Boofer wrote on 02/27/13 at 19:48:52:


I have researched and worked on this issue.  The Savage has about 35 degrees of rake from what I measured - and my bike currently has 30.5 degrees.  Most sport bikes are around 24 degrees.  The trail is supposed to be between 3-6 inches - and mine is at 6.5 inches currently.  Some of the change in trail has come from the steeper fork angle and some has come from reducing the yoke offset from 2.5" to the current 1.25".  The trail is no less than the Savage had at nearly 8 inches - but it is still beyond the 6" of trail that is considered to be into the range that is considered "sluggish" handling.  The frame and steering head geometry of the Savage makes it tough to change this.  I think it will be fine as I don't want a really twitchy bike - and this is not a sport bike.

This week/weekend was speedometer related.  I first built a plate to hold the Vipertech on top of the triple clamp using the original mounts for the RM400 handlebars.  I spent a lot of time measuring and building it and it was nicely positioned - but when I got it painted and mounted I realized how bad the wires were going to look on the backside of the mount with it being mounted so high.  Plan 2 was to mount it on the bottom of th triple clamp.  I started at 10 AM and took about 1/2 for lunch.....and I finished at 5:00 PM.....I just can't believe how much time this stuff takes!

Black mount is the one I made first and won't use......silver one is now painted black and ready to mount when the paint cures:


This is the speedo/tach in the new mount.  The 4 blank holes will be for the L/R turn signals, neutral light and high beam.


This is what the wires on the backside look like.  I was not going to be able to tolerate looking at these when the thing was mounted on top of the triple clamp.


The new mount being lower will hide the wires behind the headlight.


My bike has 1,763 miles on it, and I wanted the odometer to show that accurately.  The new unit came with 0 miles in it.  I hooked the speedo unit to a battery, then I mounted a magnet on the wheel of a small grinder that I have an taped the sensor to the grinder so it would pick up the spinning magnet.


I set the wheel size really big in the programming, and I could really rack up the miles fast at 338 mph!


I let it run for a while on Saturday and got over 1,000 miles, and today I got it exactly at 1,763 miles.  I had to watch closely the last few minutes to get it right were it needed to be.

Tonight I was able to finish the rear brake installation.  On Saturday I tried a rod made out of 1/4" stainless.  It was not a bad first attempt but proved that I had made too big of bends for clearance and the rod ended up too flexible and it would flex a lot when applying the brake.  This may have softened up the tendency of the Savage rear brake to work like a light switch - but I was concerned that too much flex too often would result in the rod eventually breaking.

Tonight I made the brake rod from 3/16" stainless and put a long soft bend in the rod.  There is very little flex in it now and it works great.  I will lower the suspension to make sure it clear everything at full travel, then make a cable for the brake light switch.




With the brake rod on top......I can do anything I want with the exhaust!

Beautiful machining with the rear sets, kudos to you. However I'm not so sure about the brake rod solution. I mean it is your bike, but I could not get happy with the current looks of the rod.
Like I said, none of my business, just saying...

That looks way better and thanks for not misunderstanding my criticism. It just seemed to disturb the overall looks of the beautiful bike.
I have another idea, which involves the unused mounting point of the rear footrest. How about a lever that has holes drilled in the middle and on either end, bolted to the footrest mounting point on the swing with the middle hole using a shoulder bolt so it can move freely. Then put the C50 brake arm back on facing up and fabricate a short rod to connect it to the upper hole, then fabricate another short rod to connect the lower hole to the brake pedal. This results in a push-pull action when the brake is applied, looks cool and is sort of away from the muffler?
But it may not have enough clearance above the muffler you installed...

The middle paint scheme or just go gonzo and a big bold 70's race scheme. That bike is a belter! Sensational, love it

SinglesGoinSteady wrote on 03/21/13 at 22:50:19:


The rear sets and heim joints came from Dime City.

http://www.dimecitycycles.com/vintage-cafe-racer-caferacer-chassis-tranmissio...

Dave, Thanks for the Suzuki Triple photos. I was running the Kawasaki H1 and H2s back then. But your build pictures look like professional photos. Very good way to take us along on your build.