SUZUKI SAVAGE ROADSTER BUILD...

teabowl13 said:
The stock forks are 38mm., kind-of an odd size.

Maybe it's an odd size for Japanese bikes, but Ducati used 38mm forks on their twins through the 70s into the 80s at least. Finding clip ons in that size should be easy.
 
Desmodog, do you know if any of those Ducatis also used 1" bars?

I think the 38mm/1" combo is what make them harder to find......
 
ako said:
Desmodog, do you know if any of those Ducatis also used 1" bars?

I think the 38mm/1" combo is what make them harder to find......

None that I know of... it's all 7/8" or the occasional 22mm. I missed the part where it needed to be 1" bars.
 
Yeah. Bit of a weird combo due to Japanese bike but American styling.

I have ordered a 1" drag bar just to get around the issue for now. Will think about clips ons later.
 
Wow looks great! I've always liked the Savage for some reason. Must be the big single. Why do you want to go with a monoshock? Twin shocks have more of a vintage look to them.
 
Thanks guys!
Haven't updated in a while; life got in the way.
I had a long talk with Jay, and we've decided to skip the mono shock. I definitely agree; the twin shocks will be more authentic and vintage. One of the big reasons I wanted to try it is that on these bikes, with their belt drives, the let shock is held WAY out to the side, much wider than on the the right. On the stock bike you don't notice it so much, but striped all down like this one will be, it makes the whole thing look lop-sided and off center.
Since we are doing a chain conversion, and don't need to make room for the belt, he's simply going to bring that left shock inward to balance it out with the right instead.
Still... It could have been fun! Maybe next year... ;D
 
NEWEST UPDATE!

OK, so it's been a couple of months; Christmas, Winter, Work, all that mess has gotten in the way, but progress is being made...

I don't have any new photos to post right now, but as she sits, the bike is now completely stripped down, the frame is all welded together, and fixed up, ready for paint this week we hope! We've decided to go with a deep British Racing green for the frame color, and the headlight bucket; can't wait to see that.

We will also be pulling out the Cam chain tensioner and the front brake rotor to ship out to Verslagen for fixing up and drilling out. Thanks Verslagen, you're AWESOME!

After much debate and discussion, we've decided to pass on the monoshock idea. While I do think that it could be made to work with the '94 Shadow 600 shock that I have, (and I may still re-visit it at a later date) we both agree that it doesn't fit the idea and aesthetic of the bike we set out to build. We'd be opening up a big can of worms for what may not be any real benefit at all except that we could feel all smug about it if we could pull it off. Not so smug if it didn't work...

What Jay is going to do for me is to move the Left Shock mounts inward somewhat so that it doesn't stick out so awkwardly; that was really my main complaint anyway. That will tidy up the rear end and make more sense since we won't need such wide a space for clearing the belt.

That's it for now! We still have a long way to go, but there's still lots of Winter up here in the Northeast, so there's plenty of time still to get it on the road by the time we see Spring.

Cheers Everyone!
 
Yes, Keeping the swingarm. I'm not planning to road-race this thing. I just want to ride around and look at the trees whizzing by. I know it will have limits, but probably less than any stock bike from the '60's or '70's, and I've ridden plenty of those.
I'll have to look into the muffler and that carb; there are several upgrade carb options available, but at this point I want to get it running and on the road this Spring before I get too crazy with it. I'm sure that after I have spent a Summer bombing around on it there will be a list of stuff to update next Winter...
 
Swivel said:
If its got a used paper filter in the air box put a new one in.Those paper filters get blocked with fine powder and Y never know how bad until Y put in a new one.

If you go back to page one, you'll see that this thing is getting heavily modified; there won't be a stock airbox, and the filter will be replaced with a K&N Cone filter... among other things.
 
K&N makes a few different size cone filters that fit the stock Savage carb. The one I have is one of the largest ones. Besides, it's really not as simple as getting a bigger filter. I need to match the intake flow of the filter with the output flow of the exhaust; which I will be modifying by using a stock Harley Dyna pipe. Then I will be re-jetting and adjusting the carb accordingly.

These mods have all been done and documented numerous times by other Savage riders, and their info has been posted thoroughly in the Tech section of the Savage riders forum. I'm working with mods that have been tried and tested by dozens of riders before me, so I'm pretty sure I will have a good combo when I get it on the road. If not, well then I can adjust from there!
 
Yeah, those Harley pipes get consistently great reviews from the Savage forum guys, and they are cheap to come by; free in my case. I really can't wait to get this thing on the road. Thanks a lot for your input; I do appreciate it.
Cheers!
 
WOW! Finally got to go down to Jay's place and get some work done last weekend. I drove down Saturday night after the kids went to sleep, and woke up to find my bike entirely apart! It's a good thing this Savage goes together easy...
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First time I'd seen the inside of the motor, and what's visible so far looks brand new! ;D
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And the rest of it is all over here somewhere....
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Swingarm is sitting on the table; Jay modified the center bracing to make more room for the rear tire... Just tacked together for now, and that's a good thing; we found it was a little too tight when we went to put it back together!
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Here are the shocks sitting next to the Dyna Muffler we were going to use, but Jay found this older muffler on the shelf at his shop, and it was a great price; FREE! so we thought we'd try it. Check out the new Ballistic Lithium Ion Battery sitting there too....
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And in the blink of an eye, she's all back together!
The new muffler is amazing! Looks like it was made for the bike (It actually sits tighter than it looks here, the header wasn't tightened down, but it'll work) It's the exact size to fit over the outer header pipe, so it makes a super smooth transition. My only fear is that it'll be really loud; it's pretty wide open inside, and that it'll be hard to tune correctly... but it looks too damn cool not to use it....
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Footpegs come from a '91 FZR600; not quite the right period, but they bolt on just like all the aftermarket rearsets, and personally I like the way they look a lot better. Besides they were a third the price... Just have to weld a couple of brackets to the frame and she's done. The stock Savage shifter arm is even the exact right size!
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And here's the battery tucked down into that "what-ever-it-is-you-California-types-get-that-we-don't-need" bracket between the engine and swingarm. It''ll be virtually invisible, as will the wires running up the back of the frame. Hooray! (let's just pray it works... ::))
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Gonna have to make room for the petcock... Damn, it's a tight fit up here!
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Getting ready to fiberglass the seat pan!!
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Jay gives it a nice massage....
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And there she is! That'll get cut to shape this week, and mounting bolts added, and hopefully he'll be bringing it to me this weekend to get started on the upholstery! That's my job...
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OH YEAH! the chain is on... Gonna need to make some sort of delrin slider guard for that swingarm for sure!
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Fender placed just for photo's sake... The stock bracket will come off, and to hold it up, he'll use two simple rods extending up from a point on the swingarm to where the original bracket's rivet holes are. Here's a few more shots just for fun...
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This one shows the pipe hitting the swingarm, but when it's finally assembled, we will be able to pull that pipe forward another two inches or so, and bend it slightly out, so it should just clear the swingarm, especially once it's sitting on its full weight...
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I paid way more than I wanted to for these badges on Fleabay, but they have exactly the right amount of "patina" to match the tank...
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Oh, and Lastly... Jay would probably be making a lot more progress on this thing except that he just picked up this old Sportster Cafe project; FOR A DOLLAR!! ;D
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And that's all for now, Folks!!
 
THANKS SWIVEL!
I guess I forgot to mention; the swingarm will be getting extra gussets for sure; what you see here is just the start of it. The original brace there was really big, but made from very thin metal; so he's added a smaller but much more robust piece into the same spot. we wanted to get it re-assembled so that he could plan out exactly where those would need to go.

As for the frame though, that will be left open. I am NOT planning to race this thing, or probably even push it too terribly hard; thus it's a roadster, not a racer. If anything, left as we have it, the frame should still be much stiffer than stock; the tubes across the top, where the seat pan will sit, we added. The rest of the frame is stock; we didn't cut anything off that was structural at all. If you look at the stock bike, the entire passenger section of the bike actually sits on the rear fender itself, which is bolted to the rear frame uprights with four bolts. It's amazing that all of that is basically just hanging off of the frame in the rear, but it does seem to work...
 
Great work so far. The stock version of this bike is what I passed my test on in MSF, we have 2 stage licenses 550cc and under and 551cc + this bike qualified you for the unlimited cc license, it was a great torquey easy to ride bike and have been thinking of one as a project for a while now. Yours is great inspiration for sure.
 
Chris,

Looking good man! You should stop in and check out "Bad Penny" my cb360 tracker. Also, I have found a great local upholsterer if you need that.
 
HEY MAN! Thanks for checking it out. I definitely need to come by and see your new space,
AND Thanks for the heads-up on the upholstery; that's actually coming up just this weekend! I have a client who might be able to do it for me, but if not, I'll surely be in touch...
Cheers!
 
hey teabowl, your savage project looks awesome. did you ever finish it? I'm looking to get another bike soon, like feb or march, after I move. this would be like my 6th or so project bike. I really should just get away from motorcycles, but I love riding them too much... plus, as long as I still have my gear in the closet, that means that I am not out... just between bikes.
I have had a bad history of getting a bike that needs a little work, and turning it into a huge project. my big issue with this, is that I suck at wiring, engine work, and all the paperwork that goes along with most older bikes and titles and such.
the savage looks like a pretty cool bike. I know it is ugly as sin, but I'm ok with that. I would likely get around to doing some kind of mods at some point, and the ryca stuff looks cool, too... aside from the custom frame welding and such, has this been a good project for you?

ideally, I would like another sv650, but the money I'm rolling in is a few bucks and a handful of change, rather than at least a couple thousand for a good 1st gen sv. I've also had a vfr750, dr250s, which started my mental illness- I tried to make a café racer out of a dirtbike, a vt500c, which was pure crap, a cm200, which was a pretty cool little bike that I traded for an 82 cb750 with bad carbs and a bad engine problem. about a year ago I picked up an 82 virago 750 that was meant to be a quick get it running and ride job, but turned into a huge bobber project. I never could get the virago running right due to issues with the single carb setup I had, and the crap starter on the bike.
 
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