, reddish brown, tan, greenish-yellow, etc.)  
-- I saw it when it was first done, and appeared to be quite professionally done,.. probably because he put a lot of knowledgeable effort into preparing the surfaces, and because he rubbed it out.
-- I have no idea how it has held up over the past year, but that clear gloss engine paint is pretty tough.  It holds up well except for direct gas spills.  The instructions aren't as simple as plain rattle can color paint, though,.. the timing of recoats is an issue.

Anyway, if you are on a very tight budget for the paint job,... a little know how, a lot of elbow grease, and a few rattle cans can do an impressive job, at least initially.

i thought sourbot was already a mod.

dangit, i was nice to him for nothing.

 
You guys are going to get the List's automatic spam filter all excited again, throwing around them B words in Rubber Side Down.

You can say them in Cafe and in Politics and Religion, they don't get the quite the same reaction as they do in the place where we answer the newbie's questions.




Now, how do you shut off this stupid rotating flashing red alarm light .....

There goes the neighborhood.