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SuzukiSavage.com
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Bought a Boulevard S-40 /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1091161670 Message started by Jon on 07/29/04 at 21:27:50 |
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Title: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Jon on 07/29/04 at 21:27:50 Well, nobody answered up when I asked if anyone had ridden the new S-40, so I bought one today anyway. Having previously owned a 4-speed '88 and 5-speed '96 LS650, the 05 model seems much the same. The new bike has 'great ergos'. The new bars and grip angle are very comfortable, as is the seat. Suspension feels the same, as do ride and handling. I cannot tell for sure if Zook improved gearbox because the bike is still so tight, but it seems to shift more precisely with less lever throw. Going into 1st from neutral still clunks a little. As expected, carburetion is lean in the primary circuit. There is noticeable weakness in the low end of the rpm range, a slight surging when holding a steady 30mph, and multiple backfire occasionally on decel. It still farts when you turn the key off. This one is black and Suzuki's web photos do not do justice to the sparkle and contrast between the bright work and paint. darn fine piece of work. |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Kropatchek on 07/30/04 at 04:09:59 Please post some detail pictures of the differences. Thanks Kropatchek |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by cphilip on 07/30/04 at 08:51:08 Yes Jon. Congrats on your purchase. Would like to drive and see one and compair it to my 02 but will settle for suragate reports! ;) I guess its go the same old spacer and lean settings. Sounds like it. Time for you to gut that thing of its spacer and richen her up soon. |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Junkboy on 07/30/04 at 10:29:16 "adds a flat handlebar and new-style, one-piece seat for increased rider comfort and a streamlined look. " from http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mcsuz/04_05_Lineup/ |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by klx650sm2002 on 07/30/04 at 10:36:11 I like flat bars too :D Clive W |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Greg_650 on 07/30/04 at 10:46:19 Way to go...now we can all learn about the "Savage40". This forum might need a name modification ::) |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by gitarzan on 07/30/04 at 14:47:50 How About the Suzuki Savaged Forum? :P |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Jon on 07/30/04 at 22:47:07 Removed the white spacer today. Interestingly, it's exactly the same thickness as the one from my old '88. Did not have time to uncap the airscrew, but lifting the needle may be enough because the backfiring is gone. A note about the shim job. Most of the info on the net about this just says "remove the white spacer". When you get the slide piston out you will see that the needle is held in place with a small plate and two screws. There is a tiny dimple on that plate that puts a little tilt in the needle by pushing against the white spacer. This, I assume, is intended to help prevent needle flutter at mid to high revs. If you just remove the white spacer and reassemble in reverse order with the dimple facing downward, the dimple will not be effective because it now rests against an e-clip. A work-around is to replace the spacer with a single Radio Shack #4 washer. I filed the edges a bit to reduce it's diameter to be the same as the spacer because it needs to seat into the hole in the piston. I didn't pay much attention to the details of the LS650 over the last couple of years, but this S-40 includes a 4-way flasher setup. It's activated on the right switch housing and works in both Park and Ignition modes. Another surprise was finding the belt tensioner tool in the tool kit. I recall shelling out close to $30 for this optional widget in the past. Btw, it appears the seat utilizes the same two side attachment points as the Savage seat. The only other retainer is a single screw back near the taillight. Maybe the new seat will retro fit? |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Greg_650 on 07/31/04 at 04:22:50 Finally! Someone has gone against the standard practice of just removing the white spacer. I have suggested for a long time that people find a smaller replacement for the stock spacer to avoid just removing it. The result of that practice is a slightly over rich bottom end. The spring on the needle holds the needle up against the clip and a thinner spacer allows it to be repositioned higher, but not too high. Now your backfires are gone and you aren't pumping out raw gas on a closed throttle decel.....all of which I learned because we have 2 Savages, and when I initially experimented with the spacer, I could actually smell gasoline when following my spouse as she slowed to a stop (and yes, I checked all the other stuff like floats and overflow tubes, too). Changing the spacer ended the odor. Do you still have the '88? If you do, and have the time you will find out that the jet needle and the needle jet have different profiles (tapers). In fact all of the internal jetting is different, and even the throttle plate is bigger...but "yes" there is still a spacer in there. This means that if you change your exhaust, you may actually gain some better performance by swapping the entire carb on your Savage40 with that older one. Now...the info about the seat IS really good news. Not only is there a great stock retrofit for our older bikes, but the aftermarket world will follow this with more options too. Our prayers may have been answered. Let us know how the seat feels on a long ride. |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Brad on 07/31/04 at 06:08:57 Can the white spacer just be filed down to a smaller size? |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Greg_650 on 07/31/04 at 07:27:32 Sure, but I always hate to loose the "stock" parts. You can do as he did and get a thinner washer or go and dig through small o-rings and washers in the plumbing section at a hardware store and keep the original. Mine was about .050" where the stock is about .100" |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Jon on 07/31/04 at 11:56:54 ----------------------- Do you still have the '88? If you do, and have the time you will find out that the jet needle and the needle jet have different profiles (tapers). In fact all of the internal jetting is different, and even the throttle plate is bigger... ----------------------- A dial caliper measured the spacers from the 88 and 96 at .112". The 88 did indeed have a much different carb as verified in the Suz shop manual. It also had a louder stock muffler with less back pressure. So, when I did the shim mod on that older bike I machined an .055 spacer from aluminum. It ran very well. On the S-40, to help offset the too rich tendency on decel with the spacer removed, I'm going to leave the lean factory airscrew setting alone for a while. With the backfiring AND surging now gone, it has good manners and is a pleasant ride. FYI... the Radio Shack #4 washer is .024" thick, so they can be stacked as needed to fine tune the needle. Just reduce their diameter a little with a file or sandpaper. --------------------- Let us know how the seat feels on a long ride. --------------------- I'm gone for a butt test, more later. |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Kropatchek on 07/31/04 at 16:59:35 As for retrofitting the S40 seat. There's even 2 ( one piece) gel seats :P available for the S40 that will fit our "old" Savages. Check this out under Boulevard Accessorys www.twowheelcorp.com |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Jon on 07/31/04 at 19:20:33 Did 120 miles today. As with the Savages, I think I'd add 1-inch of foam to the seat on the S-40. Not because the seat needs it, though, it's nicely wide and flat and level, but to compensate for the choppy rear suspension. On the relatively smooth interstate, the S-40's ride is quite adequate, but (like the LS650) you get beat up a little on backroads with rough pavement. The ride quality is influenced a lot by the bolt-upright seating. Around town the posture is near perfect, but when carving twisties I found myself thinking about lowering the bars. The S-40 does not have flat 'drag' bars, they angle back quite a bit. Flat bars would move the grips forward a little and allow the rider's spine to incline forward of vertical, thus deflecting road shocks . With the dogbone risers and factory shortened cable, wiring and hose, there are a lot of possibilities for personalizing the bars. Some of the other Suzuki models have shorter risers, and it looks like the multitude of Harley risers would adapt to the S-40. This 5'7" rider thinks the grips could be forward a couple of inches and down one inch while still having armchair ergos. The stock bars can also tolerate being rotated down about 80 degrees so the angle-back would become angle-down like Cafe drops. More fun in toyland tomorrow. If anyone else buys an S-40, jump in and expand this thread with some feedback. |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by AL_DOWN_UNDER on 07/31/04 at 21:49:19 AT LEAST YOU GUYS CAN BUY THE NEW SAVAGE . DOWN HERE IN AUS LAND THEY HAVE;NT BEEN IMPORTED SINCE 89 . AS WELL AS THE VS 750 AND THEN IN EARLY 90 THEY STOP BRINGING THE VS1400 INTO THE COUNTRY . THATS BECAUSE SUZUKI AUSTRALIA HAS ITS HEAD STUCK UP ITS BUT. AND CAN NOT SEE DAY LIGHT >:( |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by gitarzan on 07/31/04 at 22:54:43 Kropatchek wrote:
Nice Link... I may pop for this one... http://www.twowheelcorp.com/images/ec0289/990A0-71018.jpg http://www.twowheelcorp.com/catalog_product_detail.asp?sid=02733881X8K1K2004J12I48I32JAMQ957R0&CatalogCode=1365&LevelCode=10744&PartHeaderNumber=118247&ManufacturerCode=4&keyword=ls650 |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Jon on 08/01/04 at 00:20:35 Fwiw........ I bought the Suzuki gel seat for my last Savage and found it quite uncomfortable for several reasons: 1) Gel doesn't add cushioning, it just absorbs vibration. When they hollow out the seat to embed the gel pad, you lose about 1/2" of foam. Sitting on even a thin gel seat does do a good job of numbing the pain points from vibes, but you get hammered worse on rough roads because the gel does not compress at a noticeable rate. 2) Gel absorbs heat and stays hot for a long time, and can be a frying pan if you park in direct sunlight. It also gets cold on chilly days. In both situations you have to sit on the seat for a while to normalize it's temperature. Think of the stuff as a slab of that blue ice goop you pack around drinks and food in the cooler. 2) The back of my Suzuki accessory solo gel seat sloped up too soon, so I sat against an incline and it tended to slide me forward. Not much fun riding when the seat gives you a wedgie. The new one-piece gel seat looks better contoured than the previous effort, but I recommend a test sit before you spend a big chunk of non-refundable money. I've talked about bike seats with guys who clock a lot of mileage each year, one who did the Iron Butt, and the current consensus seems to be against gel, but in favor of closed-cell foam. Closed cell has millions of trapped air bubbles which add a lot of cushion as they compress under load. In comparison, open cell foam relies only on the wall structure of the foam rubber for support. Building up the stock seat with a layer of closed cell foam may be better than embedding a slab of gel. |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Greg_650 on 08/01/04 at 04:45:38 I have a "Butt Buffer" which is a gel pad that you can throw on top of the seat. I find that it really doesn't improve anything with regard to long distance comfort...it merely looks "cool" 8) As for the spacer....I never measured it. How's that for precision? In fact at the time, I didn't have a caliper either since I mostly do electrical work :o I merely found one that looked close to 1/2 the thickness, installed it, and I was happy ever after. Now, I know they are .112"which is good to know. Thanks. |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Jon on 08/01/04 at 09:55:52 > I have a "Butt Buffer" which is a gel pad that you can > throw on top of the seat. I find that it really doesn't > improve anything.... I bought a Travelcade over-the-seat gelpad from JC Whitney last year to use with an 800 Intruder on a two-state tour. The pad was substantial, a good value and good quality. After you sit on an exterior gel pad for an hour, your sit bones sink into the gel and it forms around you. What they don't tell you is that as you sink into it the gel, surfaces not bearing weight tend to squish up a little and put pressure on anatomical areas not intended to support you. A thinner slab of gel may have been better. Gel embedded into seat foam and under upholstery seems to disperse better. |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Jon on 08/01/04 at 21:48:48 Posted some photos of the S40 here: http://tinyurl.com/6otyk A couple of the images show the bars rotated down as previously mentioned (about 30 degrees). That made a big difference in control in the twisties. |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Jon on 08/02/04 at 09:04:01 Regarding the rear suspension I whined about, I got a confirmation this morning from Dave Quinn that Hagon shocks are available for the Savage/S40. These are the good old Girling units under a new name. I put a pair on a rough riding Yamaha a while ago and they made a BIG difference in smoothing out the harsh hammering. The Hagons have different spring options, too, so you can dial-in the shock to your weight. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hagon's specs are: 280mm 12x19 bush top and bottom 23kg spring Black body w/chrome or black spring: $179 a pair Dave Quinn Motorcycles http://www.davequinnmotorcycles.com |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Kropatchek on 08/02/04 at 09:09:05 Thanks for the pictures. ;DLove the seat and the new rear fender rails. ;D BTW is there a microswitch on the carburator. ???I saw one the other day on a 2004 Savage. Greetz Kropatchek |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Jon on 08/02/04 at 09:31:40 > is there a microswitch on the carburator Not that I can see, it's the same carb they've used for years. What did the switch do, trigger a heater? |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Kropatchek on 08/02/04 at 16:38:08 That's what I'm wondering. Asked several people in the shop but nobody had a clue. Will keep searching for the answer and post when I know. ::) |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Greg_650 on 08/04/04 at 13:25:41 Jon wrote:
Looks really Savage. Nice bike. I really like the seat change. Let us know how it feels after 100 miles. What are the little goodies that you have up in the center of the bar? I guess they removed the little reflector from above the license plate bracket for the S40 model. The bars are kinda like they were in the early Savage years with the flat bars and risers. |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Greg_650 on 08/04/04 at 13:26:53 Kropatchek wrote:
What switch did you see or are you talking about? I can't find one ??? |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Jon on 08/04/04 at 15:28:00 > > Posted some photos of the S40 here: > > http://tinyurl.com/6otyk Added a few more pics today. > I really like the seat change. Let us know >how it feels after 100 miles. The seat is good for 100 miles between gas stations, but because of the shocks I'm still happy to get off and take a break. > What are the little goodies that you have > up in the center of the bar? The Aerostich clock and thermometer, nifty little items that are quite useful. Go here and do a Search for Clock and you'll see the clip-on items: http://www.aerostich.com/riderwearhouse.store |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Kropatchek on 08/04/04 at 16:52:59 What switch did you see or are you talking about? I can't find one. I saw this switch on the carburator on the last savage ( a 2004) at my local "stealer" Will ask around at report greetz ;D Kropatchek |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Greg_650 on 08/05/04 at 03:46:15 There are no electrical items on our 2000 and 2001 Savages. Interesting. |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Susan on 08/05/04 at 08:00:42 Kropatchek wrote:
Kropatchek, I have a 2004. If you tell me what to look for (and where to look as I am a newbie) I can try and find what you saw and take a picture of it and post it. I will be out of town until Sunday but could do it Sunday night or Monday. |
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Title: Re: Bought a Boulevard S-40 Post by Greg_650 on 08/06/04 at 02:43:11 There are 2 possibilities....an electric fuel cut-off switch or an electric choke, but Susan, you won't find those on your '04. If they were, you can bet the marketing guys at Suzuki would have listed them in the specs right along with the new 4 way signal flashers. But we'd like to see pictures of your carb anyway ::) |
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