Posted by Witch Doctor on September 15, 2000 at 04:39:26:
1) The Savage is classified stateside as a TOY. While it is true that an imported bike with 650 ccs used to be considered large, at that same time Harley had a 74 cubic INCH displacement motor in their real bikes. There are very few bikes available now with smaller engines, at least for highway service.
2) Regardless of what some forum participants think, it is in fact a "throw away" bike. You spend US 4200$ on it, about a grand on finance charges, and a couple hundred dollars over its service life period on maintenance and repairs.
3) I'm sticking by my guns where two up use or touring use of the Savage is concerned. It was not designed for it, it is too small in general for it, so don't do that with it, at least not often. If that is why you want a bike, I'll trade you mine for a clean 1964 BMW touring bike that lives in my friends garage in Long Beach Mississippi. I've done a long ride on the Suzy with a backpack, no thanks. I'll save that for the more masochistic among us.
4) If you need to pull the white spacer to comfortably run 70 miles an hour, something else is wrong in your carb. My bike still has the spacer, and pegging the needle is no problem. Yes, the bike backfires like a gatlin gun upon deceleration, so what, it wakes up the idiot soccer mom in the mini van next to you who is fighting with her kids, putting on makeup, and talking on the cell phone, all while trying to drive.
5 If you don't like my opinions, too bad. I've had my Savage since Februaury 98, have only been able to accumulate around 11000 miles in that time (on it, there are two other running bikes in the family), and through trial and error have decided that I won't use it as a serious motorcycle if one of the others is available. I'll buy another one to build another custom out of, but once Lisa is out of school, the Savage is going to be relegated to backup bike status. I prefer a bit more out of a bike than it can offer without going to a larger frame, better brakes, etc.
-WD