I have a stock 2003 Savage.  I bought it at ~700mi and I've put about ~1300mi on her since I got her about three months ago.  On my way home today, my bike felt like it was getting a bit sluggish in 5th gear.  I was in 5th, going 55mph, opened the throttle a little more to get up to 60mph.  I nearly had to throw the throttle wide open to get it to budge.  Also, it was staying revved in the higher RPM's much longer than I felt it should when I let off the throttle.

When I was a real newb, I forgot to close the choke before going on a ride and it acted the same way (but much more pronounced).  Slow to bring down the RPM, sluggish in all the gears.  When this happened I thought for sure I forgot to close the choke at the office before I took off.  I pulled over and it was completely in; so that's definitely not the problem.

Lower gears were fine.  1st through 3rd were as responsive as usual.  4th gear was questionable -- I think it might have been a little sluggish but that could've been in my head since I was watching so closely.

Any thoughts as to what it may be?  The stealership I bought it from swore they did the 600mi service when they brought it in and I didn't need to do anything until 3000mi.  Could this be something they neglected to do -- some maintenance I should do immediately?  Do these symptoms sound familiar to anyone?

I agree with Essforty, check air cleaner and maybe run some sea foam through it.

The next time it acts up, CAREFULLY AND WITH DUE CAUTION, reach down and position the petcock lever to PRI.  See if that helps the problem.

Then, report back, please.

Good luck!

I'll try that today if it acts up on my way home.

I will say that's the only thing that changed.  The day before this happened I had just run the tank to empty, set the petcock to reserve.  The morning of this problem, I filled up the tank and set it back to ON.  Not sure if that information helps at all...

The safety warning is strictly related to eyes on the road, finding the petcock without looking?  Having run out of gas multiple times, I've gotten pretty decent at that.   It sounded like it was also a little related to the problem.

Just for background information, how will setting it to prime fix this?  What may be going on?

savageguy wrote on 08/20/08 at 04:17:10:

When in ON or Reserve. the fuel flow is regulated by a vacuum switch, so that you do not flood the engine. When on prime, it takes the vacuum switch out of the equation=pure gravity flow.  If it flows well in prime, but not in reserve, then your vac switch may be acting up.

Looks like I've got a fair amount of stuff to check tonight.  I'm currently rooting for the air filter. It's my daily commuter, so I ride rain or shine these days and pass by a rock quarry and lots of construction on my way to work (so lots of dust and debris).  After you guys suggested the air filter, and checking in the manual, it makes a lot of sense.  I'm at ~2000mi total now, when I should clean it anyway, and I'm riding in the exact conditions they describe to necessitate cleaning/changing it more frequently.

While I've got the seat off, I'll check the spark plugs like T Mack suggested and report back.  Hopefully, once I clean the filter, I won't need to ever switch to the petcock to PRI.  I didn't ride it in today -- not having the throttle in case of an emergency made me too nervous.

Thanks for all these suggestions.  I'll report back tonight with what I find.

Easy stuff first, try draining the bowl on the carb. and see ifyou pulled any water into it when you went to prime. There is a drain screw on the bottom of the bowl, the newer bikes have a philips head screw that you back out a few turns, the older carbs have a small bolt that you unscrew.