Only nine posts in how many years? I guess that is what happens when I am having fun.
To catch up, I purchased my 1989 Savage in 1999. That year I trailered it to the Sturgis rally and had a blast thumping our way around the kills and dales with the thousands of other riders. I rode two up most of the time at Sturgis.
A couple of years later with the same kind of set up - me in a car and th Savage on a trailer - I call her Ole' Yellar - it was time to head for Daytona Beach. Again a great ride and a great time. That was a long run with about 11,000 kms turning under the wheels by the time |I was home.
Then in 2004 -
disaster. :'( I changed the oil - and made sure everything was in order. The a couple of days later my daughter in the car and me on Ole Yellar headed off for an overnight trip. I had only ridden about 200 kms after the oil change so I did not check the oil levels before pulling out. At the 100 km mark we stopped for gasoline and I could hear the tappets rattling and NO oil was showing in the window. I found some oil and topped up the engine but the rattling did not stop. Sure enough about 70 kms down the road suddenly there was a bang, the clutch slipped free and a coasted to a stop. A valve had seized, the piston smashed into the valve and the damage was every where.
Oh no - now what to do.
I decided I wanted to continue riding the Savage and with the very few changes to the engine over the years I decided to find an engine on ebay and drop it in.
That exercise took about three years to complete. The only issue was the need to change the alternator stator - or something - the exciter was upgraded and did not work with my old wiring. So pulling it apart install the old parts and away she went.
Over the years I have very slowly added a few bikes to what is now a collection. And with the collection my Savage has kind of slipped back into a quieter location in the garage.
I do have a fly screen windshield - metzler tires, a custom made luggage rack ( Thanks to Peter the Blacksmith) and a )Protach backrest.
I considerr the Savage to be one of the finest motorcycles I have ridden - and I have now been biking for 53 years.
I have toured with it, cruised with it and ridden it for specific purposes. And, it has always done exactly what I wanted it to.
The mere fact that it is now approaching 30 years in the Suzuki catalog surely tells us something about the machine.
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