| Author | Message | ||
     M1combat |
I've had my 12R off the ground a good dozen times. Probably about 1-1.5' elevation and about 6-8' distance. Take off is generally about 60-70MPH. Landing is on tarmac. It's handled just fine every time and so far only one broken belt. That belt had already survived 4K miles with a pretty gnarley hole in it, so I don't really blame the belt. I also landed with about 1500RPM more than I should have... The tire bit into the pavement real well due to the force of landing and the belt went kaput. It survived a few jumps with the hole before that one. I'm pretty sure it was the excess RPM that killed it, and I've heard the new belt would have almost certainly held up just fine. I've noticed that the rubber in the front isolator MIGHT be shifting a little but I've also heard that they vulcanized (or attached in SOME way anyway) the rubber to the isolator better so that doesn't happen with the Ulysses. | ||
| Glitch |
Some thought the XB was tough enough to fit pink fur on it and run it in dirt races. Does this help answer some questions?   | ||
| Glitch |
More pics here. | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
I'd like to get 'er up there high enough to do a knack knack... classic.  | ||
| Newfie_buell |
I ran the S1 off a ramp the kids built one time and it really didn't like it, the ramp was about 18" high. I ran it on the DR650 and it was much better. I'd still like to see the Busa do it. Excellent!!!!! | ||
| Daves |
if you go to http://www.teamxmx.com/video/grantstreetfmxstuntwars.mpg Grant jumps a sportbike | ||
| Peter |
Paul, I'm happy to hear that you're still nuts....  Pete2 Dakar | ||
| Daves |
Snail, Then you'd feel right at home in Wisconsin. We could even ride over to the lake so you wouldn't miss the water too much. | ||
| Paulinoz |
Busa Jumping in the back yard, Mate you need to lay off those Elk Burgers or maybe you need to eat more. Safe landings both wet and dry. | ||
| Anonymous |
Court said "You'll never approach taking this bike through the hell it's already endured." Wish you all could have seen the bizarre cruelty we put these bikes thru, day in and day out...You would NEVER, absolutely EVER, abuse YOUR bike this way.  | ||
| Eeeeek |
Anony: How did the muffler hold up to the testing? I'm guessing it took a few hits. How about the rotor? Vik | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
You would NEVER, absolutely EVER, abuse YOUR bike this way. would you abuse someone ELSE'S bike this way? | ||
| Reepicheep |
Vik, have you ever held an XB muffler? For the cost, and for the construction, you could not ask for a better skid plate. The things are absolutely massive. Seriously, think of it as an energy absorbing skidplate. I wish I could find the picture. It is here somewhere. It was an XB that lowsided and slid into a telephone pole, exhaust first. The exhaust was well and truely trashed, but the bike was fine. I guarantee any other bike hitting at that point with that force would have broken the frame and craked the cases. No question. Even the normal XB's will typically tag the front of that exhaust on a hard wheelie landing. I got an Odie pipe he got off ebay, and the front of that thing took some SERIOUS hits. Works fine, looks fine, unless you crawl right underneath it. Just keep a can of black BBQ paint handy and spray it every time you wash the bike | ||
| Sleez |
ferris, what you thinkin'???? | ||
| Eeeeek |
I know the exhaust is beefy, I'm more worried about the mounts and the header. Impact is transfered through to both of those, right? What about the guts? Does the baffling get shook apart? Maybe it's just a stigma from the X1 days when a breaking exhaust was a quarterly occurance. Vik | ||
| Blake |
Paul, As tough as the new one is supposed to be, if I were going to put a beating on a Uly miles from civilization, I'd wad up a spare drive belt and carry it along same as you would a spare master link. | ||
| Steve_a |
The XB series, including the Ulysses, all mount the muffler in a fundamentally different way than almost any other bike I can think of. Buell tried to float the muffler in rubber for years, and had a very difficult time of making it work. The motor was in rubber, the muffler was in rubber, series suspended objects, and eliminating all the resonances was almost impossible. The solution for the XB was to clamp the muffler very, very solidly to the bottom of the engine. There are two hell for stout aluminum brackets that are shaped like the top of the muffler, and then three hose clamps that clamp it to those mounts. It's a very solid construction. Erik and John Bunne described hopping logs with the Ulysses in Buell's testing of the bike, and they claimed only minor cosmetic damage to the muffler. But we shall see when there's a lot more of them in the field . . . | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
ferris, what you thinkin'???? i'm thinkin' it'd be educational to put the hurt on someone ELSE'S Uly and seeing how it holds up before plunking down hard-earned scratch on my OWN Uly and seeing how it holds up. | ||
| Cataract2 |
Anony, can you elaborate in what you guys do to these machines for testing? I'm always been curious what types of testing is done to these machines. | ||
| Anonymous |
The bikes were run through a special duty cycle that included hundreds and hundreds of jumps, even fully laden with passenger weight and luggage fully loaded. Along with wheelies and stoppies and other general abuse. Oh, and we tested competitive products on the market that didn't survive. Not that they are bad; we wanted to make sure we were better. However, Jerry, anything can be destroyed if that is your purpose. But these bikes will hold up under extremely hard use by owners who had to pay for their bike! Even if they fall down, etc. | ||
| Court |
>>>You would NEVER, absolutely EVER, abuse YOUR bike this way. You mine MINE or one of yours? Before you answer think carefully about some of the things I did to that S3. Frankly, I know some of the people who were invovled in the testing. I can, based on personalties, in concert with elevated riding skills, pretty much make a mental extrapolation that scares me. I've fond memories of TA "proving" a bike could endure "slap down" wheelies. Frankly, in retrospect, Iraw may have been a relaxing get-away for the kid. For me? . . . I'd put my bets on the Buell. Court (who's testing has pretty much been composed of a colletion of end to end stupid mistakes which included catching LOTS of air, albeit unintentionally, on Town Line Road one day....er, no...I don't want to be reminded to tell anyone about it. | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
Anon, not intending to "destroy" Madduck's Uly, nothing of the sort. he and i have had numerous visits in the past week and are VERY comfortable with each other's agenda. i certainly plan on putting his bike thru its paces, from high-mile days on the not-so-super-slab, to two-up up Pikes Peak and thru Death Valley, to a "spirited" photo-session in the desert at Ocotillo Wells. i will treat his bike as if it were my own, and i mean that sincerely. if you are who i think you are, we've ridden together a half dozen times or so and i think you've got a good idea of my abilities and overall riding style. i ride my bikes hard, but i don't abuse them. it's obvious that i plan to have a personal ball during this ride, and to include as many Hooligans in on the festivities as possible as i hump Madduck's Uly around the country, but one of the basic premises of this gig is that i will be able to give a fairly accurate snapshot of what its like to live with an XB12X for at least several thousand miles, and i can't do that without giving the bike a legitimate workout. i said early on that if i love the Ulysses i'll say so and explain why. if i hate it i will say so and explain why. and if, at the end of it all, i'm ambiguous about the Uly, i will say so and explain why. in each of the potential scenarios above, i'll be as professional and tactful in describing my experiences as my abilities allow. above all, i'll be honest. i won't settle for anything less, and everyone involved in this project - which is turning into a pretty sizable group! - expects and deserves nothing less. this isn't a rant, and i appreciate that you take the opportunity to enrich our lives with your input on occasion. i respect where the Buell Motorcycle Company has been, where it is, and where it's going, and almost without fail i've been one of your biggest fans for the last decade. (next March 23rd marks my 10-year anniversary with this particular affliction. ) YOU would be let down if i didn't give the Ulysses an honest thrashing on this ride. but i will NOT purposely try to "destroy" the bike. i will treat it exactly as if it were my own, and with the exception of my recent V-Strom, i've never owned a motorcycle i didn't love. my apologies to all for the massive word count, just trying to take the opportunity to share where my head's at on this deal. i hope - and expect - that your machine will survive this ride with flying colors, and if that proves to be the case no one will be prouder than i. thank you, in more ways than one, for this wonderful opportunity. Ferris | ||
| Snail |
Sounds like an excellent bike to me. Something I can have some fun on. Thanks for all the responses, appreciate the time and effort it takes. Sounds like the answer to my question is "Yes" Uly is tough. It would be a kick in the castors to ride a big bad Buell off road. | ||
| Dsergison |
i would like Ferris to take Engineer Pass on the trip. I forget which one drops down into Telluride. I thing that's it. that and the pass though Redcone. Oh my gosh that's so much better than Pikes Peak. | ||
| Cataract2 |
If I recall didn't Buell come up with new ways to torture test their engines and transmitions that Harley never even dreamed of much less a Harley rider would ever dream of doing to their bikes? | ||
| Davegess |
TA has had some adventures on bikes, there was a certain experimental tranny that failed and lock up solid at a very elevated speed. That got even TA a bit excited. Rode it out. | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
Dsergison, Pikes Peak is on the shopping list partly because i've never been there before. there's way more cool roads and sights in Colorado than i can bag on this trip. the rest will have to be seeds for NEXT time. FB | ||
| Opto |
The XB12S is a tough bike, I've had it on corrugated dirt roads bouncing around, they are already strong. Just look at the build. They are doing the miles without breaking up or fasteners coming loose. The X appears to be even stronger. | ||
| Court |
>>>>TA has had some adventures on bikes, there was a certain experimental tranny that failed and lock up solid at a very elevated speed. Oh.....pardon me.....i thought you said "got him arrested". Sorry. Right bike, wrong rider. | ||
| Kenb |
So do you think one could compete on a Uly in the Baja 1000 ? I didn't say win but compete ad complete barring race ending crashes. |
