Howdy Buellers,
I’m coming in from the smoke filed sky’s of the PNW. (Portland area)
I’m a motorcyclist that likes the right tool for the right job. I have many bikes and buell has never been on my radar till a customer brought in a ‘03 xb9 for me to work on and then I thought, I needed one.
(Yes, I have a small Moto shop that I mainly focus on pitbikes) Anyways, I poked around and found a cream puff 2009 xb9sx w/ 5200 miles in blue and has never been washed and 2” chicken strips on the sides of the tires. It’s basically brand new but not...
I got it Friday morning and went straight to the track. (I’m also a race tire vendor and weekends at tracks slinging tires) In between customers I was able to take the bike out and do a couple sessions at Pacific raceway. Where I decided the 12 year old Pirelli tires had to go. What I did notice the the yellow engine light comes on and goes off like normal then about 40sec later comes back on again. The bike does a bit of a weird idea sometimes and when giving it gas at low rpm sputters backfires in dies.
Monday I was at the ridge Motorsports track working and was able to get more comfortable with the new tires and scrub them in and get the knees on the deck. Anyways, new bike it’s fun, slow and a bit sketch to ride in stock form. The bike is really quite which is fine but feels a bit slower than the 03 xb9 my customer has.
I don’t want to change a lot of stuff on the bike and everything I take off I’m saving and will stay with the bike so it can easily go be to original form.
Here’s the short list of changes/part upgrades:
• extra Seat/pan, maybe different shape with foam but definitely recovering it.
•Black Bars from ‘09-‘10 with out the cross bar.
• maybe aftermarket Pegs With better grip
•Mirrors
•Blinkers
•Grips
•Levers
•Gas cap, is there I key less option?
•Led dash lights (They are super dim)
•Head lights, want both high and low beams on at the say time and they are super dim. Kind of worthless.
•Counter sprocket cover (cheap looking plastic/ I also don’t want to fuss with it when taking the rear wheel
off)
•Tail light/lic plate. I think I saw something after market that looks cool and takes care of everything.
•May Black out stuff other stuff that’s not already blacked out.
•full Belly pan, I like the look and will catch fluids and I don’t have to worry about what the aftermarket exhaust will look like.
•I want two full sets of plastics to custom paint up to have different looks. I’m keeping all the original hero blue stuff mint in a box. Airbox cover, Fly screen, Front fender
•Exhaust/ the bike feels choked up and slow. What pipe is the best for xb9?
•Air filter, what the best way to get cool air into the airbox? Also is the 2009 airbox restrictive at some point in getting more performance out of the bike?
•Brake system front feels bad. I like the look of the 6 pot over the 8 pot. So I think I’ll go with ebr 1190 rotor, new brake pads (vesrah,ebc or what ever is best) and do a radial master cylinder. Do I still need a 8 pot?
•Suspension feels terrible. All new rear shock and fork internals.
•Steering stabilizer , if dialing in the suspension doesn’t help with all of the bikes stability issues I’ll add the steering stabilizer.
•then of course new exhaust means Ecu/dyno tune.
What other power mods need to be done to give it more torque done low and power up top?
I would like to have enough power to power wheelie with out needing the clutch. Is that possible?
At the track I only saw 115mph. It felt no faster than an yami R3 and and I think a ninja 400 was in a straight line. I don’t know that the first owner was so easy on the bike that it still needs to be broken in.
Anyways I like the bike and plan on having it for some time. It just needs a bit more power and better handling and stability to feel comfortable pushing the bike around. Currently it’s a bit scetchy. Lol
Until next time!
I’m coming in from the smoke filed sky’s of the PNW. (Portland area)
I’m a motorcyclist that likes the right tool for the right job. I have many bikes and buell has never been on my radar till a customer brought in a ‘03 xb9 for me to work on and then I thought, I needed one.
(Yes, I have a small Moto shop that I mainly focus on pitbikes) Anyways, I poked around and found a cream puff 2009 xb9sx w/ 5200 miles in blue and has never been washed and 2” chicken strips on the sides of the tires. It’s basically brand new but not... I got it Friday morning and went straight to the track. (I’m also a race tire vendor and weekends at tracks slinging tires) In between customers I was able to take the bike out and do a couple sessions at Pacific raceway. Where I decided the 12 year old Pirelli tires had to go. What I did notice the the yellow engine light comes on and goes off like normal then about 40sec later comes back on again. The bike does a bit of a weird idea sometimes and when giving it gas at low rpm sputters backfires in dies.
Monday I was at the ridge Motorsports track working and was able to get more comfortable with the new tires and scrub them in and get the knees on the deck. Anyways, new bike it’s fun, slow and a bit sketch to ride in stock form. The bike is really quite which is fine but feels a bit slower than the 03 xb9 my customer has.
I don’t want to change a lot of stuff on the bike and everything I take off I’m saving and will stay with the bike so it can easily go be to original form.
Here’s the short list of changes/part upgrades:
• extra Seat/pan, maybe different shape with foam but definitely recovering it.
•Black Bars from ‘09-‘10 with out the cross bar.
• maybe aftermarket Pegs With better grip
•Mirrors
•Blinkers
•Grips
•Levers
•Gas cap, is there I key less option?
•Led dash lights (They are super dim)
•Head lights, want both high and low beams on at the say time and they are super dim. Kind of worthless.
•Counter sprocket cover (cheap looking plastic/ I also don’t want to fuss with it when taking the rear wheel
off)•Tail light/lic plate. I think I saw something after market that looks cool and takes care of everything.
•May Black out stuff other stuff that’s not already blacked out.
•full Belly pan, I like the look and will catch fluids and I don’t have to worry about what the aftermarket exhaust will look like.
•I want two full sets of plastics to custom paint up to have different looks. I’m keeping all the original hero blue stuff mint in a box. Airbox cover, Fly screen, Front fender
•Exhaust/ the bike feels choked up and slow. What pipe is the best for xb9?
•Air filter, what the best way to get cool air into the airbox? Also is the 2009 airbox restrictive at some point in getting more performance out of the bike?
•Brake system front feels bad. I like the look of the 6 pot over the 8 pot. So I think I’ll go with ebr 1190 rotor, new brake pads (vesrah,ebc or what ever is best) and do a radial master cylinder. Do I still need a 8 pot?
•Suspension feels terrible. All new rear shock and fork internals.
•Steering stabilizer , if dialing in the suspension doesn’t help with all of the bikes stability issues I’ll add the steering stabilizer.
•then of course new exhaust means Ecu/dyno tune.
What other power mods need to be done to give it more torque done low and power up top?
I would like to have enough power to power wheelie with out needing the clutch. Is that possible?
At the track I only saw 115mph. It felt no faster than an yami R3 and and I think a ninja 400 was in a straight line. I don’t know that the first owner was so easy on the bike that it still needs to be broken in.
Anyways I like the bike and plan on having it for some time. It just needs a bit more power and better handling and stability to feel comfortable pushing the bike around. Currently it’s a bit scetchy. Lol
Until next time!
Hope you miss the fires up there. It's hot here in Cali too
