Ok on my way to work, all running well, I hit empty, switched to reserve on my raptor petcock massive backfires and sputter, then it runs fine until I get to a gas station.Stopped at flying j gas station filled up with premium.

Left station in massive down pour, 4 miles later bike sputters several times and dies, several attempts to start, several sputters and dies, killed battery to point it won't turn over...

Get bike home, charged battery, starts right up idles fine, when throttled there is backfires and sputter, then returns to idle...idles fine.

Added stabul, idle fine, throttle and runs fine.

Took water hose to it while idling, sprayed kick stand switch, spark, coil, battery, decomp...while doing this it would idle slightly higher at times, but it ran just fine.

Questions being, what's the most likely culprit... Water in fuel or electrical component. Ideas?

My wild guess is that due to high humidity you lost spark. Check spark plug cables.

Never waste money on premium for a Savage. The thing will run just fine on as low as 85 octane, been there, burned that. It has what, 8:1 or 8.5:1 compression, maybe?

Mine did that same thing for two years before the insides of the decompression solenoid relay (the black widget over the carburetor) turned into a baby rattle. Full of green sand. Because the factory would rather charge you $85 or more for a new $5 relay than spend 2 cents on silicone to seal the thing up.

You still have functional safety interlock switches? Mine lasted all of 2 months before the salt air on the Gulf Coast ruined them. And ate the fender rails from the inside out... sent them to a now deceased former member here who lived in the desert, he managed to save them.

And if you have the 2 piece seat, in a down pour, the air box can fill up with water. Take the air box side door off, stuff your regulator/rectifier in the air box intake snorkel, it slows down the water ingress.

I've had my Savage for 16 years this month (bought new 2/2/98 in Biloxi MS). I've found pretty much every short cut the factory took slapping mine together, and that is when they were still 100% Japanese sourced parts...

If the airbox is the same design, & Im sure it is, then I can see how water could get in w/ the 2 piece seat design.Simple answer is, Check the filter, like WD said,, So far, I havent seen him wr, wr, wr,, incorrect..