Posted by George on April 22, 2001 at 02:45:33:
Recently, I posted here that, after five times in the shop, my Savage's oil leak had been fixed. Well, a few days ago I saw that the leak was back and as bad as it had ever been -- maybe a little worse. I was unhappy, but I made an appointment to take the bike to another shop next week. Today, however, when I went to the dealer's to look at helmets, I found a recently-traded 1999 Honda CB750 Nighthawk on the floor. From what I'd read, the Nighthawk is very reliable and reasonably powerful. I looked at my Savage, with the oil dripping down the cylinder and a rear turn signal dangling (the screw must have vibrated out on the highway this morning), and I made a decision: it was time. So I traded the Savage in on the Nighthawk.
I already miss the little devil, but I do like the CB750. It's heavier and much more powerful. It also seems eerily quiet, especially after thumping around with a SuperTrapp, but I guess I'll get accustomed to that. If anyone here doesn't mind offering a little advice, I could use some about the one problem I've found with the Nighthawk: starting at around 45 mph, the front end shakes a bit: if I let go of the handlebars at that speed, there's some wobbling. Maybe an unbalanced wheel?
The Savage was my return to motorcycling after a 24-year absence, and this forum has been a great support for me. It was partly because of the forum that I bought the Savage, and in large part because of the forum that I, who'd never worked on any vehicle beyond changing oil, experimented a little with the bike, cutting the header pipe to make the SuperTrapp fit, trying the Raask drag pipe, removing the white spacer, etc. You've all been great; I hope you don't mind if I continue to hang around. By the way, I plan to keep my Savage Web site up as long as people find it useful.