Dave , Hope you know now it's my next benchmark in life to beat your 101.1 mph by at least a few clicks. 105 would be awesome, my old SR500 would pull 108 with factory speedo , the tracker now has a GPS speedo and is getting 18/51 gearing. And that extra lightened flywheel. Records are meant to be broken  

Thanks for all the replies so far! Great forum full with enthousiasts. You guys get me excited (you know what i mean)

For the 400 dollar i think i did a good deal. When it's time to go and get the bike, and i start tinkering with it, i will open a thread here. Plan right from the start: solo seat, other muffler, other handlebar, other air filter, mini battery and put away all the electrics! Can't wait!

Ruttly wrote on 09/18/17 at 12:16:17:


Bring it on! A little friendly competition never hurt anybody.

I was out riding on a day that it just seemed right to try, there was little wind, it wasn't too hot....traffic was light and I chose a stretch of a limited access road with no intersections or driveways, and there wasn't anyplace for the LEO to hide.  I just had to find out if my bike could do the "ton".  It gets to 80 pretty quickly, 90 took a while - that last bit to 100 seemed to take a very long time.....I don't think it had very much left in it.  With a gearing change, a cam change, and maybe some tweaking of jets, and maybe a hill and wind in my favor......and I might be able to do better someday.
A 30 mph tailwind sure would have made things easier).

I had a Savage for a year or so.  I also have 85k miles on a Yamaha sportbike that was their racer in the mid-90s, but was replaced as their racer by the R6.  I've raised the bars an inch on it. Although it has a 13k+ redline, mine rarely revs above 4.5K till I get over 65. Gets 63mpg!

I didn't miss HP on the Savage. It pulls fine at all legal speeds, even wiff Shorty on back. I DID miss, terribly, the great, adjustable suspension and better riding position of the ThunderCat.

I had to remember to avoid a certain lane on the local I-state with a groove scratched into it by something that had dragged there, or the front would start shaking at 70mph. The forks are terrible! And forget about two-finger braking.

Those flimsy forks without much option for improvement, the wooden brakes, (correctable using parts from good bikes, the T-cat for irony), and the terrible riding position (which is subjective, I suppose) were why I couldn't enjoy my Savage.

IMO, Savages are fine for sub-55 mph, sub-five-foot-six societies, which IS what they were designed for, afterall.

ohiomoto wrote on 09/18/17 at 10:43:58:



Oh but they do indeed.  
A little of this, and a little of that, with a sprinkle of magic stuff, and away it goes !
ZOOM ZOOM

Ruttly wrote on 09/19/17 at 15:15:24:


The engine will hold up to the things we can do, it is just that the exhaust port was screwed up to keep power down by Suzuki.  That is the limiting factor.  Remember, a stock DR650 has the same upper half engine as the LS650 (with very slight variations that have nothing to do with power), EXCEPT FOR  THE EXHAUST PORT, and it made 46hp from the factory in 1990-1995.

Stock bikes in good nick appear to top out in 86-92mph range.