Welcome to the world according to SAVAGE.  The Savage is a very reliable bike and is capable of any type of riding you may disire, short or long distance riding.   The only limit to this I have found is the seat, but with the new seat on the 2005 and the optional gel seat (highly recommended) even that issue is taken care of.

The bars are 1", so most of the bar stuff made for Harleys and such will work, they are less expensive most of the time.

The Savage handles well, you can take a pretty hard corner before you drag anything.  The limitation for the bike is the suspension.  The forks work well but the rear shocks have limited travel and are not top quality.  This is an inexpensive bike so no surprise here.  Shocks can be replaced though if you desire top quality.

The power is low for a 650 but can be perked up fairly easily with exhaust and filter change and carb rejetting.  Next would be a regrind for the cam and carb swap.  The stock bike has about 30 HP, with upgrades you can get it to about 40HP.

Bottom line, the Savage is a great bike for the money and fun to ride.

What kind of backrest do you have? Hard to install? Sounds like a good mod to do for longer rides.  Any other ways to do it/ideas? While putting the saddlebags on I also did the riser on the front of the seat which I think will also help. The seat doesn't seem too bad to me, I did 250 miles last Sunday (5 hours) and it didn't get too bad. Any of them I think will get to you after 5 hours!