Episode 6. “The Return of the Oil Leak” – aka “Dammit Dammit Dammit!”.
I began to notice an awful lot of oil smoke whenever I’d stop at a light, particularly at night when you could see it billowing up in the headlight beam. I started paying attention to the cosmetic state of the engine and things were going pear-shaped. I was getting oil residue in the same place as before, and read that sometimes the oil-cap-plug fix would fail with the OEM replacement. Also found that a little bolt under the front valve cover would also sometimes leak and a good cleaning would solve the problem. BUT – there was more evidence of something maybe more sinister at work. I was getting a ton of oil on the exhaust pipe, and could -not- figure out why or where it was coming from. I replaced gaskets in the side covers and anywhere else that wasn’t deep-engine ’cause I was pretty sure that wasn’t the problem.
I started dropping a cardboard box lid underneath the bike after parking it in the garage and the results were pretty discouraging.
At this point I had the odometer up to just a tad under 12,000 – so I’d put 4000 miles on the Savage since purchasing and was starting to think seriously about buying something new to ride daily while I tried to sort out what the hell was going on with the Savage. I’d been mulling it over for a few months already and this new development kind of made it a no-brainer. A buddy of mine had a Yamaha XSR900, which is a friggin’ gorgeous bike, but I wasn’t really sure I wanted to jump from a tame 650 thumper to that much of a beast. I’d also turned on to the BMW R-Nine-T Pure, which -really- checked all the boxes and flipped all the switches for me:
Unfortunately the price was a bit outta my range, and the nearest dealer was in Louisville. I was becoming a moderately competent rider, at least where my own confidence was, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to have to ride all the way down there ever time I needed an oil change or repair to keep the warranty active. Alas. “Maybe next time” I thought. Then I stumbled across this photo:
Oh BABY!!!!!! I was in lust. Soooo sweet. The stock version isn’t quite this cool, but it’s close enough, and I figured over time I could get it to this with some modest upgrades. So I started looking. A handful of miles from me is Beechmont Motor Sports and I’d always heard good things about them, so I started poking around, and sure enough, they had a gorgeous 700 in red. Man, it just sang to me.
So the deal was made, the documents signed, the blood-pact sealed to the howling of bankers and insurance agents on a moonless night under stars of unknown origin. You know, like ya do.