| Author | Message | ||
     Atoms |
At the Very Boring Rally II last weekend, I met Bob Ganser (I might have that name wrong.) Bob was the first person to yell "Uly" as we showed up on the slopes of Spirit Mountain in Duluth After chatting with Bob for a few minutes it comes out that he has over ninety three thousand miles on his yellow '06 Uly! That is the highest mileage I've ever heard of. Bob reports that he has has no major issues other than a clutch issue which, well, I fergit the details, but it was sort of self inflicted. Very recently his oil cooler sprung a leak. He's been doing his own fluid changes - oil at 5k and a new filter every 10k. Wheel bearings where replaced at 50k. He is on his original belt. (I'm pretty sure about that last one... I should have taken notes!) He reported no problems with BAS, bearings or stator. He does sometimes see the white goo in the primary, but also admits to a bad powerwasher habit, so no-one was surprised about that. He did get the wavy front brake rotor issue and replaced the rotors with stock equipment only to have the issue come back. He loves his Uly and while he thought about selling it while he could still "get something out of it" he instead decided to run it into the ground. He loves the bike too much to part with it prematurely. Here are some pics:   BAW!  A sock and a bandana catching a slow oil leak. | ||
| Jlnance |
Wow | ||
| Ulyranger |
Ditto. What else is there to say........ | ||
| Bking |
What is that, like 15 sets of tires? ---Bob | ||
| Xbimmer |
What a POS. Oil cooler failed at 90k. Bob needs to get a Lemon Law attorney right away. Too bad he didn't dump it when he could have, boy did he get burned... | ||
| M_singer |
That is an impressive amount of millage to have on a 2 year old bike. His service record is also very impressive. | ||
| Svh |
Glad to hear stories like this. Makes me feel a bit more at ease about going to buy one next week. How was the rest of the rally? Looked like it was going to be a good time but prior commitments kept us away. | ||
| Atoms |
How was the rest of the rally? It was pretty great. I heard that attendance was around 2k peeps. There was a huge mix of adventure bikes there - tons of BMW of course, but also more KLRs than I've ever seen in one place, lots of VStroms and Tigers and lots of less adventurous Goldwings and Harleys. I only counted three Ulys. There were (at least) a couple of other Buells. But I didn't explore all the camping areas so I might have missed some. Across the slope from where we camped was a group of cool old Guzzi's and airhead BMWs. It was really a bike watcher's dream come true. There were also lots of bike trailers and other crazy stuff such as a couple on a matching pair of Pacific Coasts. The people, as you would expect, were great. The wyfe and I left after work in a bit of a hurry and forgot some really basic stuff such as *cough* flashlights and tentstakes. Our neighbors loaned us everything we forgot for the duration of our need. A quick trip to Target solved the problem a bit more permanently. We missed most of the seminars ok - all but one on a new (?) cornering theory called The Inside Line. Partially because we got there a bit late, but mostly because the Trials competition was just too fun and fascinating to miss. The wife and I were entirely unfamiliar with that sport. We watched for hours. The rally entertainment was the usual mixed bag. A nice surprise was comedian http://www.mariabamford.com/. She was brilliant and hilarious. Also unexpectedly brilliant was http://www.juniorbrown.com/. The BBQ dinner was a bit disappointing in that there was no vegetarian option. But the workers were kind enough to give us extra grilled corn - which was crazy delicious, so I am not complaining (much). I had this crazy idea (based on my limited experience at rallies - all of them BMWMOA nationals) that there would be cheap beer. There was beer including a couple of nice local brews - but it was all like $4 a bottle. Note to self: next time - BRING BOTTLE OF WHISKY The setting was amazing. I can't explain the view but I will be posting some pics this weekend. It was also really fortunate to have the big Chalet in the middle of the site. (Spirit Mountain is a skiing facility.) Real bathrooms and a huge indoor bar with a great view and clean seminar rooms - made for a nice break from camping mode once in a while - and also came in very handy during the couple of brief downpours. We both tried on some Aerostich suits. We finally decided that we just don't ride enough to justify the expense - especially considering Chicago's usually brutally hot summers and often crawling traffic. But we came away really impressed with an American startup making such a great product and employing people in the Rust Belt. I dunno - mebbe I'll get some trousers or something... All in all, I'd go again in a heartbeat. And more importantly, it was the wyfe's first rally. She was a bit leary of the whole idea of motorcycle rallies. She reports that she now "gets it" and is looking forward to attending more rallies in the future. Yay Aerostich! | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Atoms, Thanks for the report. Are you sure that was an oil leak on that cooler or maybe just tobacco juice from all those grasshoppers.  Is the owner of that 93K ULY a Badwebber? Sure would be great to hear what he has to say and pick his brain. How does a person put that many miles on any bike in a 2 1/2 year period? Dudes a record breaker. | ||
| Svh |
The trials comp was the reason I wanted to go. I believe it was the championship. If you have never watched some one launch a motorcycle 6ft or more straight up off a rock from a standstill you need to go see these guys. Amazing balance. Glad you and the wife enjoyed them. | ||
| Luftkoph |
Hey Atoms I saw that yellow uly there with the rag wrapped around the oil cooler,neer had time to see any of the other uly riders like you to busy watching the trials.ya jr. brown was the major reason for me to go there. | ||
| Dr_greg |
Excellent. I was hoping to get 100K miles from my belt but had to drop the dang bike and it broke. Very heartening to see that. It'll be a several years before I hit 100K miles... | ||
| Atoms |
EG_1997, Bob is not a Badwebber, but he is aware of the site. He has dial-up and claimed to have tried to sign up and post once but could not figure it out. My theory is that he is just too busy riding to mess around on teh interwebs.  I have a set of possible email addresses for him, so if I can manage to re-connect with him I'll let y'all know and I'd be happy to convey questions to him. Trials! Yeah! wow! I'll post some pics of that also. |
