Hi everyone
This is my first post here and you have no idea the amount of information that I’ve already received from reading all the useful posts that have come before me.. so, thank you for that!

I am planning on doing a chain conversion on my 1998 savage and have read most of the chain posts that have come before me and most address one of my questions but the other I haven’t seen yet.

I am debating wether to gain more torque and gear up or gain a more comfortable cruising speed and gear down.

I was pretty set on gearing down but couldn’t find much info about what it does to torque and most importantly what will gearing up do to my top speed and highway cruising speeds? I’d love to gain more torque in the bottom end but don’t want to lose too much top end (as everyone knows there is not much of). Making this a much “torquier” bike has been my most recent ideas and may continue this way.

One thing I’d like to add instead of starting another thread is I wanted to hardtail the bike and was fixed on a weld on but am considering struts as an alternative. Any opinions on how a strut swap went or struts vs hardtail plus and minus?

Thanks in advance and looking forward to some responses.

Hardtails look ''cool'', they ride like dodo! (that MIGHT make it past the censor)
No one rides any serious miles on a hard tail, if they have a choice.
If you are building a bike to look at and some short trips on good roads, go for it!
If you want or NEED to ride it a lot or on bad roads you will regret a hard tail.

As for the speedo, they ALL are off! The stock speedo is ''optomistic'' let's say. Check it with a GPS app. I went with a larger tire and a 2.60 final drive ( stock is 2.98 ) and 100 miles on the stock speedo was 124 on the GPS! Some oem speedos can be mounted, if you change the front wheel, like to go tubeless. But a GOOD gps unit is hard to beat, and has trip mileage too.

Thanks for the responses guys.

Okay good to know on the hardtail, I’ll probably stick with the shocks (or a pair of upgraded Harley shocks off Craigslist. So many brand new pairs that were switches right away because of the color lol)

In regards to the speedometer I am aware as i went with bigger tires on my car and learned how to read it with the changes made. I actually have a little digital tacho on the bars because I don’t like the tank so makes no difference.

When you switched to the 2.60 (im assuming 17/44 sprocket combo) how much get up was lost off the line? I like the idea of having the 5th gear as an actual highway cruiser but am nervous to lose my “get up”.

I was considering something in the middle like a 2.75ish ratio what’s your opinions on that? Would it be too minimal to stretch out the 5th gear like you have it.  I feel like it would be close to stock but not sure.

On the other end, say I went with a 3.1 ratio would I still be able to ride highways comfortably?

Again, thanks for the responses. You have no idea the sleep I’m losing obsessing on this!!

Do the Kawi front pulley and keep the belt. Simple, clean, quiet, no maintenance.

Gain top end, lose a bit of acceleration And
Get a more comfortable ride on the slab. Lower RPM cuts the vibration.
You won't miss that little bit of acceleration.
I'd start with the front pulley,see if you dig it. You can sell it if it's not
The Answer
Or add the smaller rear pulley,, if Dave is still doing that.
Getting rid of the belt means signing on for taking care of the chain and replacing sprockets.

If you can get close to what you think the chain will give you and avoid that, you'll save money and loads of regular maintenance.

Look at the space between wheel and frame. It's filled up with pulley and belt.

Picture that area with just chain and sprocket.