Lightning Owner Riding Survey -

[Willie P]

I don't ride with anybody and don't see nearly as many Buell riders out and about when I am riding...possibly due to a number of factors (where I am at, the fact I am not connected to any other riders locally, etc). however, was wondering if Lightning owners (in particular; I do know ULY riders get out and presume the riding position of Firebolts do not permit much long distance riding) - anyway was wondering the following:

1) how frequently do you ride each week?
2) shortest ride per week/longest ride per week?
3) during the "normal" riding months (if not year round), on a monthly basis, what is the distance is your "long ride"?

feel free to add any further commentary to your answers.

I am posing these questions as I am just curious to get a better sense of the Buell community as "riders". thanks, willie

[turboraven]

You don't see many buells b/c they are relatively rare in comparison to the rice/pasta rockets and harleys.

1) I ride with the wife on my 10' 12scg daily given good weather
2) 15 miles/150 miles
3) 200-300 miles

[mirkvid]

1) how frequently do you ride each week?
Every day. My Lightning is my main mode of transportation.


2) shortest ride per week/longest ride per week?
2.5 miles one way to work. Usually do a 30-90 mile ride on weekends. Sometimes I'll put a few hundred on.

3) during the "normal" riding months (if not year round), on a monthly basis, what is the distance is your "long ride"?
Not too many long rides in the dead of winter. The desert does get cold. Probably the same distance, but less often.

[Applepooh]

1) how frequently do you ride each week?
Every day. My Lightning is my main mode of transportation.


2) shortest ride per week/longest ride per week?
Shortest ride a week is about 70 miles round trip. Longest ride per week is about 140 miles in a day.

3) during the "normal" riding months (if not year round), on a monthly basis, what is the distance is your "long ride"?
I have yet to go on a really long ride... Can't wait though!!
Pain is weakness leaving the body so Ill ride as long as I have fuel in the tank!!

[Lesley]

1) how frequently do you ride each week? In the Summertime I ride daily to work(30 miles round trip) and maybe a 100 mile ride during the weekend. Sometimes but not often maybe 150-200 miles. I really don't think I could handle much longer of a ride on a Buell. These bikes were not built for comfort and I have never forgot that fact. Someday I may opt for a comfort bike but for now this old man is staying on my Buell.

[Willie P]

@turbo..."pasta rocket" -good one, never heard that before, but like it! ...or you could even call them "grease rockets"... (...and I can say that since I'm Italian, albeit Northern Italian; blonde hair/blue eyed).

[thrstrmech]

1) how frequently do you ride each week?
2) shortest ride per week/longest ride per week?
3) during the "normal" riding months (if not year round), on a monthly basis, what is the distance is your "long ride"?


well, before crossing the pond to the middle east:

1. 5-6 days a week
2. no short rides/100+ per day/5-6 days a week
3. year round riding...SoCal baby:D:D:D, haven't gone on any long rides yet, maybe when I get back to the real world from being here in the dark ages:p

[squidbuellie]

1)5-7 days a week
2)shortest ride in a day is about 8 miles to meet up for coffee with a buell buddy.
longest in a day is about a tank and a half so 200 miles
2)longest ride is about 300 miles but i don't really ride my buell on the freeway mostly all back roads because honestly the bike sucks on the freeway.


and don't see nearly as many Buell riders out and about when I am riding

you need to get out more or i must live in the buell mecca. there are 8 of us in a 20 mile radius 3 bolts 5 lightings not counting the guys that i have hooked up with from this board.

[konarider94]

1. depends on schedule but 4-5 per week.
2. 70 round trip for work. absolute shortest would be 20 miles around the city at night. longer are usually ~100 mile loop
3.longest ride is ~100 mile trip one way


thats what i seem to think anyway. i know i have 5000 miles so far this summer though

[ct1200]

1) how frequently do you ride each week?
Normally I'm a commuter so just about everyday between April-November, as long as its above 45ish.

2) shortest ride per week/longest ride per week?
I live about 30miles from work so 60 miles round trip.
Tues a local group does rides and thats about 60 miles from work, and the rides are normally another 50-60miles, so 150-200 in a day.

3) during the "normal" riding months (if not year round), on a monthly basis, what is the distance is your "long ride"?
Done several 400-500 days ME NH VT NY PA NJ etc...
AirHawks are awesome, I recommend them to anyone looking to do some miles.

And this is on a '09 bolt with 19k miles.

[Blaylock1988]

1) 2-3 times a week every couple of weeks
2) 2min/40min I ride across campus and to my house
3) My long ride is usually 300 to 800 miles. this summer I rode a couple days at Deal's gap, and rode a day trip up the Blue Ridge Parkway last week.

[Kozo]

Hey, rode my XB12S for less than a month, and now it's waiting for my rehab.
1) how frequently do you ride each week?
Every day. My Lightning is my main mode of transportation. I sold my cage to buy my XB, and share another cage with my wife for the raini days or for when not in the mood for 2 wheels, but honestly, even when it's raining or I know it's gonna rain, I rush my self so my wife doesn't have the opportunity to make me take that cage, doesn't matter how wet or damped I get lol (didn't happened with the other bikes)


2) shortest ride per week/longest ride per week?
6 miles one way to work, 12 miles round tripp, 2 times a day. Like 250 miles a week, but the longest ride, 30 miles.

3) during the "normal" riding months (if not year round), on a monthly basis, what is the distance is your "long ride"?
Here you can ride all year. In less than a month riding almost 1,000 miles, but no long rides, just taking on the streets :p


rice/pasta rockets and harleys it also can say "japs/italian, rockets and Harleys" no? :D :D

[JohnnyD]

1) how frequently do you ride each week?

Everyday.

2) shortest ride per week/longest ride per week?

5 miles to work, so 10 miles/day. Sometimes during lunch, I'll go out for a ride - 30 or more miles.

3) during the "normal" riding months (if not year round), on a monthly basis, what is the distance is your "long ride"?

300 + miles a few times a month.

[anrkizm95]

1.7 days a week about 330 days a year

2.6-10 miles 200-500 miles

3. 500-1000 miles

[gtp3800]

1. 5 days a week
2. shortest is to work, about 9 miles./ longest is after school (my joyride time) about 100 miles.
3. I do about 3-4 bike trips a year, longest one on the buell was a 4 day trip, 800 miles round trip.

Northern Illinois weather can be a bi$ch so I dont get as much riding as I would prefer.

[user_deleted]

H-D's have become the chrysler minivans of the motorcycling world at least here in southern PA.
i ride every day possible.
trip to post office is shortest ride-5 miles roundtrip
longest buell ride so far is 125 miles in 2-1/2 hours to the ocean. don't ride much here in january/february/early march.

[BKKBuell]

1) Daily to work and most of the WE, all year
2) shortest ride is appr 8 km, longest ride is 160 km on Sat and 160 km back on Sun
3) I do 5 to 6 trips a year, the longest was 5 days and appr 1200 km
4) I did 26000 km in 2010 and have now 24000 km on the clock for 2011 (3 sets of tires, appr 80 l of oil, 1 belt, 300 usd fines for speeding, 1 dog, 2 birds and appr 200 mio flys)

[BikerTrash]

Last summer I rode a lot, because I could afford it. This year, not so much.

1) Last year I would ride about 3 times a week.
2) If I was out for a ride, the shortest ride would be 60 miles, longest normally 200+.
3) 300+ mile trip to Iowa.

[vance580]

1) how frequently do you ride each week?
everyday its not downpouring. My lightning is my commuter.

2) shortest ride per week/longest ride per week?
I ride to school everyday which is about 20 miles one way. I take the backroad twisties when I'm not in a rush for some fun.

3) during the "normal" riding months (if not year round), on a monthly basis, what is the distance is your "long ride"?
This is my first bike and my first year riding. I'm going to try and ride everyday unless it snows we will see how that goes. I have only been riding for a little over a month and have already put about 3000 miles on my lightning.

Where are you from? I also ride alone since I am new to riding.

[airBuell]

1. As often as weather/work allow.

2. 20/60 round trip.

3. 60 round trip.

[2004xb12s]

1. As often as weather allows
2. .5/100 round trip
3. 150 round trip

[moshaholic2]

1) how frequently do you ride each week?
every day

2) shortest ride per week/longest ride per week?

~2 miles to work each way

longest just depends on what loop i take for a "pleasure" ride 60-300 miles

3) during the "normal" riding months (if not year round), on a monthly basis, what is the distance is your "long ride"?

~300 miles. Could go further, thats just the length of the longest loop I take to end up back home.

[mmcn49]

Willie, I own two 07TT’s like yours. I put Madstad shields and handlebar risers on both. Fortunately I live in Washington State where there are a lot of great roads once you get away from the big cities.

I live on an island in Puget and commute to Seattle via ferry. My commuter is a 72 Beemer and have a 28 mile round trip commute. Weather is such here that you can ride almost year round. Exceptions are occasional black ice and snow.

My work place is on a 4-day schedule. Year round I try to take one of the Buell’s for a ride over the 3-day weekend. My longest 1-day ride which I completed just a couple weeks ago was 466 miles. During the nicer weather my “Fun” day rides are usually between 250 to 400 miles. During the colder weather that number drops to around 50 or 60.

A good friend of mine owns a Honda shop in Pt. Townsend, about 30 miles from home. It’s an old time shop typical of the run down dealerships of the 70’s. He gave up selling new bikes when Honda started leaning on him to make the place more up-scale 15 or so years ago. He sells used bikes, does repairs and sells power equipment. On Saturdays a bunch of riders from all over drop in for free coffee and cookies.

Most of my riding for the past few years has been solo. I have gotten together with a friend who has an older Triumph and we’ve gotten into the twisty’s at Thauya.

Anyone in the Puget Sound area wanting to get together to ride can contact me at: [email protected].

[Squattybodyjr]

I ride year round, daily, to and from work most but twice a year my father and I do a 3 to 4 day ride usually about 1500 to 2000 miles.

[ChuckieE]

1. I ride every day (if not raining)
2. 15/100 miles
3. 100 miles (dont like to go out on long rides if alone)

[unionthug]

1) how frequently do you ride each week?

Not enough, I may average an hour or three hours depending on my schedule

2) shortest ride per week/longest ride per week?

Short weekly ride 1/2 and hour. Long weekly ride three hours

3) during the "normal" riding months (if not year round), on a monthly basis, what is the distance is your "long ride"?

We ride 9-11 months a year here in Northern California. I prefer to not ride in the rain. Because I cannot get out as much as I like I find myself making time to ride for 3-4 days a few times a year in addition to regular rides.

We typically cover 800-1000 miles a day on these rides.

[Mike Van V]

1) how frequently do you ride each week?
Daily during the week, occasionally on weekends.

2) shortest ride per week/longest ride per week?
85 miles a day...to and from work.

3) during the "normal" riding months (if not year round), on a monthly basis, what is the distance is your "long ride"?
Depends. No real planned monthly treks anywhere.

Pretty much a year-round thing in So. Cal. Have rain gear for the wet days.

Also..currently have three bikes, with the 12S being the current daily driver, while the 1125CR waits for me to put a new cam in it....!

Mike

[Willie P]

Wow, guys - I am really impressed with these responses.

Now, the "long story" explanation for my initial questions;

I will have owned my bike for exactly two years as of 10/31/11. I presently have 5700 miles on the ODO (bought the bike as a new leftover as part of the going out of business sale, 0 miles). I would imagine by 10/31 I will have about 6200 miles on it.

I just finished a 337 mile ride into Ohio and West Virgina last weekend and was feeling proud of the ride, but reflected that when you break-down my "average" ride - it works out that I only actually ride the bike about 12-15 times per year.

I would say my average ride is in the mid-high 150-175 miles). I probably only ride 2-3 times per month from mid April to mid November. Here in Pittsburgh, you might have snow all the way through late March or even April (I do know there are guys that ride their Buells in snow - I've seen the videos!).

As well, I don't ride on Memorial Day weekend, 4th of July Weekend nor Labor Day weekend. I never ride after dark. I never even bother starting the bike up if I am not heading out for at least 100 miles. All of those self imposed rules are probably what drive my riding frequency down a bit. Here in Western PA - I watch the news every day there is at least 2-3 lethal single bike crashes every week in the summer months. Funny, almost all of them occur after 12am!

Also, affecting my riding is that I am the president of a start up company and work about 60 hours week, have three kids under 6 yrs old, try to go running 15 miles per week, try to go bicycling 50-100 miles per week and have a completely tore-down '62 Triumph sports car in the garage I am trying to restore/reassemble. I a probably spread too thin!

However, another reason for my post/questions; I was starting to sense that a lot of the Buell community were just basically "bar hopper" riders that went to bike nights and didn't really "get out" and explore and carve twisties the way these bikes were meant to.

Like the forum or not, the BadWeather guys seem to be pretty adventurous in the riding and by the posts here - seem to be some folks that really use their Buells as "tools" on a daily basis as well as long distance enjoyment.

I am probably more amazed and proud to see how many people here use their Buells as commuters. I might start doing that myself soon.

thanks again for all the feedback. willie

[fakameanrepresent]

1) how frequently do you ride each week? 2-3 times.

2) shortest ride per week/longest ride per week? shortest=2 miles, longest=18 miles

3) during the "normal" riding months (if not year round), on a monthly basis, what is the distance is your "long ride"? 18 miles.

[Alfatango1]

I ride almost everyday, used to ride 18 miles each way to work and back, now only 1 mile. I also leave my Buell at work and drive the bikes on the sales floor. CBR1000RR today.

Weekend rides vary from about 40 to 200 miles

Bike nights, a few times a week

Going down to Qualcomm Stadium tonight for the drag races. Don't know what I will bring or if I'll run. Don't want to owe my boss a set of tires.

[Tad Ghostal]

Hey Willie, a fellow startup guy here.

I bought my bike to get around the bay area. Given the same sort of schedule you have (60 hour weeks, and the 6 mile run most days, two 25-30 mile rides each week), wasting time driving isn't really an option, and with lane splitting, you can cut time on the road by two thirds being on a bike. So for the first 4 months, it was almost entirely short rides of 3 or 4 miles each day with a few 15 mile rides a week.

Once that project ended, I came back home to Seattle, and rode the long way home via Sequoia Nat'l park, gold country, across Carson pass into Nevada, etc, etc. 5 days, 2200 miles.

Since returning, it gets ridden any time I don't need extra carrying capacity. Cargo is about the only limiting factor, but presentability is the other, albeit less frequent reason not to ride. It's hard to keep a nice suit and tie looking good on a lightning after 20 miles of riding in freeway traffic in the rain.

Not a single bike night, no bar hopping at all, but plenty of 400-500 mile day trips through the North Cascades, out on the Peninsula, or through the Okanagans.

Besides the fact that it is just a lot of fun to ride, I find riding the Buell to be really rewarding and I imagine it is so for anybody who enjoys and actively pursues skills acquisition and mastery, and also indulges regularly in spontaneous play. One thing I've grown to love and appreciate about the lightning is that wherever I happen to be on any given learning curve, the bike always has the ability to offer more room to grow. From my experience with bikes, that's a really unique characteristic. In the past, I've found mostly extremes--extremely safe, reliable, boring bikes, and on the other end, those that are high performance but with a very narrow "fun" envelope.

[kelly]

my lightning is my only means of transportation and i put at least 100 miles round trip of highway and backroads 6-7 days a week year round rain or shine(riding when its ice on the road can suck). my bike is bone stock and is perfect for me. change the oil once a month, lube your levers and cables once a week and keep the air in the tires your good to go.
i never see any other buells on the road and stopped lookng to be honest. i see tons of gsxr's, triple speeds, ninjas, monsters, and soft tails. lol i give them "the wave" as i pass them.

[BikerTrash]

Willie, no bar hopper here, I also never drink and ride, not even 1. It also makes me laugh when I am out on a ride on a beautiful day and see only a few on the road, yet when I pass a bar the parking lot is full of bikes.
Speaking of commuting, I had a job 50 miles from home, and one summer/fall I commuted until there was snow on the ground, and racked up over 10,000 miles on a CityX.