There have been some minor upgrades over the years.

Pre - 95 bikes don't have a torque limiter in the starter gears, and this can be a problem if the engine comes up on compression and tries to turn the starter backwards.  They can be updated if you get one cheap enough to make the change worthwhile.
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1288911670

At some point the rear fender side rails lost the ability to have a back rest installed....but you can get the earlier ones fairly easily if you want to add them to a later bike.

In 2004 the handlebar controls were updated to include "emergency flashers"....and this may also be the same year a "passing light" switch was added - but I am not sure about that.

The newer you can afford the better in some respects, as rubber parts do deteriorate over time.

Do a search about the rubber head plug......an oil leak at the top of the engine is the thing to look for.  It is not too hard to fix.....and a lot of bikes are sold cheaply as the owner thinks the head gasket has failed......but we have not ever seen a head gasket fail yet. If you have mechanical skills this is about a 5 -6 hour repair the first time you do it as part of it is the learning......the next time it will go faster.

I like that photo. Sweet Triumph, surrounded by chicks.

I read somewhere, that sometime in the early 2000's they went to a better cylinder coating...
Don't remember the details... maybe around 01' to 03'...
Maybe when the engine went black....  but, I like the look of the silver...
...

Borracho wrote on 07/04/13 at 11:22:47:


Those young chicks are  all about 70. Now lol. Those good times for street racing and partying. Went in the navy Feb 1960 and everything change while out of the states

Serowbot wrote on 07/04/13 at 11:45:14:

Well I will shop later models the starter was good info. headlights flashing wouldn't keep me up at night .
Piston and cam changes, chain and sprokets so I can mess with gear ratios. Does anyone mess with the head and valves?

Talk to Lancer, he's the hook up for hot cams, better clutch components, better cables and hoses, carburetor jets... And Verslagen 1 is THE source for a cam chain tensioner that won't fail at 1/2 the chain life and destroy the engine 9 times out of 10 (yes, the stock part really IS that bad)...

Now, the Savage has a very weak oil pump, very poorly made cam chain tensioner, no actual bearings for the camshaft (rides in the lower head casting and is capped by the upper head casting), and some have atrociously bad electrical parts (few and far between, but out there, think Lucas on angel dust)...

On the whole though, pretty decent for 1970s technology. It's no Matchless G50, but... it doesn't have to be.

Nice Trumpet by the way.  

Not trying to scare you, just some items that tend to get brushed aside on the forum.

I've had my 1998 since it was new.

Have had and gotten rid of in the same time frame: 450 Rebel (Lisa killed it), Kawasaki VN800A (blew the bottom end apart, too many full throttle runs on a seriously hopped up engine), Kawasaki VN800B a.k.a. Classic (terrible handling and the steering head bearing locked up on me, in a turn, broke me), 2 1964 Bonneville T120C 650s, a Rickman-Zundapp 125, and a 1957 Panhead FL in a Knucklehead EL chassis (needed about $28K in parts and work, f*** that).

My Savage is pretty much driveway art, electrical problems. I'm building a 1963 Honda CL72 (250 Scrambler) that was turned into a TT bike in the late 60s or early 70s, ran (kind of, occasionally, if it wanted to) when I got it, the engine is now locked up tighter than a nun's knees...  

I'm kinda rough on bikes, I broke my BMW R51... in half...  

Old vehicles? I'm getting ready to bore/stroke a 230 L6, add a dual intake, headers, 12v w/alternator conversion to my 1949 Dodge truck lowrider/kustom/bikehauler project. And drag my "Cal Look" 72 VW Super Beetle out of the barn and fix it back up. The 95 Outback is broken, the 94 Ranger snapped it's clutch master in half this afternoon (cheap piece of crap, only lasted 208K miles)...