• You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will see less advertisements, have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Siren's Song

Buellxb Forum

Help Support Buellxb Forum:

P

papas

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 28, 2008
Messages
53
I can see the topless babes sitting on the rocks, singing a song, calling me in.......

That's Lady Buell.......

The sexiest one of the bunch, but VERY HIGH maintenance! and ready to gobble you up!

We just put our pair of 07's up for sale. Too much work for the pleasure. The pleasure is definitely there when they are "on" but the opportunity to break down and strand you whenever/ wherever she see fit.... SUCKS! Life's too short to ride a bike that is a time bomb waiting to pop. Bearings, belts, stators, voltage regulators, crap alot of shit goes wrong with these things.

As we move forward we're thinking..... OUCH.... yeah I KNOW......W-T-F Japanese.

steve
 
steve: aren't you the guy who took a 2 week trip this summer with your wife on matching lightnings? you? not you? if so sounds like you had a problematic trip. in all honesty i garage, pamper, fawn over and gently ride all 4 of my Buells and in over 40,000 miles to date have never had a reliabiltiy or break-down issue with the lot of 'em.
 
Xb's are low maintenance dependable bikes when taken care of. I rode the piss out of my 03 xb for 8k miles at regular service intervals with no problems, sold it and have since done the same with my 1125r. More than I can say for a few other bikes ive had. If you want a bike that will last the rest of your life so you can put around on the weekends, buy a Honda. But you will never get the character of the Buell from any other bike. There's just very few bikes, if any, that offer anything even remotely similar to what the Buell does. If you do end up selling the bikes I wish you and your wife luck in your future motorcycle endeavours. If not the forum members would be more than happy to assist you in resolving your bikes' issues.

Thus is my response. Assuming I read your post correctly [confused]
 
Is that what the OP meant?

I disagree wholeheartedly, not only are the XB's VERY dependable, they are simple to work on and inexpensive to fix. Remember people still buy Ducatis!!!
And if you are going to the Harley Dealer for repair, then you should go buy a Honda because you obviously don't "get it".
 
Cya




lrg2.gif
 
Keeping them "ON" can be a chore I guess but I have not experienced that yet. Best bang for the buck I've ever spent, no regrets yet.
 
I get it. I have 2 Sportsters (on the west coast) and had 2 Buells on the east coast. I realize that they're low maintenance, compared with others, and you can easily work on 'em (long as you have time/energy). BUT that said what bugged me was all of the things that can and do go out on you and strand you. Comparatively speaking the HD's have yet to 'break" with 30K and 20K on a 06 and 07. What kills me on the Buell is the drive belt, wheel and head bearings going south at 10-15K. Mufflers rusting out, ECM issues, leaking gaskets, WTF you shouldn't have to "worry" about that crap till +30K IMO...... They're both 07's as well so pretty sure the crank bearing's blow soon after 20K. Makes you think......

yes we're the couple. our trip was less than FUN. we have limited time to ride when we are in the east and if you have to spend all that time working/ maintaining them it ain't fun.

I realize they're one of the coolest bike to own and ride. Throaty, torquey, twitchy and FUN. I know anything Japanese is...... not as well received by many as cool, BUT pretty frickin' dependable. It's pretty bittersweet, let me tell ya.

steve
 
'03 9s, I'm the third owner, bought it with 2500 miles, in the 7+ yrs she now has over 64k running the original factory belt, major repair done to date was replacing the shift forks, the minor repairs: cooling fan, idler pulley, IAT sensor, almost severed a wire in the wire harness bundle by the screw on the clamp holding the battery cables which was too long, clutch cable replaced, normal maintenance items as they came up and she still runs strong...reliability, never a question...wouldn't have kept her if there was
 
XB's are "high strung" motors for their heritage.. I thrashed the belts as hard as I could on both my 04 12R and my 079SX... no problems, original belts on both of them.... shit like wheel bearings just go out on any bike sport bike youre ever gonna ride with the performance numbers we got. That's regular maintenance. Same with stators and regulators. Stock exhausts are supposed to be long gone, I don't know many guys that even run that stocker.. and aftermarket exhausts on sportbikes were never intended to last anyway.

Most of the time when I hear of belts breaking, gross weight and hard riding is usually involved. Are you guys overloading those things?
Another thing is that when youre doing tire changes, you CANT twist that belt, it can crack the fibers in there.
What about the teeth on the pulleys? Are they damaged?

on those wheel bearings, they got aftermarket bearings that are way better than the stock ones.. they don't cost much either..

Not to sound like a dick but what youre complaining about is regular sport bike issues.. cruisers like Harleys are not running under the same stress levels.. so they don't have problems like these at the same intervals.
 
The OP is worried of what MIGHT happen if he doesn't maintain his bikes with inexpensive bearings, for 20-30K?? and not have a spare belt when you drive it cross country???
Sorry for your trouble Papas, I don't think I'd blame the motorcycle, any motorcycle.
"Maintenance" is way more than just 3 quarts of oil when you have the "time/energy".
 
especially a high performance air-cooled V-twin ..as hard as they are running, they actually want to tear themselves up... were lucky the XB lasts as long as they do..
 
Papas has a point. My 09 Ss is on a battery tender, my 03 Concours is not because I know it will start. I really do not like Jap bikes or cars but they are reliable and affordable.
 
This is not something that needs to be argued about. If you want a different motorcycle and have the means, get it. If you want to dump the buell, dump it. No offense created, none taken.

Edit: And for the record, I think a Honda Grom would be fun as hell to ride.
 

Similar threads

B
2008 Buell 1125R - First Ride
Replies
0
Views
6K
Buellman
B

Latest posts

Back
Top