srinath
Serious Thumper
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I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
Posts: 5349
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Ok there is the element of style, but a lot of mods are about style while improving function. This savage I got with a broken fork. It would have been simpler to slap on the exact same forks and let it be. But, I had to machine up triples with the rake - well for looks, however I ended up with a bike that didn't have that heavy feeling front end. I honestly urge you to find a bike that was raked with a dirt bike fork set where the axle is set trailing the fork legs and has a 21" aluminum front wheel and try and see if you can ride it. The lower and slower rotating mass of the lighter front wheel, the longer but stiffer and fatter fork legs, the drag bars I fitted off a Harley, and the most important aspect - reduction in trail make it far easier to ride than a stock savage.
I also fit GS500's with katana 600 forks, twin disk and fatter forks make it handle far far better while wearing out brakes at a much lower rate and providing far better braking. A GS does have phenomenal brakes, so its not a big deal there, but the static pad in the GS wears out at 3X the rate of the other one, katana 600's have Dual opposed pistons. So they were evenly and slower.
I turned an SCR 950 Yamaha back into the bike it started out as - a Yamaha bolt 950. The SCR was too hard, too heavy, too tall, too slippery and too grabby and it can only cover 3 of those 5 flaws. Then I fit café bars on it, narrower and it improved my top speed from 109 to about 119 indicated, but more than that. I am not feeling like a sail any more at any speed.
A lot of mods when done right give you the style you want and improve some aspect of the bike.
PS: I am planning a café out of one of these savages I got lying about, and it will not have the savage front end, it will be de-raked de-offsetted, have a 17" or 16" wheel gauges that go on the triple - likely from a GS500 or one of those $40 hockey puck style ones off ebay, a functioning tach and will handle like a GS500. Not an overloaded wheelbarrow that the savage in its stock form does. Form and function as well as easy to find high performance tires and true café look and feel.
Cool. Srinath.
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