New owner here, 2006 XB9R with fresh engine

[wildrider49]

Hey everyone! I picked up a Yellow 2006 XB9R this weekend. The bike has 30k miles on it but the motor was replaced by SLC Harley Davidson around 700 miles ago. I have a 2006 BMW K1200S but my wife recently started riding and she bought a Ducati Monster 821 so I picked up the Buell to be a little more compatible with her ride

The bike looks all stock. Things I noticed on the test ride and the ride home: Throttle is sticky, can let go it doesn't return, and front brake feels soft. Today I will take it apart and clean everything and take stock of what has/hasn't been done, like air filter box, crank breathers, etc.

I'm looking for the factory saddlebags and a tank bag if anyone knows where I can find some!

Thanks for all the help you didn't know you gave me before I purchased the bike and officially joined the group here!

--Tony

 

[outthere]

Your a bike guy. Check cable routing/lube. Brakes are just as easy. Change fluid.

 

[Danthehitman]

I was looking into having my new XB9S dyno'd at some point and quickly realized no Harley Dealers wanted to touch a Buell. Anyone else have that experience? Sounds like Wildrider49's dealership had no problem with it!

 

[Cooter]

Congrats on the Buell! Most of the rime I get a sticky throttle I find it to be over adjusted. Check the free play at the grip and loosen it up a bit. Maybe that will do it. You'd think the dealer would have safety checked that!

Your soft front brake could be glazed pads or maybe an air pocket? Flush the fluid with DOT 4. EBC 345HH pads fit the 6 piston ZTL caliper and are great for the street. Use a brake hone to clean the disk and definitely bed the new pads.

These are pretty Buelletproof (TM) and once you get the maintenance sorted and ride it regularly it will treat you very well:up: You can find a free copy of the service manual at Buellmods.com for procedures and suspension settings.

Hey Dan: Any shop should be able to dyno it? A bike is a bike ya know? If you're looking for tuning, the Buells used a different ECM than the Harleys did, so HD can't help unless they still have the DDFI box and even then they are limited to stock tunes. But the good news is the Buell ECM's were jailbroken a long time ago so theres no need for Hypertech piggyback nonsense.
If it's running well, I'd leave it alone. These were tuned to the max from the factory so there isn't much left at all. If you really want to get into tuning to match an aftermarket pipe or air filter, check out Buelltooth.com.

 

[Danthehitman]

Hey Cooter. Ya, I did find a few places that were happy to dyno my XB, just no Harley Dealers which I thought kind of strange. (Buell money is Green just like any other HD) They both told me they don't service Buells any longer. I was just curious if this is the general HD Dealership stance or maybe I just got unlucky with my couple inquiries in the Milwaukee vicinity. I'm planning to do a Drummer exhaust at some point so was thinking the Dyno would be cool to dial it in. I'm fortunate to do all the other mechanical stuff myself. My bike was pretty ill maintained, I came to find out, but it's running pretty sweet with short work. Must say, I've owned a lot of motorycles but nothing seems to have the attitude of a Buell!

 

[34nineteen]

Hey Cooter. Ya, I did find a few places that were happy to dyno my XB, just no Harley Dealers which I thought kind of strange. (Buell money is Green just like any other HD) They both told me they don't service Buells any longer. I was just curious if this is the general HD Dealership stance or maybe I just got unlucky with my couple inquiries in the Milwaukee vicinity. I'm planning to do a Drummer exhaust at some point so was thinking the Dyno would be cool to dial it in. I'm fortunate to do all the other mechanical stuff myself. My bike was pretty ill maintained, I came to find out, but it's running pretty sweet with short work. Must say, I've owned a lot of motorycles but nothing seems to have the attitude of a Buell!

Most new motorcycle dealers are unwilling to work on product that more than few years old. In a Buells case, if the dealer has that policy in place, they know that the newest Buell is 10 years old, so it falls outside of that category. Plus, they may realize their techs really dont want to work on Buells.... especially if they were never a Buell dealer in the first place. For example, replacing the intake manifold seals on a Sportster is an easy 30 minute job if you're not really paying attention. On an XB, it will take hours, especially if the tech has never done XB intake seals before. Then service has to charge you the 2-3 hours of service time, that took the tech 3-4 hours to do all to replace a $10 set of seals.

The trick is to find a shop that have *Buell enthusiasts*. You will probably have to call around to find out where they are. I'm sure there are still techs who loved Buells out there somewhere, they just may be a Honda shop or maybe they all moved on?

Even Erik Buell has moved on.

 

[34nineteen]

Hey everyone! I picked up a Yellow 2006 XB9R this weekend. The bike has 30k miles on it but the motor was replaced by SLC Harley Davidson around 700 miles ago. I have a 2006 BMW K1200S but my wife recently started riding and she bought a Ducati Monster 821 so I picked up the Buell to be a little more compatible with her ride

The bike looks all stock. Things I noticed on the test ride and the ride home: Throttle is sticky, can let go it doesn't return, and front brake feels soft. Today I will take it apart and clean everything and take stock of what has/hasn't been done, like air filter box, crank breathers, etc.

I'm looking for the factory saddlebags and a tank bag if anyone knows where I can find some!

Thanks for all the help you didn't know you gave me before I purchased the bike and officially joined the group here!

--Tony

Also you may want to inspect the cable for fraying. I've found that quite a few of Buell that I've owned have had some fraying for the cables.

 

[Cooter]

Even Erik Buell has moved on.

That makes me sad:sorrow:

Some places don't want to dyno a ten year old bike not knowing its maintenance history. Make $100 risking $5000? NO thanks.

You won't need any dyno tuning for a simple mod like a muffler. That mod has been overdone so many times, there plenty of tunes done already, available for free even
IDSpd.com for a plug and play Buell ECM, Buelltooth.com for DIY.

 

[Danthehitman]

Good point, about the liability vs profit proposition!...though, I'm guessing any dyno project begins with the owner signing the motorcycle's life away with plenty of fine print which I would never read.

I have read through the Buelltooth site, very interesting stuff and I've also read that the Drummer exhaust (original Drummer) does just fine with OEM ECM mapping. I think I'll be plenty happy with an extra 8-9 horses and a few less pounds to boot.

One thing you warmer weather Buellers won't experience is how fun these guys are in COLD weather! The cold air-fuel mixture shot is nature's nitrous! These old V-twins seem to enjoy the cold...much more than my hands do

 

[34nineteen]

One thing you warmer weather Buellers won't experience is how fun these guys are in COLD weather! The cold air-fuel mixture shot is nature's nitrous! These old V-twins seem to enjoy the cold...much more than my hands do

I've always wondered about that. Living in Phoenix, I've wondered how much design was done based on Milwaukee temps. My Buells always seemed to feel like they were suffering through the summers out here.

 

[rb70383]

I have noticed that as well. Been tuning my WUE and on the ride to work around 10 miles, the bike isn't fully warmed up. WUE is still at 101% Most of my tweaking is only in that table and the cold performance....:eagerness:
I live in Az as well and the 'Bolt loves the cold more..

 

[wildrider49]

Thanks for the info everyone! I'm sorry for the late reply, I guess thread starters are not automatically subscribed to the thread so I took care of that this morning.

Sticky throttle turned out to be the little plastic bar-end plug. I pulled the cables loose at each end and they moved fine, the throttle valve closed nicely, etc. So I cleaned the inside of the throttle tube, cleaned the bar, put a light coat of PTFE on it and reinstalled and it was still sticking. I popped the plastic plug and it was happy. Now I need to find something to replace it with that won't hang the throttle. Maybe the grips are just too long, they extend about 1/4" past the end of the tube.

While I was at it, I did the breather hose reroute and took a toothbrush and carb cleaner and cleaned the inside of the throttle body best as I could. I set the suspension up according to the book, re-stapled the seat cover that was coming loose, then took it for a ride. It was 38 degrees here so didn't go far lol.

I ordered the Buelltooth XB-XG slipon exhaust yesterday. I added on the bluetooth module and the bracket to keep my chin guard. I also ordered a K&N air filter as well. My air box has the 4 holes on the right side. Is that enough or should I add some more with a hole saw?

--Tony

 

[Cooter]

Looks like you have some fun parts coming

The airbox is functionally fine, IMO. I just convert them to open. I like the look.

 

[wildrider49]

Ok, got lots accomplished this week! First, I did the breather bypass and cleaned up the throttle body best I could with an old toothbrush and some carb cleaner. Then I installed the XB-SG Exhaust from BuellTooth, a K&N Air Filter, race tune on the ECM using the BuellTooth adapter, restapled the seat cover that was coming apart, and spent I don't know how much time trying to make my white wheels white again. They were so bad, I ended up using a ScottBrite pad with "Bar Keeper's Friend" to scrub the years of neglect off of them. I need to put a couple coats of wax on them to help protect them. As soon as my tool come in for removing the wheels, I'll get that done.

On my first ride with the tune/exhaust/air filter yesterday, I noticed that the idle didn't drop back as fast as before. Is that normal? It drops to 2k and then slowly drops back to 1,100.