My 2012 S40 has only 913 miles on it and has a stock exhaust.  I bought it last November and have only put a handful of miles on it due to waiting for the title.  I've been noticing a strong odor when I shut it down and sometimes during riding.  It's not burning brakes, burning clutch (does a wet clutch even have an odor?), burning oil, or a hot aircooled engine odor (I know that odor well from my classic VWs).  It's similar to a carburetor that's running too lean or starving for gas.  My S40 runs and idles well.  I did the spacer mod and adjusted the air mixture screw to eliminate most backfires (2 turns out or so).  It doesn't backfire too often now, but it happens sometimes when the throttle is chopped.  I'm wondering if this odor is caused by the liberal amount of Sea Foam I ran through it or something else entirely.  My last Savage had 2400 miles on it when I got it, and I don't remember this type of odor.  Am I still breaking in this 11 year old bike, or should I assume it's a carburetor tuning issue?  Thanks!

Might be old fuel too

It could be your upper lip.  

If you haven't had it out on the highway and got it really warmed up, the exhaust could still have Seafoam and wet carbon inside.  And if you live in an area that is cool and humid - you could have moisture in the exhaust as well.  It takes a good 15 minute ride to get the engine up to full operating temperature.

One never knows.  Years ago, at my first house in MI, I smelled what seemed like turkey dinner in my house.  I found a squirrel had crawled into the water heater chimney and died headfirst against the baffle.  Imagine my shock to pull apart the galvanized tube and have a squirrel tail pop out (faceless squirrel by then).  Gross.

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 06/29/23 at 09:00:27:

It did sit most of its 11 year life, so who knows?  Thanks for the ideas.  Maybe it just needs to be RUN.  It's like butter when I ride it though.  So nice.

Savard 05 wrote on 06/29/23 at 03:22:40:

I rode it today for about 45 minutes before noon.  Pretty much flawless; pulled like a mule.  It was in the upper 80s and then lower 90s with 900% humidity.  I forgot how buzzy the Savage was at freeway speeds.  I put a gallon of ethanol free gas halfway through the ride.  I'm going to try to use that from now on.  I tend to forget to fill up with that gas for some reason.