There was an element to the Buell that I should have included, because it may influence your thinking. Ive ridden with the owner of the XB9R a lot; hes the person who got me into motorcycling in the first place. Im riding either a 748 or CBR 929. The Buell has instant, effortless, power from a standing start and off of low speed corners. On the 748, he leaves me for dead and theres no way to prevent it. Even on the 929, I have to abuse the clutch to stay with him from a standing start. He has a ball with it.
I can answer one of those questions right now. 2000 900SS, just dropped it off for the 24,000 mile service. Bought it new in '01 and the only problem I've had (if you can even call it that) is that about 2000 miles ago it developed a small oil leak around the slave cylinder side of the clutch pushrod. I bought new o-rings for the pushrod from a dealer for about 3 bucks and replaced them myself. That said, the clutch slave cylinders are notorious for leaking. Mine hasn't, maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe they've actually addressed the problem. Aftermarket replacements are readily available and run about 120 bucks. As for maintenance costs, they're not cheap. I've used two dealers now, and the 6000 mile services are around 350 to 400 while the 12,000 mile services are closer to 5 or 6 hundred. The 12K is higher because of cam belt changes (40-60 bucks a pop), fork oil replacement, and a few other items that aren't part of the 6K. I bought an entire set of fairings for track days off ebay (in varying conditions, some were perfect) including a tank and probably spent 600 bucks total. I absolutely love this bike and have been nothing but pleased with how well it's performed and lasted over the years.
Great read! Now how bout borrowing a Guzzi Le Mans and reporting on that? No one around here owns one and Im dying to get a real world perspective. Any Guzzi owners who care to comment?
They both turn so light they make a CBR600RR feel like a truck
Just so you know, we have 2 XB9R's with race kit, 1 XB12R stock, and 1 XB12S with race kit and a new CBR600RR here at work.
The CBR600RR feels like a truck in comparision to the XB12R. One of our riders said he felt like the CBR must have had flat front tire and got off to check after being on the XB12R.
"As opposed to what? The excellent management practices in Italy?" No I was thinking Japan. In a poll of a workers of a U.S. plant of a larget aerospace concern under possible sale, most would prefer that their plant be sold to a Japanese company. In fact many of those workers who had worked for a Japanese company before coming to this U.S. company, said Japanese management techniques were superior, less confrontational, and had good long-term vision. The average Japanese executive/manager gets paid a fraction of his U.S. counterpart but is 4 times more productive.
With the well written review of the Buell, I'd take another snapshot review by your hand. So anytime you get to spend some saddle time on any new, or unique bike, send a story on in to MO. If its half as good as this one, they'll probably publish it (and if you didn't lie to us, this was done at 3:00 am with no sleep, not to shabby either).
These bikes are extremely well integrated and extremely well designed. If you haven't ridden one, you may be basing your opinon on old information from the tube frame era. There you wou
Its not a work utopia in Japan. Ive spent quite a bit of time there, and have colleagues who have worked there for a number of years. They waste time and money due to some poor human resource management, and while they certainly do value harmony, it can be very difficult to get important issues in front of the right audience and get a decision made. Its a case of ying-yang. They have weaknesses where we have strengths and vice-versa.
If they were universally good, the Suzuki twins would have left Ducati for dead. In reality, the outcome was pretty dismal, and you certainly cant chalk it up to a lack of engineering or manufacturing capability. People are people, and its all tougher than it looks.
fantastic. now it all makes sense. i shoulda known
the tech guys at wmrra are almost all microsurfs. now i know why they sometimes say "that's kinda kludged together ain't it?" i just kick the ground and say, i'm no engineer. instead of telling the truth and saying i'm too lazy and stupid to do it right. ;-).
i appreciate your effort and having ridden the bike agree with your analysis. also, nice job of communicating your thoughts.
i wonder if a buell would be better with a different mill.
sometimes improvements don't improve anything.
you can correctly observe that they wouldn't then be improvements.
i think i can boil my impression of the buell down to this. i like twins. on the street they are more fun to ride because they have zip where you need it. on the track they are just easier. i can lose count of what gear i'm in and not always lose my spot. the only exception was the tl1000. shiver.
so i don't think the buell is "the answer" but it's pretty good. and no doubt it's fun to ride.
how did this become a forum about buell's anyway? i blame john burns.
41 - 60 of 128 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
A forum community dedicated to all motorcycle owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, reviews, modifications, classifieds, maintenance, and more!