Just my opinion in response,

I would say this motor and bike is pretty reliable. A butt load of them out there and not too many failures.

Through the years Honda's have had some of the best engineering on their bikes.  In my experience  of rebuilding motors I seemed to marvel at more of the Honda parts and I seemed to find myself sometimes on the other big 3 wondering, "why did they do it that way?".

But they all are fairly good now I think. I think some of the patents that Honda locked down like the front brake routing of the CR bikes have expired and the other makers have copied their designs.

But Honda had plenty of misses too.  I think most of the gear boxes I had rebuilt were mostly Hondas.  A few funky water pumps along the path too.

Suzuki really made some strides with its GSXR series and made some winning bikes.

Honda since 2002 (the advent of the 4 stroke motocross bike) hasnt been dominant in the dirt series.

All in all, Id say any bikes past maybe the year 2000 ish, the big 4 jap bikes are all generally on par except for a few standouts and stinkers in the mix.

Im sure others have had different experiences though.

roddy wrote on 11/18/19 at 18:01:56:

is the savage s40 as reliable to a honda of the same class? thanks to all of you

The class (large displacement air-cooled single cylinder) no longer exists in the US.

The only purely air-cooled single cylinder (the CB1100 is air/oil cooled and is multi-cylinder) street bike that remains in Honda's inventory (in the USA) is the Grom/Monkey/Cub horizontal-single. The basic design of that engine has been in production since the 1960's. Millions have been produced by Honda directly, and additional millions have been built under license. That engine has grown is size from 49cc (making about 4hp) to 125cc (making about 12hp). There are licensed engines up to 180cc of that basic design making nearly 20 hp. The latest version have EFI.

Suzuki's history of making air-cooled four-stroke singles is almost as impressive. The engine in your S40 represents one of Suzuki's most "modern" air-cooled engines because Suzuki hasn't really invested in air-cooled engines since the 80's.

Whether made by Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha or Kawasaki - these low tech air-cooled engines are designed to work in the harshest conditions with minimal maintenance. A well maintained air-cooled single pulling duty in north America will last longer than the frame it has been installed.

thanks to all that wrote in. i like my s 40 but never having had a suzuki, i wanted to hear from fellow suzuki owners. thanks so much, roddy