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Yes

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No. In,fact you don't need to fix it ever if it doesn't bother you and you don't want to bother.

There are things you can do to minimize it, and I'm sure folks will be along shortly with suggestions about how to do that.

If your bike has the stock jetting - it could be running lean as Armen has suggested.  A change of jets might help your situation.

The engine backfires when you close the throttle fully while the engine is at speeds higher than idle.  The engine is trying to suck in a lot of air - but the closed throttle only allows a mall amount of fuel to flow.  The fuel/air mixture in the engine becomes so lean the spark plug cannot get the mixture to burn - but when the unburned mixture goes into the hot exhaust pipe....it ignites and makes a racket.

You can cut down on the noise by holding the throttle open just a crack....which allows a bit more fuel to flow.  If you don't let the throttle close completely shut as you shift gears - you won't get the noise between shifts.  If you hold the throttle open just a bit when slowing down....you won't get the noise (or you will get less noise).  You don't have to open the throttle far enough that the bike wants to accelerate.....just enough to make the noise go away.  It is all part of the charm of riding a big single!

Check for leaks at the head and muffler, those will cause backfires too.
a leak will blow the flame of a lit candle around or smoke.

11000 miles. It has a stock muffler and it rides smooth. The other day I rode on the highway for about half hour. When I got back the pipe was hot. Is that normal?

Dave wrote on 05/26/16 at 12:14:01:

Fahad wrote on 05/26/16 at 12:40:13:


Absolutely!  The exhaust pipe on any motorcycle is hot.  It will melt or burn almost anything that comes in contact with it.....rainsuits, saddlebags, boot soles, polyester leisure suits!

Well there is not doubt that the Savage (and just about every other EPA compliant motorcycle) comes jetted lean from the factory.

My Savage had a lean surge just off idle, and when attempting to ride away at low throttle settings the bike just didn't want to accelerate smoothly.  It was fixed with a #50 pilot jet, #150 main and 2 washers in place of the white spacer on the needle.  The Rescue bike had the same....and it wanted a #52.5 pilot, #150 main, and 3 washers on the needle.

My Kawasaki Super Sherpa 250 dual sport was jetted so lean that you had to sit in the driveway for more than 5 minutes warming the bike up before you could put the bike in gear and ride off....it would just stall if you made an attempt to ride it before it was fully warmed up.  The SuperSherpa forum had a cure they called the Jekyll mod.....new larger jets and an adjustment of the idle fuel screw.

My Ninja 250 also had the lean fuel mixture issue, and the forum for those bikes had the recommended jets to use.

The bike will generally run with the lean EPA jetting - but they run better with a bit richer mixture!  Thank goodness we have forum member who have worked it out....and we can still buy jets to make the bike right!

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 05/26/16 at 14:44:45:

bad advice JOG, the carbs were jetted completely different back then.
get a jet kit from lancer which has a range of jets.
go up a size progressively till you find the one that works best for you.
all locals vary, due available gas, altitude and humidity.
In the tech section there's a progressive guide.