How long do buells last

While I feel blessed to start motorcycling, and find out about Buell Motorcycles in time to get one. I'm convinced people were playing dirty. Using the Buell division in both corporate and personal shell games.

I also believe somebody or somebodies were paid off to tank the company. With the Billions being wasted in the public and private sector, Buell getting shut down is criminal in my book.

Erik is a modern Tucker. However all of it has bought about freedom for Erik. He is now able to pursue his dreams with out such a huge weight on his neck. Ads by Motorcycle. Posted on Friday, January 14, - am:. Get right down to it, each of us has a different way to get from here to there: walk, ride a bicycle, take a bus, hitchhike, even — choke, gasp — drive a car, as a last resort, if all else fails.

We ride. Not any motorcycle. We who have been riding for a while and who have sampled a few different motorcycles come down to this: which should it be? Then: what should our next one be? Last: can we afford it? In short, Erik Buell gets it. He has given us special gifts with his machines. And they are there, economically, for the taking. Machines with character, class and style, machines that we would live for and live with and love.

Machines with soul. Erik Buell lives in the pantheon of the great, original designers. Every time I ride a Buell, I sense that soul-moving effect. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Despite improvements made during the XB series, the bikes are IMO still much more problematic than other makes. And everything you like about your Streetie will cause you to get bored with the Buell pretty fast.

They are better in most ways to the older versions. Buy an CR and raise the handle bars. Hands down. Before you buy a Buell, ride a Honda Superhawk. More bang for the buck and a better level of finish.

I wish I had never sold my XB9S! This comment is for all those who always have problem prone motorcycles.. Later that same year during the heart of the winter, the temp was in the teens with snow on the ground and he asked me to listen to a sound his bike was making. So out in his garage, starting his stone cold Honda..

I like your comment… reminds me of certain people I know that always have problems with their machines too. If times got tough and I was forced to sell my bikes the XB9R would be the last to go.

It stops well enough to put me over the bars and probably saved me from serious injury. It also trail brakes into corners very nicely. Having owned a steel-framed Buell for seveal years, I would agree that they are great all-around machines.

Not so much a sportbike as a sporty standard. You will regret giving up the Triumph. I own an 09 Ulysses. Bought it right after the shut down.

I enjoy wrenching on my own bike so its not a big deal for me. Have just done fluid changes and replaced the belt for piece of mind and to use the old one for a spare. Have put trouble free miles on it. I have a Uly that I love. But it eats voltage regulators like popcorn. Gets more garage time than street time. You just reminded me what I love about my Kawi ZS. Without mods it gets 47mpg measured , has a 4. I admit that part of the reason is the front-end conversion the bike has now.

The problems with the Buells are understood issues and most have them at the same mileage. The bike allows its owner to be the mechanic with a good manual. This is not to say that I have not been left on the side of the road a time or two, this just adds to the adventure of owning an American product. Once the motorcycles are outfitted with a custom ECM, pipe and intake they perform much sportier than new.

I was not impressed with their performance when I rode them at a demo event. The bikes really shine when taken to the twistiest roads you can find and hammer down thru the turns. The response and sound of the machines just puts a smile on your face. I look forward to what Erik Buell Racing produces and how much better it will be than anything else he has created!

If we can ever be of service again, feel free to call anytime. East Coast UHaul Association. From May to October I put 54, miles on my 05 Firebolt. In those miles I rode up to Oregon from Los Angeles and also did about 10 track days during that time. I would not call the XBs reliable machines. I never made it a year without my Buell stranding me at least once on the side of the road. I went through a stator, voltage regulator, a melted VR connector common problems on Buells , supposedly a battery, fuel pump, these were all during the first 2 years under warranty.

Intake seals leak, TPS goes out of adjustment, engine isolators are a pain to replace, oil leaks, exhaust valve cables snapping, muffler straps break, sensors go bad because of the vibration. Not having the tooling and financial components to do modern twin-spar aluminum frames, the Buell models prior to the introduction of the XB series in , used modern steel frames similar to Ducati, but they were heavier than Twin-Spare Aluminum. They managed to remove over 40lbs while slightly increasing power.

The Frame Assembly was also the fuel tank, and the dry sump oil tank was eliminated and the engine oil was now stored in the swingarm.

Despite having modern H. The bikes were about speed and handling and the looks suffered a little in the way that the early GSXR was kind of unattractive. Due to customer feedback, Buell came out with the Cafe Racer in , a full two years after the R. The streetfighter version that would have been produced as phase 3 was never produced because Harley Davidson wanted out of the deal and divested the brand shortly after the CR was produced.

The CR does differ from the R as the swingarm and gear ratios are different. These bikes practically drove themselves, and other than having a 5-speed transmission, they were as easy to drive as a scooter. For years H-D offered their operator training and license certification programs using these bikes. The bike was well-received and despite being an adaption of a road racing model was equally capable as anything Japan or Germany sold in the niche at the time.

His decision of getting rid of a brand that was exploding in growth will go down in history as one of the biggest blunders in corporate America. According to the website for the current Erik Buell Racing, which is the reborn competition cycle company, Buell Motorcycles sold over 90, units of the XB series just for The introduction of the modern series started slow, but they picked up speed.

The company did shut down and not produce bikes at all for a couple of years as they were forced into bankruptcy by not being allowed to sell the minority shares to a competitor. Always trying to gain an edge in performance, Buell claimed they had tried multiple configurations with regards to front braking when designing the XB series.

They had tried single and twin-rotor designs with different caliper set-ups and materials. What they found offered the best handling and braking was a brake rotor mounted to the outside of the wheel hub. MInes just about at 25k. I would think with good maintenance this thing will run a long time.

Just see one up for sale that was an 03 Xb9s with 43, mi and still running strong! Ive seen a Uly with 85K. Its all in how you take care of it. Me, I cant wait to mine goes.

Big bore kit and head work. I read that the xb12r is a stroked xb9, also read way back the stroked motors don't last as long as ones that are not stroked. But would have a hard time believing anything coming from a HD rep. They SUCK!!!