The Battlax BT45 had a noticeably harder center tread on the Ninja250 and you could see where the two compounds joined......but I never saw that on the BT45 tires mounted on the Savage Cafe' - the center of the tread wore out about the same rate as the Pirelli tires and I seriously doubt that it came with a harder center compound even though there advertising claimed it did (it has a flat center as if all I did was ride interstate highways)..........and the front tire has a blocky tread pattern that wears out on the sides quickly - I won't be using the BT45's anymore.  My next set of tires to try is going to be the Michelin Pilot Sport Activ.

I don't ever recall saying I wanted 17" tires......I may have said that there was more choices in 17" tire.

The Kawasaki pulley conversion is a nice upgrade to reduce the engine rpm at cruising speeds.  The change in gearing for the larger wheels and the Kawasaki pulley is fine with me, as I am not a drag racer and my modified engine works just fine with the taller gearing.  The Kawasaki front pulley makes the gearing taller and works fine with the stock engine...the Kawasaki rear pulley makes the gearing even taller and works best with a modified engine (although Badwolf uses both pulleys with a stock motor - but he does lots of long distance touring and is not too worried about rapid acceleration).  Most who have done just the front pulley say they don't notice any drop in acceleration after the change - but there likely is a small change.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1384949185
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1516107628

The 7" headlights work just fine and provides far more light than the stock Savage headlight.  My 8" headlight is an acquired taste - some like it and some think it looks a bit out of place.  If you are used to seeing the small 5" and 6" headlights that come on modern cruisers....my headlight looks mutant in comparison.

Grinin wrote on 02/25/19 at 10:32:58:

I did not use resistors - I installed an electronic flasher module instead of using the stock flasher module.  No sense wasting electricity in a resistor when an electronic flasher is cheap and more reliable than the mechanical one.

I don't have many photos of the turn signal mod.  The Superbright lights have a sticky foam tape on the back, so I just made a small metal plate that would fit in the turn signal housing and epoxied it in place with JB Weld.  I then could run the wires behind the plate.  The wires from the lights are spliced together (splice together parallel circuit) inside the turn signal housing and hidden behind the plate.  With LED's you need to be sure the polarity is correct - or they won't illuminate.

playhard67 wrote on 04/16/19 at 14:47:00:


Nope....you don't need the diode kit.

If you want a big 8" headlight - you have to go vintage as nobody makes new ones.  They were used on the Suzuki GS1100 - but I can't remember which year......the also used 7" lights on the bike so if you are searching eBay they need to tell you it is the 8" light.  The bucket on the GS has 2 round and one oval hole for wiring.  If you install a good LED bulb they throw out a lot of light.

Here is one that is a pretty good price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1982-Suzuki-GS1100-OEM-LARGE-8-Headlight-Complete-GS...

The headlight that I used is from a Yamaha 920 Virago.  It has only 2 holes in the back of the bucket.  I don't see any on eBay at the moment, you have to be careful as they also made 7" headlights and they look the same.  They are expensive when they are for sale if the seller knows the market.


If you want a 7" you can do it considerably cheaper.  You can buy new ones like this one from Dime City.....or there are lots of ones available on eBay from used bikes.  Dime City also has lights that are chrome or have the domes backs like British bikes used.  I used the one from Dime City on the little Ninja 250 that I built as a Cafe bike.  It was a good headlight - the only flaw was the paint on the inside of the bucket did not have complete coverage and I had to paint the inside before I used it.  The inside of the light is a little cramped for wiring when you add an LED bulb that has a driver separate from the bulb - but I was able to make it all fit. The British style lights with the domed back most likely has more room.
https://www.dimecitycycles.com/black-and-chrome-7-inch-metric-style-headlight...

Mounting any of these headlights requires you to buy brackets to fit the sides.

This is a close up of the large 8" headlight from a 920 Yamaha Virago.  The headlight mounts were made from the stock turn signal mounts.  The bulb is a Cyclops LED and is very bright.

I switched over to 7/8" handlebars so I could lose the large cruiser style handlebar controls and switches.  This shows the Honda master cylinder from an ATV (had the brake light switch built in), the right electric switch is Kawasaki KLR 650, the clutch lever is Suzuki GSXR 650, the left electrical control is GSXR 1000. The fuel tank is Suzuki GT380/550.  The speedometer is from SpeedHut and has a both speed and tach in the same housing and the antenna is Velcro'd to the top of the master cylinder.

This is what the new fender mount looks like.
(I have another fender I am working on that will not need this mount and it will just bolt to the fork legs....it also has the metal reinforcement underneath to help stiffen up the forks).

Ruttly wrote on 07/04/20 at 17:01:00:


There are two motorcycles that had the 8" headlight for a year or two. Suzuki GS1100E, and Yamaha 920 Virago.  BMW also had an 8" headlight for a while - but their headlight bucket is really deep and wouldn't work on this bike.

I think you are correct about the speed runs.  When I get close to 100 the bike begins to wander badly.....the front end feels like it is just skimming on the pavement and it won't hold a straight line.  It is really scary!  I have only tried to find the terminal velocity on this bike twice - a year apart. The first time I wanted to see if the bike could "Do the Ton", and it went 101.1 mph and I had a TrailTech Vapor speedometer driven by the front wheel.  The second time I wanted to see if I could do better and confirm the top speed with my GPS speedometer - I got exactly 101 mph again.    

There was one forum member who mounted a tool roll on the front of his forks under his headlight, and he got the same unsteady steering that I believe the big headlight creates.