Did a few short runs and kept track of voltage... on the slow short runs after stopping the voltage was usually at about 13.80v and dropped down to around 12.45v after about 1/2 hour, at least this means its charging.
On the long runs (4-5miles) at high speeds (55-70mph)after stopping, I was getting 12.84, and it would fall to about 12.35-12.45v.
Not sure what to do, is 12.35volts good enough? or should I just go ahead and get a new battery?
If I do get a new battery I am going for the small 8cell type and get rid of the battery box and probably the air box after the trip in june. I'm bringing the trickle charger with me, so if I have to i'll charge the battery every night.
On another subject.....the risers.... I found a couple of old aircraft engine mount spacers, aluminum, 3/16" thick and 2" tall, what say you all? think they will work?
Where did you guys get the bolts for your 2" risers? ACE? Lowe's? Did you use metric or standard? What grade?  How long?
I don't want to mess the steering up by getting the wrong stuff and i'll see if I have some bolts in my mess, but i'll have to go to a "grade" site to figure them out.

Oh and I figured out why I was popping on quick throttle release and fast downshift....ummm....my flange bolts on the header were a little loose...guess I needed to recheck them after I put on the Dyna exhaust. LOL

Well, I got Ed's forward controllers put on, took me 2 days and a lot of bellyaikin' and cursin' my broken body, but it is done!

Total different ride, legs are not cramped, center of gravity seems to have shifted a little back, and I can lean into my backrest now.

The risers work great too! I can comfortably lean back into the backrest without stretchin' my arms to far.





I tried to do some videos on the process, but it ended up poor in some area's (legs in way, body in way, bad lighting) so I am not sure i'll post it. I will try to edit it with windows software, but on the little laptop so I have some good files here that are not buggered up.

Try Amazon.

Lisa finds all kinds of deals for me there, for the bikes, the Super Beetle, even for the fairly rare 1949 and 1969 Dodge trucks. Rare only in the sense that most of them got worked to death (49) or rotted away to nothing (69) and you don't see many out and about on the roads anymore.

Bike is looking good. If you still want to try FL bars on yours, they only run me $10 if I pay cash, shipping would likely be another $10 or less. Looks like we're even going to put a set of them on Doug's 1500 Drifter...

6 gauge multi strand copper wire, you can get lugs that size at NAPA, Carquest, Tractor Supply, etc. I use it for the generator to mechanical voltage regulator connection on Ancient Blue, the 49 Dodge truck... I think you can get it in black, red, white, yellow or green. Mine is white, left over from hardwiring a 220V hot tub... works fine, I spun the generator on the junk engine over and got zapped.

For the cable or just the o-ring ?

On Bike Bandit:
CABLE,SPEEDO
#1070741   $58.85

O-ring was not listed separately

Found it.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1268286763

Picked this up today...... going to temp install it until after the trip. (add) only cost me $57.00 (jr. at the counter saw me talking to the owner like we knew each other and gave me a business discount).





Mechanic/shop owner, says it cranks a 1000RR like its nothing....and should work fine with the savage....
he wants to help me with my build this fall....guy loves working bikes... he didn't even make fun of my Harley tourpack