Its Alive: Bringing and 86' Suzuki Savage To Life

[slomo]

I have a female friend, who after I bought my first cruiser in 2006, has shown a certain degree of envy. She has always had a thing for bikes, and always wanted one. When I had my Suzuki C-50T, she always wanted to go for a ride. Even if she didn't ask, I could see it in her eyes. As a rule, I don't ride two-up. I don't like having to be responsible for another life on two wheels nor do I like the way the handling changes. When I bought my Nomad this past June, she jokingly accused me of making it a solo set up just to keep her from riding.

Her parents, when she was younger both had bikes and would ride locally and on extended trips. Her mother's bike, and the focus of this thread, was a 1986 Suzuki Savage 650. One thing led to another and her parents stopped riding. The Savage was placed against the outside wall of a storage shed, under the meager awning, and there it sat in quiet slumber from about 1988 to present day. As time went on, stuff piled on top and by the present, you wouldn't know a bike was buried under the stuff unless you were told or looked REALLY hard.

In her mind, my friend always toyed with the idea of fixing the Savage. Whenever she brought it up, me and her husand would look at each other, knowing full well what nightmare we might both be drafted into. As fate would have it, her parents told her that if she could fix it, she could have it, and so really begins the story.

I will state upfront, I helped where I could in this endeavor, but if anyone should really be credited with this modern-day Lazerus / resurrection story, it should be her husband. Her husband, while not a gearhead in the typical sense of the word, possesses the one trait that makes all the difference...

Pure. Dumb. Luck. It is unexplainable and spooky at best, and downright mind-blowing at it's worst. Not that it was needed in this project, but hey, Dumb Luck (of which I'm convinced is the a little off today brother of Honest Experience) is good to have around.

We started by dragging the lifeless body out of the tomb of junk it had come to be buried by during the decades. What we had on our hands was a major project. The tires were flat (naturally), the motor was locked up, the tank was still partially full of Reagan-era gasoline, front hydrualic brake master cylinder was toast, and it had about 50 pounds of dirt daubber nests and dirt crammed in every orifice. BUT, on the good side, the oil still looked halfway like oil, and the clutch worked.

As we started cleaning the crap off of it, we started to realize we just might have a diamond-in-the-rough on our hands. The odometer only showed a little over 1100 miles on the clock. The paint was still in decent shape, the chrome had some corrosion but still looked serviceable, all the rubber including the belt, tires, hoses, etc, all were in good shape. A fact probably attributed to its burial. By the end of the first day, we had most of the crud cleaned off, the seats and tank removed, and applied liberal amounts of penetrating oil into the engine's single 650cc cylinder via the spark plug hole.

After a few days, we decided to try and break her loose from her rigor mortis. We decided the easiest way was to tie a rope to the triple tree, and attach the other end to my diesel pickup. My friend's husband is more of a dare devil than I and also after I explained my reservations of potentially being killed by my own truck should he drive it, we decided he should man the bike. I literally drug him around his inlaw's front yard while he worked the clutch in 2nd gear. After a few attempts the engine broke loose and the rear wheel would spin the engine freely rather than just leaving drag marks in the yard.

After this, things started moving pretty quick. We settled in on testing the starter to see if it could spin over using the 50amp setting on a battery charger. After a little work on the electrical system and a new 20amp fuse from a brainfart moment, we found all the lights and switches worked and the motor would spin allbeit, a little reluctantly. We cleaned tank and the fuel strainer inside. Once it stopped turning the gas we poured in it orange, we called it good 'nuff and started to piece the bike together.

Finally came the day we tried to fire her up. We had elected not to clean the carburator, being that we were afraid, not having any experience that we would screw something up. We were wanting to see if she would merely run anyway so we crossed fingers and filled her up. The starter would turn halfheartedly on the battery charger, but we needed more juice. Not wanting to buy a battery yet, we settled on hooking jumper cables to one of my truck batteries.

We started to spin her over, but she wouldn't fire. A quick check showed "duh" no gas was making to the carb. 30 minutes later and a freashly cleaned fuel petcock later, we only had to push the starter button 2-3 times and she roared to life with all the thunder and noise a 650cc thumper can muster. Even better, if you closed the throttle, she idled smooth! Disconnecting the jumper cables showed the charging system worked as well. Not knowing the quality of the oil, we shut her down.

After that, it was mostly smooth sailing. We ordered some oil filters and changed the oil, and bought a new battery. There is still much to be done, but at least the heart of the bike beats once again after it's 23 year slumber.

We have since test ridden it around, putting a few miles on it mostly in her parents' short driveway. The next things are tires/tubes, a replacement belt, a new front brake master, checking and lubing pivot points... but I think we have a good start. My friend has even rode it briefly, and did really well for a complete beginner I might add.

Below are a couple pictures of the bike...


[imghttp://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g385/SloMo84/IMG_20110729_194957.jpg][/img]



and lastly, here is a shot of my friend's husband, taking a victory lap around the yard...

[ringadingh]

Good story, I love breathing life back into old abandoned equipment. My neighbour had a yellow Savage just like that one.

[Loafer]

What a great effort, it's nice to hear of someone taking the time for a phoenix project. ;)

[canedriver]

NICE story.

I love projects. Man reading that then looking at the pictures made my fingers itch to take it down to the nuts and bolts and ship off to chrome and powder coat.

[Bull Durham]

Great story, loved it. I don't remember that model bike, especially with it being a Thumper. Good job, keep us abreast of the rest of the story, with pics, too.

[AlabamaNomadRider]

Enjoyed your story. Great writeup. The bike looks really good to have been sitting for 23 years. Good luck with the remainder of the job. You guys can't stop now. Keep us updated.

[slomo]

Sorry I haven't beeen around to reply. A high priority project came up at work last week and have been working 12 hour days...

Thanks for the comments. My friends have mainly just been riding it around the yard and the small country roads around her parent's house this week.

[Loafer]

I read a lot of the reviews of this bike.
It has low fuel range and lousy seat. Vibration from a single is always higher, but this one
seems to be annoying over 55 mph. Taller riders need not apply. Fun around town ride.
Here is one review that says, what most of the others say. There are those who would never
buy another Suzi after owning this bike.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Boulevard_S40