What's your take on the Buell XB9s and XB12s

[Ocean1]

Can anyone confirm the maintenance intervals and likely costs? I suspect most maintenance to be straight forward and accomplished easily by a competent? [by contrast shim adjustment on the GSXR is a pain in the arse!]

See attached. Once you're through the initial services it's really just oil and filter changes. That service schedule is for an '04/'05 btw, for later ones the belt is suposedly "for life". Having said that I broke one a couple of months ago, but it was due to damage from stones getting trapped under it... Guess down the track a bit there'd be the odd cable or bulb.

Expected longevity of powerplant? Travelling over 30K a year I expect to be able to get 120K before rebuild, is this possible? has anyone onsite accomplished these sort of K's.

Have to get that from someone else, mine's only on 15k.

[Big Dave]

Expected longevity of powerplant? Travelling over 30K a year I expect to be able to get 120K before rebuild, is this possible? has anyone onsite accomplished these sort of K's.

The compressor motor is simple, cheap and easy to service. Every 8,000km and around $350. There is nada to do on the bike inbetween except check the oil - and even that is easy compared to some of the sight glass balancing and contortion acts.

Kilometerage 'expectations' are unreasonable - depends on how they are ridden and serviced.

Parts availability when I have broken stuff hasn't been very good. But tell me that's Crusoe, R.

[boman]

Seriously considering buying one as well. Has anyone been a pillion on either one, xb12s or xb9s, if so how confortable was the seat. Did you do any distanceetc.

Thanks in advance for your input.

[Badcat]

Seriously considering buying one as well. Has anyone been a pillion on either one, xb12s or xb9s, if so how confortable was the seat. Did you do any distanceetc.

Thanks in advance for your input.

if you want two - up comfort, the xb12x ulysses is so much better than any other buell - it's worth a look. it's a tall bastard though - if you're under 6 foot - you may be on tippy-toes...
ken

[Max Headroom]

We bought an 2004 XB12S for my wife two years ago s/h with 8k on the clock. It's now done 14k and apart from a belt that caught a stone and started to tear it's been faultless. My wife has low tolerance toward unreliable mechanical devices, so the Buell would be long gone if it had given trouble.

It has the race pipe/ecu/air filter kit, so it runs like a haunted sh!thouse at idle, and is generally a bit grumpy around town especially with the heavy clutch and tall 1st gear. My wife doesn't mind it though, and seems quite willing to forgive it in exchange for the grins she gets out of it on the back roads where we live.

It fell over in a car park a while ago and broke the r/h mirror, handbrake lever, front indicator and r/h footpeg. I was very pleasantly surprised at how cheap those bits were.

As the yanks would say though, "your mileage may vary"....

[Rashika]

hey Max... welcome to KB! And get your wife online so she can spout about the buell as well

A tip for the clutch? Try these guys and this clutch
http://www.americansportbike.com/sho...how/A9154.html

they have lots of Buell stuff, several of us have bought the clutch and as long as you DONT do what AJ Turbo did *snigger* they work a treat! Buellbabe has bought a shitload of stuff of them as well, they are good to buy from and pretty quick to get stuff here. And the exchange rate makes it a nice price too.
The hydraulic clutch saves the clutch hand a thousand fold, believe me. Easy to put on, if Dangerous and I can do it, anyone can!

[Max Headroom]

Hi Rashika

I saw AJ's thread about the hose incident! I'll float the idea about the clutch and see what she says. She might be interested in jumping on line too.

We looked at the Bad Weather Bikers site and found some interesting stuff, but like a lot of the 'merican sites we've explored those guys get tangled up in stuff that's a little irrelevant down under, along with perspectives that are often a strain to relate to.

[Rashika]

yeah, ...trust AJ!
Been on bad weather myself but not for a long while, just too much to keep up with there. Yep gota get the mrs on here, even just to say 'hi'. Always good to meet up with another Buell babe!
Managed to follow a chick on another Firebolt most of the way from Davouchelles (sp?) to Akaroa yesterday, bloody cool!

[98tls]

hey Max... welcome to KB! believe me. Easy to put on, if Dangerous and I can do it, anyone can!

Must be

[buellbabe]

Hey Max...yr wife sounds like she is a Buelligan for sure!

As for the clutch thing... tempted to tell these pansies with their wussy hydraulic clutches to HTFU LOL...(kidding!) the clutch on the X1 is waaaaaaay heavier than the standard XB and altho I am just a girly-girl I don't have any issues.
I would rather be used to and comfortable with a heavy clutch than a light one cos I sometimes ride other bikes and ya never know what you're gonna get!

[jrandom]

I rode an XB12R a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of AMPS. Did the usual northwest loop on it.

I didn't really think it worthwhile to write it up, but since this thread's currently active, I'll make my comments.

I didn't really like it. The drawbacks I noticed were:

- Paint-mixer at idle. I guess that just comes with the territory, love it or loathe it. It doesn't really bother me.

- I kept blipping down a gear into corners and using the engine braking, then trying to accelerate out and hitting the limiter before I could stand the bike up. I guess that's just a matter of riding habits needing to be learned anew.

- The ditch-pump engine is kinda cool, but it's no sportbike motor. It doesn't seem to rev cleanly. I had trouble figuring out where I was in the rev range by ear, like I normally do. Had to keep looking down at the dial, and thinking "ah, bugger, I better shift up now". Heck, my GSX1400's revs rise and fall much faster when blipping the throttle in neutral than the XB12R's did.

- The sharp geometry gave me the shits. I somehow got the impression that the bike's setup and suspension had been given rather little attention, and the designers had chopped it very short and raked everything very hard and upright without really thinking about anything beyond a quick turn-in. It didn't feel stable. I got the impression that riding an XB12R on a racetrack would be a total crashfest as one looked for the handling limits. Turning in hard under the front brake seemed nigh on impossible; the bike wanted to tuck under straight away. Throttling on hard while cranked over, likewise, caused the back wheel to do all sorts of odd skittery things.

Sometimes, I think good handling requires stability as well as twitchiness. The XB12R is absolutely not a bike that encouraged me to push it on the brakes into corners or get on the gas early coming out of them. Maybe that'd come with time and practice, but I can't help thinking that a better-designed bike would allow sufficiently-fast turning while still giving the rider confidence in its stability under heavy braking and acceleration. I felt that if I tried to go fast, I'd crash in one turn out of every twenty.

Perhaps it's just the effect of coming off a whale like a GSX1400, but I haven't had the same impression getting of it on the road and swapping onto an '07 R1 or a K7 GSX-R750, for instance, both of which are fairly sharp-handling bikes.

On the whole, the XB12R seemed as though it incorporated a few good ideas, but wasn't quite 'right'.

I mean, don't get me wrong. It was still fun once I started pushing it a wee bit, but I do suspect that the naked Buells are better. An upright position would allow much better control of the bike.

I'll have to have a go on one soon.

Edit: But it's still the XR1200 that keeps appearing in my wet dreams. Roll on September!

[buellbabe]

I rode an XB12R a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of AMPS. Did the usual northwest loop on it.

... I guess that's just a matter of riding habits needing to be learned anew.


Perhaps it's just the effect of coming off a whale like a GSX1400...

gee...ya think?

Talk about 2 completely different bikes...

Honestly, if you expect a sportbike ride then don't go for a Buell cos you will find it too rough and raucous... and very twitchy!

Really good post mate but to be honest I pretty much have the opposite to say in every respect. When I first rode an XB12R after years and lotsa kms on the X1 the ONLY thing I had issue with was the front fairing not turning with the handlebars! Totally freaked me out cos I was so used to the opposite happening! It really threw me at slow speeds and I was a shocking wobbler into parking areas until I got my head around it!

BTW if you are hitting the rev limiter when powering out of corners thats the bikes not so subtle way of telling ya that you didn't need to chop down a gear for that corner... these things have got torque for Africa and you gotta be going real slow to actually lug the engine. Plus the fact that the gear changes would be most likely be at different revs than what you were previously used to. Change at the wrong time and the back end will wanna come round and say gidday to you!
And I am speaking from experience here, learnt that lesson when I was getting to know my X1...oops! ha ha ha

Buells are a unique ride and they don't claim to be sportbikes (the 1125R being an exception maybe), they are streetfighters. And in my opinion (probably said this before...) just about the most fun you can have with your clothes on!

Not biased at all...really! he he he

[jrandom]

Honestly, if you expect a sportbike ride then don't go for a Buell...

Buell do market the 'R' models as sportbikes, you know.

I agree with you on the fact that they're not, really. I think the 'R's are a bit of a design misconception. Upright with flat bars, the bike I rode would have worked a lot better. Like I said, I'm looking forward to trying an 'S'.

Buells are a unique ride and they don't claim to be sportbikes...

What Japanese motorcycles from the last decade or so have you ridden that you're comparing them to?

Not biased at all...really! he he he

Heh.

Buells are definitely cool. I'll grant them that. I probably shouldn't have bothered taking the 'R' out. Should have gone straight for an 'S' or a Ulysses instead; those are the ones that everyone seems to have fun on.

[Max Headroom]

As for the clutch thing... tempted to tell these pansies with their wussy hydraulic clutches to HTFU LOL...(kidding!) the clutch on the X1 is waaaaaaay heavier than the standard XB and altho I am just a girly-girl I don't have any issues.
I would rather be used to and comfortable with a heavy clutch than a light one cos I sometimes ride other bikes and ya never know what you're gonna get!

Hi BB

know what you mean about the tubers having heavy clutches... before my wife test-rode the XB12S we sent her out on an M2. Wow, THAT had a heavy clutch. She really liked it, and may have taken it home except that the testride on the XB kinda corrupted things. The M2 did everything the XB could do, but she preferred the XB package overall.

She's spent enough time around '70s BMW twins and a 1200 Sportster (now THERE'S an oxymoron) to understand torque, before she switched to the Buell.

JRANDOM's comments about the handling are intriguing. All the ride reports I've read about the XB12R and the XB12S rave about the handling. Makes me wonder if the tyres on the bike he rode were worn, or the tyre pressures were down. My wife's bike is one of the most predictable I've ridden, and it's very stable at high speed (on private roads under strict supervision etc etc).

[buellbabe]

Oh I know I shouldn't bite but I just can't help myself

Buell do market the 'R' models as sportbikes, you know.

Do they? Have never looked at buying one new so don't pay much attention to marketing hype. But they definately aren't eh?!

What Japanese motorcycles from the last decade or so have you ridden that you're comparing them to?

.

Er...excuse me? all I said was that it was a very different ride to what you were used to, doesn't take a rocket scientist to spot that! LOL...it just seemed to me that you had the wrong expectations. I commented that they are not a sportbike ride ... When Buells first hit the international scene they were marketed as Streetfighters. Maybe they called the R a sportbike to try and lure a new market of riders, not such a good move in my opinion as thats where misconceptions can arise...

I have never made any secret about where my loyalties lie. I don't do Jappas. That doesn't mean I don't have alot of respect for them and even drool over the occasional model but I will never own one. I am not dissing them. I respect peoples choices. Jap just ain't for me, but I would be happy to have a Speed Triple in the shed tho...and thats a totally different ride to the Buell too!

I am not trying to argue with you, I am merely saying that my experience of riding an XB12R was completely different. I nearly traded the X1... THATS how much I loved it!