A big thanks to Pete at Wellington Motorcycles for considering me trustworthy enough to handle several thousands of dollars worth of the latest and greatest this weekend. I thought, in the best traditions of KB a little review might be in order, but be warned, this is NOT written from an experienced roadtesters point of view. I may have ridden a few bikes over a lot of years and done a shit load of miles but it’s mostly been on older stuff and while I have punted a few things about on trackdays – I’m no knee down warrior…. And I have no desire to be one.
So where to start…. The Buell XB12SS…. Oh gawd…. Seriously, where DO you start to describe this ‘thing’. Well if I was a magazine roadtester I’d research what everyone else said and bang on about rake angles, damping rates, tyre width, turn in rates, torque, and all sorts weird and wonderful technical stuff that we all think we kinda understand and that all creditable bikers MUST understand but then that’s totally missing the point of the Buell. Frankly, I really don’t think it cares what you think, it’s gunna do what it likes to do and that’s have fun!
It does sort of pay loose attention to the riders input and sometimes it behaves but mostly it chortles away to itself like some kinda mad street person, and that not a bad analogy. I was going to an early meeting last week, beautiful sunny morning and saw a guy sitting out in the sun having a beer in Cuba Mall. Apart from wondering where he got a beer at 9am I was kinda outraged in my taxpayer corporate world but hang on, beer is good, sun is good and really he didn’t give a blow what I thought, he was well into his beer buzz and living for the now…. He’d ride a Buell (if he could stand that is) I reckon – or at least would understand it.
When Pete suggested it I was not sure what to expect, when he started it up in the showroom and kindly gassed it up for me and suddenly it had my full attention – fark – what a racket… First impression was it does not idle well. Oh it won’t stall or anything but it sort of grumbles and chuffles away like your mad uncle, the one that took too many steroids in the 80’s body building craze and you know that something unusual is going on down there and it’s best not to ask what. People in cars at the lights look the other way and really try not to meet your gaze. It’s quite intimidating – and that’s just the idle -
OK – 1st gear and away from the shop without falling off – it’s quite tall in the very comfortable saddle and really quite predictable. Hmmm, I actually like this and it feels a lot like a ‘classic’ bike rather than a big Japanese UJM. Like in a roadtest from the 50’s, this tester noted that all the controls fell readily to hand and all were easily operated with gloved hands. Top marks there. The steep slippery ramp to the basement carpark is easily negotiated and in fact it’s all too easy – there has to be something it’s not telling me surely?
Soon enough it’s time to ask some more ‘searching’ questions and time to take the long way home over the Paekakareki Hill road… First we have to get out of the basement, strangers are asking wtf is THAT and everyone smiles as the monster chortles into life, dust falls from the ceiling and the Audis alarm goes off (It was scared I think) and again, thanks to an easy riding position a total amateur gets it out of the basement simply. Now we have to deal with 50km of Friday night traffic and motorway hell before we can find the twisty bits but amazingly, it’s a pleasure to ride in traffic, why? Because traffic parts in front of it as it muscles its way down the motorway. It scared me to death at the bottom of the Naronga Gorge when the hot weather made the fan kick in – trust me, if you can hear the fan over that exhaust, it’s significant.
Because it was still pretty new I didn’t worry about revving it to the redline and stuff and because it still rev’s harder than my old triumph I found short shifting and rolling along on the torque was an easy way to pile on speed. Speaking of which the gear shift was ‘positive’ – ie it was like dropping a brick into a bucket, you knew when it was in, but it always went in and I liked it. No mistakes!
OK – we leave the motorway behind and pile into the first tight bend, WHOA…. What’s this?? It feels, um, odd? Unique?? Dunno, a sort of odd pitching and a little weave, nothing to get worried about but it does not handle like anything I’ve ridden, in fact it was a bit scary but decide to have faith in the bike so we press on and after experimenting a little with weight distribution and technique it starts to come together a bit better. This bike does not carve up corners like a sports bike, it does not back in like a motard or sweep in arc’s like my Moto Guzzi. It sort of invades the corners, steals all their women, rapes the chickens and burns down the barn and then high tails it outta there leaving the corner slightly dazed, scorched and wondering what the heck happened! I found it just needed a firm hand and positive management to get the best out of it but rather than detracting from the ride, it enhanced it. It demanded your attention and if you engaged with it on its terms and trusted in the designer, life was good.
Having said that, the bike would definitely require a bit of suspension tweaking to get the best out of it but that’s true with any bike straight from the crate – you have to set it up for yourself. Certainly with Vicki as pillion it felt a lot better planted but I’ll let wiser souls worry about it, it’s time for more FUN!
A few bends up the road I was just piling into bends and pounding out of them ignoring the gear shift and changing when I felt like it – hilarious. The brakes were pretty awesome although I’m sure I could detect a jink if giving the front a tap. Under harder braking it was predicable and strong.
Now Vicki has a regular get together with ‘the ladies’. Tonight’s little hoolie was at a very very nice house in a very nice street. The sort of street that’s more accustomed to the thrum of polished SUV’s and the burble of new V8 Commodores than the psycho crob snuffle phrapp fart from a manic Buell… The man of the house has been considering a HD so Vicki invited him out to check out the beast and all the ladies and assorted men folk came too clutching glasses of Chardonnay (as if that was gunna save then). They think Vicki is quite daring riding with an idiot like me so we ended up with quite a crowd and 2 poodles (one got sucked into the fan intake) ogling the snorting Buell Monster. Even they could tell it was something ‘special’ and they were all a bit intimidated by it and I could tell they were just waiting for me to make a tit of myself.
The Vickster suited up and climbed on…. Now she HAD been drinking and when I asked if she wanted to leave in style I’m sure she said yes so away we went… Oh dear… People will be talking about it for weeks and one of the ladies later asked Vicki if Paul had warned you he was going to ‘do that’…. Without batting an eyelid Vicki replied that she was not sure even Paul knew he was going to do that but lets just say, in that street, all the women want to be with me and all the men want to be me and I won’t be invited back for a few weeks… What a beast, the ultimate urban terror vehicle…. It was all so ‘easy’…. Easy as loosing your license in three lamp post lengths.
In conclusion - In a world where all bikes seem to get benchmarked against each other and thus become clones of a theoretical ideal, it's refreshing to see a product that ignores the opposition and forges a new path to fun land. I honestly believe only the yanks could have built this thing and bloody good on em. They probably started with a team meeting and wrote up all the modern virtues of japanes sports bikes and then said - nah! We don't want any of that stuff and they just started having a laugh with an old sportster enging and some tube - it's got more character than a russian novel, less focus than the Hubble telescope and more fun than a weekend with a nymphomaniac alcoholic singer in a rock band - you know you are going to end up in jail by monday morning but it's so worth it.....
And that’s the bottom line – the Buell was easy, comfortable and FUN. More fun than I can remember ever having on a bike that I’d never ridden before. I always felt in control of everything except my smile and the speed limit, what a hoot. The pillion was waaaaayyyy better than it looked and if you lived in a city, you prefer an SS Holden to a BMW and jeans to an Armani suit, your partner wants to come for rides and could only have one bike, this might be the bike for you. 100% grin machine. Go see Pete and book a test ride – tell him the terror of Paraparaumu sent you….
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by skelstar
yank tank at Glenorchy 2006 rally
Bookmarks