| Author | Message | ||
     Electraglider_1997 |
Had they made a ULY where a 5'4" person could flat foot it then I would have bought that for my wife instead of the Harley 2007 XL1200R. Buell could of kept the ground clearance and raised the muffler up and back to the side like some of the new foreign bikes have done. The ULY is a great bike but too tall for short women. As it is, she wears boots with 2.5" heels on the new Sportster. Anyway, the muffler position should not be written in stone. For me it is fine but it makes the seat height way too tall for the 5'5" and shorter crowd. That is a large segment. I really wouldn't be interested in any of the other Buells for her, just the ULY. | ||
| Lastcyclone |
The Ulysses is tall for a reason. The "muffler" is also positioned where it is for a reason. There are a number of other Buell models that are considerably lower in the seat, did you check those out? Designing a Buell to look like "the new foreign bikes" to accomodate some slightly shorter folks would be very counterproductive. | ||
| Cavi |
my wife is 5 foot sharp and she is looking at a Blast, touches great. Also, she could touch on the shorter version of the lghtning, with the short seat. One could easily put taller bars on it and end up with something similar to a Uly in a shorter form. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Sounds to me like the question of which bike is less about what fits her and more about what YOU wanted her to have. I like the ULY just the way it is. I love the looks of the SCG, but I don't complain that it's too low. | ||
| Etennuly |
I know what he is trying to say though. My wife has ridden her Blast for a couple of years now and is looking at what is out there that will fit her. She is very much into Buells and we have looked into an SCG with a low seat, she still just can't get her feet on the ground enough to feel comfortable at a stop. I had a City-X for a couple of years before I got my Uly. She has ridden on the back of both and knows the differences between a lightning and the Uly. And yes, she also knows the way I feel about the differences. But she would like to have the utility and ride of the Uly in her own bike. I looked into 12" platform lift shoes for her and 12" leg implants, both of which I found to be real difficult to deal with on many levels. She doesn't want a Harley, Honda, Scooter, or some girls bike, etc,etc....she wants a Buell. So for now she stays on the Blast. | ||
| Pso |
my finace" just got a Scg. She is 5'5" and believes the bike was designed for her. | ||
| Atoms |
Almost every bike on the market - including all the Harleys* are too low for anyone over 6 feet tall. It seems only fair that we should at least get a couple of bikes that fit us tall people. *unless you consider those icky forward controls a viable option | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
The ULY is fine for us taller folks. I'm a tad over 6' and my ULY is great for me. I only wish my wife could enjoy a ULY and she isn't a back seat rider so please no suggestions that she ride behind me, won't happen. I don't want the ULY shorter, only a ULY model that fits shorter folks. Etennuly is the only one that understood what I first wrote. The rest of the Buells are nice but they ain't ULY's. Taking the foam out of the seat just don't cut it either. I really enjoy my 06' ULY but don't think for a minute that Buell can survive forever without changing things up every few years. The XB frame architecture is getting long-in-tooth by today's standards of innovate or perish if you know what I mean. Don't think for a minute that Erik doesn't realize this also. Buell's mass centralization is being copied left and right and for Erik to stay ahead of the curve you can bet that examples of crazy out of the box engineering is at least on the drawing boards behind locked doors in Troy, Wisconsin. FtBstrd, yes it is what I wanted her to have but to be honest I never even mentioned it to her because it was a moot point. She liked the Sportster lows but since I'm the wrench and our son is too tall for a LOW, she agreed to the 1200R which is fine for her with the shocks on the softest position and her wearing the 2.5" heels. It's the only Sportster with dual front brakes and tach standard and the most foam in the seat. And for $8500 out the door it was a good deal. She really likes the bike and it's power and the comments she gets from her work mates. LastCyclone, I know the basis behind the engineering choices on the XB's but the muffler is just plain huge and it's placement adds it's height to the seat's height. Either that or no ground clearance. I love the bike. I imagine you would of fought to the death over the Cyclone's design but as you well know Eric wasn't willing to do the same and so we now have the XB line of bikes. Buell bikes will change as time goes by and there can be no argument about that. (Message edited by electraglider_1997 on May 31, 2007) | ||
| Brad1445 |
I wish My 2006 had the many improvements found on the 2007, with one exception. I lOVE my high seat and the seating position of the 06. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
short ULY? Get a CityX and put the fender set on it, it will have half the ground clearance, but at 5-5 with the low seat on it, she should be able to ride it, and be touching on both sides of the bike. Pic is in my profile. 5-7 with a 29 inch inseam, and riding it like a ULY every chance I get. Working on an exhaust set to get more ground clearance. | ||
| L_je |
+1 on the CityX My wife is 5'4" and loves her stock MTS 1000. I was rooting for the CityX, but alas, not being Italian, the CityX just wasn't on the same level as the Duc (at least in my wife's view). The XL1200R is a fairly tall bike in itself, with a very high cg. If your wife can keep an XL1200R off of the asphalt at awkward stops, then the CityX (even with the stock seat) would be cake! | ||
| Etennuly |
Don't forget the City-X is not low, the seat is only an inch and a half lower than a Uly stock seat. It is the tallest of the Lightnings. My wife tried the City-X with a low seat and couldn't reach the ground. I was going to give her the one that I had but there was no way she was going to ride it unless she could touch the ground with at least the balls of both of her feet. We even took the seat off and laid a towel across it, the frame is too wide for her and uses up most of her leg length. | ||
| Old_mil |
Uly height is an issue...I'm 5'8" with a 30" inseam; the '06 was way too tall for me even with the "low" seat. The '07 fits...barely. As long as I'm moving forward, I'm alright. I can't get enough leverage with my feet to move the bike backwards against even the slightest grade however. | ||
| Froggy |
I'm 5' 8", 28 or 29ish" inseam, and i handle the Uly with the 06 low seat fine. | ||
| Roadrailer |
short ULY? Get a CityX and put the fender set on it, it will have half the ground clearance, but at 5-5 with the low seat on it, she should be able to ride it, and be touching on both sides of the bike. Pic is in my profile. 5-7 with a 29 inch inseam, and riding it like a ULY every chance I get. Working on an exhaust set to get more ground clearance. The problem is the CityX doesn't have the wonderful seat, improved wind protection, superb two-upability, and availability of hard bags the Uly has. Not to mention the CityX uses the smaller of Buell's two engine offerings. If you venture out to other motorcycle forums or talk to people on the street, you quickly start to understand that there is a LOT of interest in the Uly in the general motorcycling community, but the inability (or unwillingness) to ride such a tall bike is the biggest barrier to Uly ownership. But instead of making a more accessible variant of the most successful and versatile bike in the Buell lineup, we get the TT.  | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
With all the excellent engineers on Buell's staff I would have to believe that a shorter version of the ULY is possible. Not for me but for the hundreds and maybe thousands that walked away from the dealer loving the ULY but finding it too tall. These same short folks were not interested in the other Buell models, they came to see the Ulysses, not the City X or any of the other Buells. Lots of folks do not feel comfortable being on their tip toes at stop lights. I am not advocating lowering the current ULY only making another ULY model for the short legged masses that do exist. The more folks that ride Buells the better the Buell Company prospers. By the way, the Buell Blast is good for one thing and that is being used in the Rider's Edge program as a learing-to-ride bike. Good bike for that and little else. | ||
| Roadrailer |
I'm no engineer, but I'd think it would be easy to make a low version by swapping out the forks and shock with something with a bit less travel. You might also need to raise the pegs somewhat to compensate for the ground clearance. | ||
| Ulywife |
Electraglider - I sent an e-mail to Daves regarding something I remembered reading back sometime ago. Here's his response. Don't know if it will address the issue, but worth posting. Dave, There is a discussion on BB&D about Buell height, seats, etc. for shorter riders. Seems I remember that you had a wife of a BadWebber come to a demo event and rode something other than a Blast, but was still a bit tall for her. You swapped out the seat from a different Buell and it worked great. Does any of this ring a bell? If so, what was the bike and what bike did you pull a seat from? Something keeps telling me there was a CityX in this mix. Thanks! Yep, it was a City X We put a XB9S LOW seat on it and it fit her perfect. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I'm pretty skeptical that "thousands" of people have walked away from a planned Uly purchase because the bike's too tall. I think it's a pretty good bet that Buell has considered or is considering this and either: (a) There's not as much demand as we think and therefore Buell won't introduce a Uly "low" (b) There is a lot of demand and Buell will introduce a Uly "low". It's awfully easy to look around and decide we know more than the hundreds of people who've made Buell into a successful, profitable company, and that if they'd just build what WE think they should (Uly "low", water-cooled superbike, etc.) they'd be REALLY successful. Odds are we'd be wrong. | ||
| Cavi |
the easy solution for Buell is to do what I am doing, add the TT suspension, it will drop the bike 1 inch. And as for the footpegs, I have the crossroads and they work great, I guess if you have real long legs they might not work but for me they are perfect | ||
| Roadrailer |
I think it's a pretty good bet that Buell has considered or is considering this and either: (a) There's not as much demand as we think and therefore Buell won't introduce a Uly "low" (b) There is a lot of demand and Buell will introduce a Uly "low". ... or (c) they totally missed the boat on this one. It happens to even the best companies occasionally. Want another example? Go to the Buell website and look in the Uly gallery. This is one of the best two-up sporting motorcycles currently made (it even sports a built-in backrest) and there is not one picture of the bike with a passenger. NOT ONE. Missed the boat. I think Buell is aware that the Uly's height is a barrier to ownership, hence the 07 seat is more than one inch lower than the 06. It just isn't enough. I hope there is something in the pipe, but I'm not holding my breath. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
My CityX is 30 inches off the deck with the lower seat from the XB12Scg on it. (I just measured it!) The TT is an inch & 1/2 taller, the ULY is 2 inches taller with the low seat (when I bought my bike only the tall seat for the ULY was out, so 3.5 inches shorter) It is the Shorter ULY, now if you want the 12 motor, put the touring seat on the TT and you are still almost 2 inches shorter than the ULY And H&B is now making hard travel cases for the Lightning, full size helmet in each side. Spendy but big capacity. Fire roadin on the CityX ? Damn right. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG76ftSFOcg  | ||
| Cityxslicker |
Not to be a post wh0r3, but I did put the blast bars on it too, to get me up in the saddle for when I am running off road on the hoopdees  | ||
| Rhinowerx |
My wife (5'4" tall) loves her CityX. With XB9S low seat fitted, she can get the balls of both feet on the ground...  Cheers -Jack | ||
| Ridetherejk |
When the Uly first came out, I remember reading that Eric said that people "say" they want a sport touring bike but that they just don't sell. He believed that the adventure bike was what people wanted. Looks like he was right.  Look at all of the adventure style bikes out there. Before any one gets defensive, I know alot of people love sport tourers. If you can lower the Uly 2-3", not that I would want to, but you would have a sport tourer. One of the best out there.  | ||
| Steve_mackay |
Talk to BudC over at Hals. They can get a Uly lowered quite a bit, with the help of the Showa engineer that actually designed the suspension for the Uly. And the sport touring bike thing? Yeah, I wanted Buell to re-create the S3T. But unfortunately they don't. So I'll do it myself.... Here's my project, about half done. Still have to mount the Uly tail and bags. http://picasaweb.google.com/mackay.steve/TTSheSRED /photo#5070587831736567474 | ||
| Cityxslicker |
MMMM Steve, She looks great in RED. What did you do with the "number plates"? Would be great to see a slide show of the transformation. Buell gives us a great bike, but some of us need a lil more out of the box approach for the ride. Great job again, dont forget to red match the bags  | ||
| Steve_mackay |
Red match the bags, you bet. The trim pieces will be red. The rest of the Uly tail is being powder coated the charcoal color like the frame. I should have the front all buttoned up tonight. Just gotta mill up one 'lil bracket to rotate the TT's lock assembly 90 degrees so it's standing straight up. | ||
| Galloper |
Mine does't see the problem:   | ||
| Cityxslicker |
The crew at the dealership thinks that I can ride a ULY, I just need someone to carry the milk crate that I need to stand on ... it does double as a storage bin... there werent any takers on that, so the CityX is in the garage and the milk crate is safe at Ikea. |
