Hello Fellow Savage Owners,
I have recently made an exhaust modification to my Suzuki Savage that has greatly improved its performance. I have installed a Supertrapp exhaust on my Savage. It has been so successful so far that it has prevented me from trading in the bike for something bigger and more powerful.
When I purchased my 1996 Savage in the spring of 1997 (for $3200 with 300 miles on it) I thought I would never want another motorcycle. WRONG!! I like many others was bitten by the motorcycling bug, instead of a nice hobby it turned into a change of lifestyle. This January, after only haven ridden a motorcycle for one season, I purchased another bike - a 1983 Honda VF750F Interceptor. For those who may be unfamiliar with this bike, it was one of the very first sport bikes. It has lots of power and is very fast. Due to this new(er) motorcycle, my Savage was ridden less and less (My wife doesn't ride, she's a ER Nurse and affectionally referrers to my bikes as "donorcycles"). I was only riding it when I was going short distances that didn't involve highway speeds.
After riding the Honda, I didn't like being on the highway (I 95 with a 65MPH Speed limit) with the Savage because as you all know it is somewhat restricted in its acceleration when you got over 65MPH. However, with the Supertrapp exhaust THIS IS NO LONGER A PROBLEM!!!!!! After changing the exhaust the Savage is great on the highway. It now has plenty of power needed on the highway (up to 81MPH - It is still a liitle slow when going >from 80 to 85MPH). I was really impressed with boost in performance that the Supertrapp gives me between 65 and 80 MPH. For the first time, I am comfortable rolling on the throttle to pass cars on the highway - It feels like a real bike now - not to mention that it sounds alot better.
For those who think they know that you know what a Supertrapp exhaust looks like. My Supertrapp exhaust is NOT a cylinder with rings sticking out of it. It is a taperred pipe that ends with a diagional slash / , plus most of the rings are hidden by the lip while allowing the air to flow out of the exhaust. In my opinion it looks much better that the bulky original exhaust. I will have pictures soon I promise.
I had the exhaust work done and dyno'ed at International Power Sport in Baltimore, Maryland. If this place sounds familiar, It is the same place that Luke Lantham had his work done that is detailed on Bert Heise's web page. I still find it a little strange that I found another Savage owner that lives 30 minutes away listed on a German web site. Who says the web doesn't bring people together. When my Savage was Dyno'ed with the stock exhaust it peaked at 28HP at 80MPH. I believe that the extra HP was due to the fact that my bike what running a liitle rich at this point (my pipe had already started to blue at 3500 miles) and when I bought it the mechanic who serviced it said something about adjusting the emission controls so it wasn't quite as restricted. Anyway, after the Supertrapp was installed - the bike dyno'ed at 32-33HP. However, the unusual part to all this is that I haven't modified my carb at all. I had been previously notified/warned about removing the carb spacer on the needle of the main jet, and/or changing the carb's main jet to a larger size. BUT, each time we made tests to simulate more fuel (restricting air flow from the air filter) the performance decreased by 2-3HP to 29-31HP overall. While we could have changed the bike to get more air, I didn't want ot push my luck. As I said before, I am VERY HAPPY with the increase in performance with my Savage. At this point, I have no idea how if will affect the color of my exhaust, but I don't care.
For those who are interested, here are the dyno charts that show the difference.( Note: these images are scaled to fit the webpage )
This is the Supertrapp Ad that came with the exhaust. You can see what the bike looks like with it on. Also, it provides a dyno chart of the difference in power.
Click here for full size imageThis is my bike dyno'd before and after the new exhaust. Compare it to the Supertrapp ad and you will see that supertrapp didn't lie about the increase in power.
Click here for full size imageThis chart shows the difference in my bike (before and after) to Luke's bike with the Jardine exhaust (prior to removing the carb spacer)
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Thanks for all of your help, both for providing a resource and/or your help.
A Savage owner till I die, or it does - whatever comes firstJason Picton ( picton@erols.com )
updated 07/13/98
