04 Savage, Savard 05 is right.  You should rejet and do the white spacer mod or replace the white spacer with a thinner washer or two.

Riding on partial choke is going to kill your gas mileage, its going to run sluggish (albeit quiter with no pop, pop, kaboom on deceleration, or dog fart on shut off), and your spark plug will foul out sooner causing exacerbated performance issues.  Plan on using your new odometer to remind you to fill up at 80 miles or so.  Running on partial choke will probably send your gas mileage down to something like 40mpg depending on riding style.  You should be north of 50mpg unless you are constantly hotrodding.

Philly.  You should try something between 185-200 main jet in that VM36 carb from Murray's Carbs.  Murray installs a 165 main jet and swears it's right, but Lancer builds and recommends something between 185-200 main jet for his VM36 carb builds.  I never ran "Woody" with the Murray VM36 with 165 main.  I went straight for the 200 main jet and Woody could rip!  With that 200 main jet, the midrange tuned in the best in the 2nd groove from the top (leaner side of the middle groove).  Your exhaust is similar to what Woody had.  Give a 185-200 a try - I bet you'll like it.  But get that clutch fixed first!

I saw DragBikeMike mention a safety tip that I hadn't seen before, and it seems a good addition to the info for newbies thread:

"First things first.  Disconnect your negative battery cable.  The Savage has a mysterious habit of going into auto-start mode with absolutely no warning.  It has something to do with the decompression relay.  It's always a good practice to disconnect the battery before you start working on your motorcycle, but on the Savage it's imperative."

That LTIP is definitely new to me. Yikes  

Neal, glad you are starting to feel a little better and that you got the cable installed. I've been too busy to do any riding or anything else that would be considered fun. Glad I washed the bike the day I got home or it would still have the Hill Country grime and dead bugs on it.

Take care of your self Neal. I think I will schedule the vaccine for myself. Thanks for everything. You're a good man. Don't care what anybody else says.

I like Dave’s recommendation.  He’s tried way more tires than most people from all those burnouts and scraping his knees in the twisties!

My tire guy whines about Shinko being difficult to bead, but no one else seems to have this problem.  I think he just had a bad experience so now he shuns the tires and won’t install them.

I can only compare the Michelin Commander II, Dunlop D404, and original IRC.  As Dave noted, the Michelin aren’t great for traction.  The Dunlop seem heavy but better traction.  The IRC seemed good all around.

Since my installer guy refuses to do Shinko installation, I’m actually considering going with the OEM IRC tires in the exact OEM size match for $225/set.

I’ve narrowed my shopping down to the Shinko, IRC, and Kenda based on other people’s input and my own experience.

https://www.motosport.com/product/?code=SS-M-G-P-NA-PLA-CRUISER&key=IRC-GS18-...

Surviving Philly wrote on Yesterday at 15:45:02:


The Metzler 888 is a high mileage tire - the rubber is compounded for lots of miles before it is worn out.  The Michelin Commander is similar, and some folks get 20,000 miles from them.  This hard rubber focuses on mileage - not wet weather traction, and they can be scary when riding on wet roads.

My personal budget "Go To" tire is the Shinko Tourmaster 230.  It provides good wet weather grip and will likely last 10,000 miles, and it is priced reasonably.

Dave wrote on Yesterday at 15:24:15:


Actually, I was on a motorcycle the other day.  
Managed to put the shiny new clutch cable in on Mad Hamish (thanks Springman!   ), and had to test the adjustments.  Rode it all of 3 feet or so...  
PSA..  If you have not had a shingles vaccination.. get one.  This is hurting.. a LOT.  

I've always been told not good to always ride with choke on your bike is running lean you should look up white spacer mod it will give you results you want without having to leave choke on and maybe even jet your bike richer depending on mods. Also the air screw on carb on the right side might need turned richer also it might be covered with a brass plug that would need removed. Alot of good Info on this site of how to do all things jetting lol good luck

Once you have collected the as-found data, and posted the results, hang tight so we can digest the info.  If we don't have any other requests, we will provide further instructions.  Don't just forge ahead, the results of your initial checks might warrant additional inspections prior to disassembly.  

The photos are important.  They allow us to actually see the parts.  Although it takes time to collect and post the photos, they save a lot of time in the long run.  Sometimes, a defect might not be obvious to one member, but another member may be intimately familiar with it.

Take the crescent wrench off the release arm.  Let the arm move down and verify that your reference mark is clearly visible and has a nice sharp edge.  Note how much my release arm has moved down from the reference mark.  Does your move down about the same amount?  Take a picture so we can see.

It should look like this.