Had the same on my new aquisition ('06).
I've only been on here a few months and have seen this symptom come up a bunch of times. It's the stupid arse EPA spacer (just a plastic washer that essentially chokes off the fuel supply) that they stick in making the bike run lean and more green, yet more lame.
When I bought my bike the previous owner was quite keen on leaving the choke on to "warm it up thoroughly", he knew it didn't run perfect without choke. I didn't care as I knew the solution was on this forum.
solution - take out the extra spacer in the carb and put in a thinner nylon washer - look at help pages on here for how, bit fiddly but I'm a monkey and I did it. Now I have no more hesitations or having to leave the choke on.
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=tech;action=display;num=1104205157Do the mod - you won't regret it.