Wife and I took a ride today, I followed while she rode her 87 Savage. I discovered two things--she doesn't use her rear brake enough, and her front brake switch is bad.  The bulb works when she uses the rear brake.  I've tried to trace out the wiring using logic and a multimeter, but either I'm short on logic, or there's something wrong other than the switch.  I'm assuming that with the bike on, there should be some voltage at some terminal on the disassembled switch--not on hers.    Even shorting across the solder joints on the back of teh switch doesn't light up the brake light.  Can anyone point out what volt or ohm readings  I should be getting at the relevant terminals, or anything else I should look at?

As Thumperclone indicated - the orange wire with the black tracer is the power supply, and it also provides power to the kill switch and starter.  If the brake light switch is not getting power - there must be some wire issue right up a the harness near the switch.  Try taking a wire to the battery positive terminial and jump to the other wire at the switch.....and see if the brake light works.

THe Technical Section has a wiring diagram for your bike.......here:
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1294779818