LS650 Savage - Tracker/scrambler re-design.

FerousBastard

Active Member
The Suzuki LS650 Savage was my first motorcycle, rode that thing everyday to and from highschool, that thing might not have been powerfull, but it was nimble and its engine had shitloads of charisma spewing out the tailpipe!
Made the mistake of trading it a year later - Was convinced that more ponies was the way to go, but ended up regretting when the traded bike turned out to be a lemon.
Without the cash to buy my old bike back or rebuild, I ended up selling it for a loss. Several different bikes came and went, but that tiny Savage had burned itself permanently on my mind. Once you go thumper you never go back.
Fast forward to today and it's decided; this long legged son of a bitch is getting a new Savage.
But at 6'6" it's limited how many ways a man can fit on one of those things - massive forward controls or the Ryca treatment, so a bit of forward planning is needed..
Then this crazy Swede settled things, that LS650 scrambler is too rad to miss and who wouldn't want a single cylinder thumping scrambler. ;)
 

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Looks cool! They are always available relatively cheap. I love the standard/scrambler kit Ryca makes. I think you have to cut and box the swing arm in order to fit the larger rear wheel though...
 
Have been planning this build for a while. Am currently studying Industrial Design so funds are scarce and any mods should ideally have maximum bang for it's buck. The stock Suzuki LS650 or S40, if you want to call it by its US name, isn't by any means a badly designed bike and has plenty potential as Ryan and Casey at RYCA have shown. But kits are pricey so sometime you have to work with what you've got.

A while back Bikeexif.com released a few posts on how to design a Cafe racer and Scrambler:
http://www.bikeexif.com/build-cafe-racer
http://www.bikeexif.com/build-scrambler-motorcycle
To anyone even slightly design oriented these are essentially like a blueprint of how to spot potential in any motorcycle frame. So applied those guidelines to the Savage in photoshop to rough out a game plan;
Your basic 12,5" shocks rear, 1" lowered front forks, 10-20mm bush under the stock tank mounts, 140/90-15 or 130/80-17 rear tire and you've got a good stance, balance and foundation line. The rest is a matter of trimming off steel, adding a bit of aluminum, stripping off old paint and clear coating a few parts.
 

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brotus said:
Looks cool! They are always available relatively cheap. I love the standard/scrambler kit Ryca makes. I think you have to cut and box the swing arm in order to fit the larger rear wheel though...

Definitely cheap. Highly underrated.
As far as I can find out any tire up to 26" ind diameter should fit the stock swing arm, Ryca normally notch the swing arm for safe measure if customers should want to use Firestones. Plan on using a 130/80-17 or 120/90-17 tire, both of which at 25.2" Should fit. *cross fingers*
 
Looking forward to this. Have you bought the bike yet? How soon until you start ripping into it?

I bought one close to 10 months ago and decided it'd be an on/off road machine. Best of luck!!
 
Made a few renderings of a few different color schemes; stock 'Fox' orange and Red and black, am leaning towards the Red like the old Savage. Fingers are getting fidgety, need something physical to work on..

nerdsports said:
Looking forward to this. Have you bought the bike yet? How soon until you start ripping into it?

No not yet, just sold an old bag of parts so am taking a drive out to look at a good example tonight, with a bit of luck might just return with something manageable. Just for the record; won't be full on tearing the bike apart for this build, at least not until winter comes around, will be riding between modifications as long as the sun agrees ;)
 

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brotus said:
yea that red is bitchin!
Thanks man!

Here she is; Black no. 13
1999 model, 16080 original Km. Almost all original. Chrome in good order and thumping like she should when the battery isn't dead. The bike has been sitting for some time and only ridden intermittently, so am gonna drain the tank and clean the carb for good measure.
It might not be anything special or exhilarating, but it should be a good platform to work on.
Already has the 140/90-15 rear tire mounted with 1/2" of clearance on the swing arm so a 17" rear rim should fit no problem.
 

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Slick photoshop skills man 8)

I can really relate to the first bike love thing! I cant believe I am working on another SR250 and designing parts for it. But it was my first bike and it was so much fun. After having a lot of other bikes I just wanted something simple again and something that was fun to ride around the city and country roads with my girl. The SR also sold for over 20 years and was super popular in Spain. So I am hoping there is a big market there. It is definitely the same story for the LS650 - although they sold a lot more in the US and even northern Europe.

I'll be watching this space!
 
JadusMotorcycleParts said:
Slick photoshop skills man 8)

I can really relate to the first bike love thing! I cant believe I am working on another SR250 and designing parts for it. But it was my first bike and it was so much fun. After having a lot of other bikes I just wanted something simple again and something that was fun to ride around the city and country roads with my girl. The SR also sold for over 20 years and was super popular in Spain. So I am hoping there is a big market there. It is definitely the same story for the LS650 - although they sold a lot more in the US and even northern Europe.

I'll be watching this space!

Thanks man!
Great minds think alike, that's exactly how I feel about the Savage. The market for the LS is definitely smaller in the EU, but there are some many SR's kicking around Europe that I think you should have a good shot at getting something worthwhile going for you. Have already gotten a few positive responses over at Suzukisavage.com on the project, so if everything goes well there might be a few bits headed for the US 8)
 
It is when you take on a project like this that you gain respect for people like Ryan and Casey over at RYCA, what they did is both highly inspirational and highly challenging if you intend to go down a similar route.
While anyone can do a nice rendering, it takes some effort to plan out the little details, but most of you probably know this already.

A scrambler is in many ways very different than a cafe racer, while a cafe was always meant to go fast a scrambler is a balance between practicality and functionality with a spritz of styling on top.

scrambler-motorcycle-tridays-625x416.jpg


You want the riders footrests positioned in a way that is both comfortable and lets you stand up to control the bike in the rough stuff - you need mid controls positioned below the front edge of the seat, the narrowest point of the bike. In the end I've decided to work with RYCA's rearset brackets; available and sturdy and bolt a steel plate to the outside to move the controls forward enough to get those mid-controls and hopefully get comfy.
The classic scrambler would basically be fitted with high pipes if the owner judged the need for it. And since I don't intend on riding in 3 feet of water, I've elected against high pipes to begin with. For a muffler, RYCA again supplies a reverse cone repacked and baffled which should work well enough to begin with.
RYCA elected to install 18" wheels front and back to get the cafe look, but on a vehicle destined to go off the beaten path, you really want an 17" rear and 19" front for the best variety of offered/onroad tires.

The bike itself has been a real trooper, have clocked some 500km on it up until now to get it a feel for where it's at. Only real hickup is the classic head plug leak, which I'll need to get fixed. For now I intend to ride while the heat is still in the air and begin on some cosmetic changes once the September rains rolls around. I'm not in a rush, would rather work out the details thoroughly before taking the plunge and doing something I'll regret.

For now here's my latest renderings of the concept, enjoy.
 

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If I could make one suggestion, cut the neck and bring the front end rake in about 5-degrees.

Okay, two suggestions: bring the front fender to with three inches of the bottom of the triple and push it forward (is that three suggestions?).
 
redwillissuperman said:
If I could make one suggestion, cut the neck and bring the front end rake in about 5-degrees.
Okay, two suggestions: bring the front fender to with three inches of the bottom of the triple and push it forward (is that three suggestions?).

Couldn't do a rake job even if I would, local legislation is a bitch.
BTW why? With front and rear suspension mods you'd already have a 29 degree rake and 120mm trail. Pretty sweet for a 145kg motorcycle.
 
redwillissuperman said:
If I could make one suggestion, cut the neck and bring the front end rake in about 5-degrees.

Yeah I think you're talking about a real custom job here man - brings up legal issues with welding and chassis alterations - especially in europe anyway. Besides, I think the point of this excersize is to make some kind of 'kit'. I dont know many people that have the skills or knowledge to cut a neck and rake it and then weld it again. As cool as it would be though! I agree with you there.
 
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