I guess I must be getting old .I don't know why so many of our members are turning bikes into café racers. If this is the style of bike you like ,why not go buy a ninja 300 ,and have a purpose built ,more comfortable, and faster bike,with better brakes and handling , and save all the hassle and grief? I guess I bought my savage to be what it is a cruiser ,a bike I have taken on 2000+ mile trips ,a bike I can ride until my tank hits reserve without my butt being on fire,a bike I've done 750 miles on day after day,and not felt beat up. I can understand the need to personalize your bike,I give credit to WD and his pictures of his 98 for leading me in that direction,from the crome eagle"s head on the sportser  front fender to the '38 beehive taillight on the Harley rear fender,my bike sure doesn't look stock.but it is much more rideable ! I'm sure to take some heat for this ,but I had to lay it out there.

Daaaaang! You're a tough old bat!
But a 300 Ninja does make sense. I want one of those,too.
Why modify the Savage? Dang if I know.

Because they make very nice cafe racers. The big air cooled single fills the bill, parts and bikes are easy to get and it's not a SR500. I'd build one if I had more $$$ to spare. Personally, I'm not into the Savage's standard look. They're amazingly easy to transform into what you want though. The cafe racer riding position is more comfortable for me than the cruiser style. I've never ridden a cruiser that I'd want to spend all day on. Hurts my lower back. Rearsets and clip ons, no problem, all day.
As for the Ninja argument, why ride something everyone else has? It's nice to ride a unique machine that has the style the individual requires. It's a nostalgia thing. You could buy a brand newie, but the same goes for cars and music. Sometimes the old stuff is what floats the boat. Besides, I can't f...ing stand the noise those parallel twin Ninjas make. It's horrible.

For me, the sport bike look just isn't the image I feel comfortable with......especially with the young squids scaring the daylights out of normal folks by running around in packs and stunting on the public roads.  (I plan on doing the Cafe' conversion to my 250 Ninja this winter).

And I don't find the Cruiser seating style comfortable for me, it seems to put a lot more weight on my tailbone and I get tired much faster in that seating position. (The Cafe' seating position does put more weight up on your arms/wrists and those can get tired).

My Cafe' conversion just fits me a lot better....both physically and in personality.  The big single is far more relaxing to ride around on the twisties than the Ninja, (which requires a lot of shifting to keep the bike over 8,000 rpm if you want to hustle out of the corners), and that constant gear changing doesn't make for a relaxing ride.  The big single just "thumps" along without drawing a lot of negative attention even at full throttle.....it doesn't scream at them like the high revving sport bike engines.

And.....my Cafe' bike gets a lot of positive comments.  Many folks think that it is a restored vintage bike (the 1972 fuel tank fools a lot of them), the big air cooled single looks nothing like a modern water cooled engine, and the lack of "bulk" implies a performance character in a non-threatening way.

The stock Savage is pretty unique, in that it provides a good starting point for conversion to a Bobber, or Cafe' bike, a Scrambler, and a few folks have even done hardtail choppers and more conventional "retro standard" type motorcycles.

     

No offense taken, I understand what you meant and I do agree with you....that most new riders really need to spend some time on a very affordable, dependable motorcycle.   One that doesn't have a bunch of HP....so they can work on their riding style and learn to be smooth riders before they get a monster bike.  I believe a lot of riders get discouraged as they get some crappy bike that they can't keep running, or they get one that is too fast and they get hurt.  In either case....they can easily become somebody that "used to ride".

Once they learn to ride pretty well, and they develop a sense for their style of riding....then they will have a better understanding if they need a dual sport, ADV bike, Scrambler, Sport Tourer, Crotch Rocket, Cruiser, Bobber....or Cafe' bike.  When it comes to project bikes, I believe that some folks get in over their heads and don't have the proper skill or tools to get the job done....and it can become a project that never gets finished.  Thankfully I had years of tinkering before I took on my conversion and it didn't take too long.

If I could only have one bike....it would be my Savage Cafe' - as my wife isn't all that thrilled about riding anyhow.  The Cafe' would not be a bike for long trips.....but I can ride it all day with rest stops along the way.  It does fit my riding style, and for my size it fits my body very well....and it "is" the right bike for me at this point in my life.  I am going to being working on a more "standard" version in the next year...one that resembles a 60's or 70's era British single.

My wife and I tried riding double on the Savage before I did the Cafe' conversion, and it was just too small for the both of us.  Later I sold my Trials motorcycle and bought the ST1100 Honda so my wife could go on rides with me.  The bike was just too big for us, and the wind got between us and would just beat her up....especially if there was any cross wind.  When you add to that the helmet hair and how horribly hot it gets with your "gear" on when it is 90 degrees....and she just finds it tedious.

We sold the ST1100 and bought an NT700, and it fits us much better.  There no longer is a foot of room between us, and I bought a bigger windscreen that keeps the buffeting wind off her.  She enjoys the rides much better know - but our rides are still very limited in length.  We did take the ST1100 to Michigan on a trailer a couple years ago, and she did enjoy the day rides and exploring on the bike.

One of the best things I did, was to buy the Sena SMH10 helmet radios.  She is far happier when we can chat while riding.

I got a pillion ride last week to pick up my buddies car from the shop...

It's scary back there...
... I kept wanting to put my feet down at stops...

Most of us that ride singles now rode them in our younger days and remember the pleasures of riding big single and I would bet we all had a good selection of bikes but now we are back where we started riding big singles. For me I don't want to ride a cookie cutter bike , I want to ride something I built, I don't do trends.a. A bike is a bike till you tear it down and rebuild it in your vision of what you want , now it has become a art form! Not all Ryca are created the same , different models with different visions , different intended uses , but all are artwork. Seen some
crappy ones too. The Ryca is a cool way to gain the bike building skills and express yourself by creating your own bike, I found it to be all to consuming to solve all the problems myself till I was able to ride it! What a huge grin when it fired up, what a rush to go ride it. I love my Ryca no regrets , just the thrill of riding it !