95 Suzuki Savage

Ultimate Budget bobber Build

Revival Handbuilt Motorcycle Show in Austin Texas Featuring "White Savage" by Evan McEntee and Solid Source Choppers

First Show

I have received the official invite for the Savage to be shown at the Revival Handbuilt Motorcycle Show in Austin Texas. Very excited! I will post updates and pictures on social media as I get time.

***UPDATE*** Due to personal reasons, I will not be attending the handbuilt show this year

Origins

For $250, I couldnt say no. I knew nothing about this model of bike before I bought it but I grew to appreciate alot about it. The LS650 is a single cylinder, air cooled motor. Minimal electronics, simple geometry, what else could you ask for?

Picked this up in the winter or spring of 2022, and did not accomplish much on it for about year.

A 1996 Suzuki Savage LS650 motorcycle parked inside a garage, with a black seat, front headlight, handlebars, and black tires, and a view of a driveway with cars outside.

A black vintage 1996 Suzuki Savage LS650 motorcycle parked in a garage surrounded by cardboard boxes and shelves with weights and other items.

A motorcycle in a workshop being taken apart, with various tools and parts scattered around including a water bottle, a tool set, and a plastic container. The workshop has blue walls, red tool cabinets, and several other equipment and storage units.

Strip, clean, dream

Tare apart all unnecessary parts and components and start with a clean slate. This bike already had good bones from the start, so I knew, this was going to be a fun build as long as the motor ran.

After stripping it down, I immediately think “hard tail” so I dropped the rear shocks and start the staring procedure! Unfortunately, I do not have alot of pictures of the build process of this bike.

A motorcycle on a workbench in a garage or workshop, surrounded by tools and equipment.

Hard Tail

Once I realized that this build could be the ultimate budget build, I made it a point to find creative ways to reduce the cost. Utilizing the factory swing arm is not a recommendation, but for a bar hopper, bobber, budget build and knowing that the weight of this bike wasn’t going to be much of an issue, the belt drive, all things considered, the swing arm was staying… with added struts.

A motorcycle frame on a workbench in a garage, with tools and equipment around, and a red stool nearby.

Work-in-progress motorcycle frame with attached new metal tubing in a garage setting. Tools and parts scattered on the workbench.

The right strut was straight forward, single radius bend. The left side was quite a bit different. I needed at least two twists in the strut so I could grab the left leg that was jutted outwards and so I could make room for the belt drive. At first the belt cleared the pipe, It wasn’t till later, I found that under a load, it did not.

Black motorcycle with chrome details in a garage on a concrete floor.

Assembly

There were a few steps between the last one and this one that I did not take pictures of like the motor time chain tensioner almost KOing the motor, modifying the chain tensioner and reassembling the motor with the new timing chain.

Built a battery trey and compartment for the electrical plugs right under the seat.

A vintage motorcycle with a black fuel tank and wide front tire parked in a garage. The background shows shelves with various tools and supplies, including a blue container, boxes, and a motorcycle wheel.

Diassembly

Once I was able to get the bike running good, It stayed raw for awhile. I wanted to make sure I wouldnt run into issues down the road. Once I fixed all the grimmlins, it was down to paint. I stripped it down to the frame (took about an hour) and had the frame sand blasted.

I wanted to do the paint myself to cut on the total cost of this so I waited for a warm(ish) day. It was winter in Wyoming… warm days in winter are few and far between.