Race Buell Improvement Thread

Button has been pushed, I'll be at Mid Ohio in August. My poor, poor credit rating...

Worth it! Get out there and represent for all your weird Buell buddies!:eagerness:

This is probably the best thread posted on this forum in a LOOONG time!

Mini panic moment: Draining the oil with 313mi on it, are those air bubbles or babbit/bronze dust... lighting sucks in my garage for this... ****. Cut the oil filter open, tear out the media, absolutely no signs of sparklies in the paper, not even a hint in the sun. Phew! Basically nothing on the oil magnet, primary magnet had the usual clutch residue. Interestingly, the Redline oil came out almost purple, was expecting it to brown up with heat and use, so that was a surprise.

Mid-Ohio prep continues, was only able to raise the forks approximately 1.4mm, something in the fork/clamp design will not allow them up any higher? This just confirms I really need a higher rate spring in the rear to keep the ride height higher in back. Ok, what it REALLY confirms is I need to actually service the front end, and pony up for a shock in the rear, and a subframe to drop weight and...

Why even air bubbles in the oil??

There's a circlip (#19 "stopper ring") on the top of each fork leg, just under the upper triple. Its perfectly OK to remove it and put the fork legs wherever you want them.


The OE rear shock isn't 'that' bad. If it's so far out of whack that you can't get it to the right height/pre-load, the specing a different coil spring should be easy and cheap with free height and rate you want.

Now if it's just out of length, to get physically tall enough, then ya, it's new shock time, unless you know someone that can make a slightly longer clevis to swap the bottom shock mount with? I have no idea what to mix and match with other XB shocks.

When the oil is draining and has slowed so it's not the full stream, as it drizzles it can grab air, I think that's what I was seeing. I hope that's what I was seeing...

On the shock, near I as I can tell neither end has been serviced since it was assembled and sold as an 08, 24k miles ago. Unless that OEM shock is way more servicable than most stockers, going Penske just makes getting it maintained down the road easier. I figured something like that had to be going on with the forks but didn't try dropping them to get a looksee, that makes more sense now.

Ah, that makes more sense about the oil.

If you wanna buy a Penske, ya, it's the best choice. Just exploring options less than $1600, lol.

So, been in Ohio since Saturday night, did the Mid-Ohio TD on Monday, just finished the Moto America Dunlop test session today. Last 30 min session I was pushing hard, ended up riding the limiter a bit towards the end and started getting a check engine light for a moment... uh oh... Bike was running ok, thought maybe it was hot after the longest angry session I've subjected it to yet. Park, let it sit, flip the switch and the light went out after a moment like normal, cool. Fire it up, putt around to verify the borrowed rain wheel had a straight rotor and... light is back on.

Buelltooth / ECMDroid time, code was low batt voltage. Grab a meter and verify, 11.8v ignition off. Ruh-roh. I was curious if I could read the active voltage in ECMDroid so I fired it up but before I could do anything the bike shut off dead, no lights, nada. Batt now read a few millivolts. TLDR one cell of the Shorai is toast. A Walmart AGM has been shoved in, bike starts, no codes, also no charging so I'm going to be total loss for the weekend. Any bets on what failed for when I get home and can diag properly?

I got a little confident on Monday, the Buell LOVES this track, and I was hanging with faster machines. Welp, reality called and has advised I'm slow now that the racers are here. My best so far is a 1:50 to their 1:30. I need to get down to a 1:43 to qualify, but really need to do better than that 'cause we've got 39 entries and only 36 grid spots. And it's looking like I may get to see how the Buell likes rain, fun fun.

Oh man, wishing you the best luck! Rain is the ultimate equalizer though. Steady and smooooooth

You can check the 3 wires of the stator output real fast with an ohm meter to make sure the windings aren't shorted to each other or ground. It will also let you examine the plugs for corrosion or melty sadness. It's pretty much either that or the VR 95% of the time.

Have fun!

Got pulled from Q1, just not fast enough and there are a LOT of bikes on a small track so, weekend done.

Sorry to hear that bro. Seriously It's a big time commitment and expense to go, not to be able to race. But, I wish we had that problem out here. We only get full grids for the top dog 1000's and the smallest lightweight classes. Everything else ends up getting combined.

I knew it was a risk when I signed up, ended up playing roving pit monkey for a bunch of teams on hot pit, met and hung out with a ton of teams, had a BALL, so still worth the trip though I could have done it way cheaper if I had known I wasn't going to be racing...

I need to figure out what the plan is going to be for next year. I've got the drive, and can start working on my skill side of the equation, what I'm not so sure on yet is how to fix the bike and team sides of the problem. This solo **** just isn't going to work for much longer, so have to see if I can find some friends to tag along. On the bike side, the primary complaint from the top guys was the top speed differences of the slower machines, they're firing into one corner at 155mph compared to my 126mph for example. Looking at it via a different variable, 94hp vs 120hp to 150hp... the XB can handle, but that power difference means crazy closing speed differences any time there is a runway. I dunno if the XB can realistically get there and not be a total hand grenade or cost half the GDP of California?

I did get to ping THE Roland Sands on if there had been any talks of finding a path for a modern Buell on the grid and nope, way too fast. He has apparently floated the idea to Buell of making a smaller motor'd machine that would be legal but it's not something they want to pursue at the moment. I love this series, the people are awesome, and I'm loving the Buell community and support, just dunno if I can make it work?

Back in the hey-day they got about 150HP from the factory backed XBR. I bet it was VERY expensive to do with an air-cooled Buell.

Expensive, and maint intensive to keep alive from what I'm hearing. Also found out there was a "3.6in" stroke race motor with custom cases out there, custom headers too, another path to research, supposed to make good power while not being quite as temperamental as the XBRR. Any platform that's legal right now is going to require getting into the motor to have a fighting chance, raising the cost of entry significantly.

Ya totally with that class. I think they sold more Pan Americas for race bikes than road legal tourers:angel:

Talking to Pan Am racers is a riot, you think the street machines had teething issues? Best part is seeing the fixes racers are coming up with for the bike's shortcomings including things like dual pass radiators so the coolant hoses don't have to cross the engine and run right against the exhaust, defeat plates for the cam phasers, etc. I own one as a street bike, no way would I race it.

Looking like my reg/rect is what let go. Stator isn't shorted to ground, only .1 ohm across it as per the book, AC voltage is 52v at 2k RPM. On connector 44 I've got 0 ohms to ground on -, 12v on the + implying the 30A fuse is still in the game. What's the go to for replacement reg/rects, track down NOS OEM, or is anyone making a modern MOSFET setup these days? I've got Rick's Motorsports Electronics right down the road from me, maybe I should just pay them a visit?

Edit: Also, why have this info in a separate book from the service manual?!

I put a Rick's mosfet regulator/rectifier on my Ulysses a few months ago.
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/showt...sports-Electrics-Hot-Shot-Rectifier-Regulator

Seems they don't offer one for the later single phase bikes like mine? Problems sourcing the OEM connectors maybe?

If you can source an OE unit (not the off-shore clone) they are worth the $$ and pretty dependable. Otherwise, any good quality single phase MOSFET will work. Super easy to wire up. I'm sure Ricks can help you even though they don't have a plug-n-play option for you in their catalog.

Bonus for using a non-shunt style VR is it should take less Hp to run! (in theory).:up: