Gasoline Motor Co is no stranger to introducing a little cafe racer style to unsuspecting cruisers and their latest iteration - The Savage, is functional proof that when most people see a bobber or chopper, Gasoline sees only one thing, a cafe racer in the waiting. Originally approached with a design brief to create a modern Japanese single cylinder engined street machine for a client wishing to part ways with their modern high power superbike in favor of something distinct, unique and aesthetically pleasing to even the most discernible of tastes, a plan was hatched to try something a little unusual. Knowing that the obvious starting platform and ever popular Yamaha SR series just wasn’t up to the job, Gasoline decided to go a slightly different route and opted to start withanother Japanese single, the often overlooked S40. The Suzuki Savage or Boulevard as its latest variant is known has been a staple cruiser from Suzuki since 1986, it’s powered by a 650cc, air-cooled, single cylinder engine driven through a 5 speed gearbox with power being transferred to the rear wheel via a belt rather than a chain. Despite the frame traditionally lending itself to the aforementioned chopper/bobber discipline;  with a little imagination and hard work, the light weight Suzuki S40 is a formidable cafe racer in the waiting.

The first port of call for The Savages transformation was to correct the frames geometry which was achieved through multiple processes the first being to swap out the factory standard wheels for something a little larger on the rear and something just slightly smaller on the front, both coated in satin black (15” & 19” > 18” &18) ; raising the rear further with some solid frame chopping to accept suspension components with a bit more length and dropping the height of the front ever so slightly. With the bikes angles sitting level, the standard tank was cut through the bottom with all superfluous material scrapped and the two halves reunited to form a sleek low profile petrol storage unit.  Following the same horizontal plane across the the top is a custom upholstered seat on a shell of fiberglass and aggressively angled clip-on handlebars. To further the newly adopted riding position the standard forward control set up was done away with in favor of a pair of adjustable rear-sets. The engine breaths a little easier with thanks to a genius set up of two conjoined podfilters (dubbed bi-pod twin-takes) poking out either face of the custom side panels in unison with a chrome straight through exhaust and reverse cone muffler. Keeping with the cafe racer theme, The Savage was fitted with some vintage Firestone Deluxe Champion tires and finished with a one of a kind rich metallic flake and satin stripe paint scheme, a coming together synergy of the clients demand for high gloss silver and Gasoline Motor Co’s signature satin paint job.