Thanks for the links, Mike. I have already cut the BUNA rubber sheet for my custom boot. It will incorporate 3 layers of this rubber, which is much more flappy than the EPDM, although not so forgiving regarding expansion.
I laminate it with radial strips of FR4 classfibre sheets, 0.3mm thick, and this should produce a failsafe, semi rigid boot.

My Suziki parts supplier keeps pushing the delivery date for the fancy Boulevard rockers forward a month at the time, so I am going to assemble the engine with the rockers from my original engine. I really would have appreciated pristine surfaces touching my brand new DR cam, but I don't want to wait untill mid May to premiere my bike.
The first fills of oil will be redline racing motorcycle oil, 20W50, for generous phosphorous and zink ~<2000PPM, as well as clutch saving JASO MA rating.
From there it will be Mobil1 racing 4T for adequate ZDDP <1200PPM and JASO MA2.
Cant get Rotella overhere in Denmark, and Mobil1 V-Twin neither.  

Now the real fun begins!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VkrUG3OrPc

It was only 42deg. Fahrenheit, but I had to go for a little spin again today. Of course, as soon as I left home, the dry road turned wet, further out a drizzle, so I was thoroughly frozen when I returned after 45km.
Mostly around 55MPH but on the highway, I hit 70MPH, and at that speed it felt as I was barely moving the trottle into the needle area. There is a lot more power to be had, but I also feel I should let the engine bed in before I try WOT.
It accellerates really well, engine braking has entered the equation, something that I felt the stock trim lacked. Sounds good, today I noticed a bit of backfiring on decell, but that should be an easy fix, with the idle screw and perhaps a bigger idle jet.
The deep end grunt has diminished a bit - - perhaps, I have no data, so only an impression, but the way it behaves, I have no complaints.
Mike, you have used one of the Drag Specialities rev. counters
https://www.denniskirk.com/drag-specialties/electrical-mini-8000-rpm-tachomet... and I bought one too, from EBay If I remember right.
Reason I ask is mine doesn't work, it could be faulty as I assume, but thought I'd run it by you.
The signal that I measure with my scope on the "ground" wire looks like this: It is a 350V spike, about 8µS long. I belive this is what a revcounter expects to see to start counting.
The instrument boots up all right, with the pointer going through the full 270deg. movement, but it doesn't react to the input from the ignition coil

Had another short trip today, 50km due to nice warm weather, it was 50deg F today. I could not help myself, took the bike to 80 MPH, then shortly to 90, and there is still more. This bike's got balls, I like it.
I tightened the rear shocks all the way up to max stiffness, and that has stabilized the bike to a point where I feel safe from wobbles, something that had me worried all winter since the old configuration started wobbling at 80MPH severely.
The exhaust is starting to show a few blue notes..... I really like the way this stainless exhaust is taking on colour. And should it turn ugly, it is only a matter of a couple minutes with emery cloth to reset it to pristine silver colour, and start over.

Finn, so glad you got it runnin.  That is a beautiful picture.  Denmark looks like it is very nice, perfect for long rides in the country.  Your Savage is a slick hotrod.

I don't know what to tell you about your tachometer.  You seem to have the correct "dual fire" model, part number 2211-0057.  Your connection seems correct.  You have identified the harness lead as "black & white", but I believe it is actually "black & yellow".  The tachometer green wire ties into the harness black & yellow wire.  The tach cycles when you power up.  It should work.

Tell us a little more about how your bike is running.

How are the noise levels (intake, exhaust, mechanical)?

How is the starting?

Vibration levels?

How's the oil pump drive?  Did you install the #120 bleed jet?  Any unusual noise coming from the primary case area?

How is you clutch action?  Does it drag?  Is engagement smooth?  How is the lever-pull?

I am sure you are gratified after all that hard work.  You came up with a lot of good ideas.  We can all benefit from your experience.  Thanks so much for all the photos and valuable information.  I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say keep it comin.  Good stuff.

I want to extend thanks to all who have responded to this thread during the build, in particular
DBM for "everything"
but also Dave for making the budget head available to me
The Sneeze for supplying me with a proper clutch release cam
Lancer for carburettor and flattop piston
Verslagen for inspiration to the top plug
and soon also Rycashawn for a front brake upgrade.

So how is it running?

Vibration level: Nothing worth mentioning, smooth as a whistle
Starting: effortlessly, although I still think I need a bigger idle jet.
Noise levels: No inlet sound when starting and toddeling around the neighbourhood, but at near WOT it starts to be known, not offensively though. Then again this only happens on the highway or when far from inhabited areas, where it is only me and the bike.
Exhaust is only slightly louder, my spouse did not notice any change from last year, but with a deep plaesant tone to it. I've said it before, it now sounds like a real motorcycle.
Then there is the mechanical sounds from the engine. I have to say: this is no sowing machine. There is rattle and scramble from the engine, and I am having some trouble finding out if it is serious of just what to expect from a big single. When I drive on a level road and ease off the throttle to the point where the engine neither drives the bike nor is driven by the bike, it sounds like the piston is clonking in the cylinder. I beleive this has been referred to as piston slap.

I am seriously challenged on my vocabulary when it comes to describing the sounds, and it may well read worse than it is.


Edit: I have moved the spedometer into a cocpit up front, so there is a hole directly dovn to the engine, then there is the wind noise from around the helmet, and my total newbie-ism about judging the noise. We will see.

We will see soon when I do the first oil change, if there is ground off allu dust in the oil.
Instead of finding a #120 jet, I just drilled the bolt with a 1.2mm drill.
No noise from that area.
The clutch engages smooooothly, there is no drag, and none of the associated CLONK when putting in the first. I can (but will not regularly) make a long sliding engagement with half or so throttle, to get going in style.
The lever-pull was excessive at first, and I had ordered a new cable. In the mean time I lubricated the old cable with a mix of copper eaze, redline assembly lube and engine oil, and this did wonders to the point that I consider putting the DR650 springs into the clutch next time I pull the cover.
The engine is oil tight, at least I have not found any leaks yet.

I have nothing bad to say of the bike yet, and the next few houndred kilometers should reveal whether the sound of the engine is normal or something that needs attention.

My engine has seen 7k a number of times and the engine sounded good and strong, and 8k maybe twice.  At 8k it was wound pretty tight and sounded like it.

I assume the rev counter was a dud, but since I bought it in december when the engine was dismantled, and I had no way of testing it, the return window has closed. Instead I ordered a new one from France, should be here first in may.
I took it apart to see if there was an easy fix, but the manufacturer presumably wanted to protect his intelectual property, and block any attempts to repair, by grinding off the chips identifiers. This leads me to beleive that there is a dedicated rev counter chip out there, instead of a programmable one. A programmable one can not be replaced by the user due to the lack of software.