| Author |
Message |
    
Cycletlh
| | Posted on Saturday, September 27, 2008 - 09:27 am: | 
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When the rear wheel bearings fail they fail fast. There is no way to check them during a pre-ride inspection unless you dismount the wheel.
When mine went I took the first side road off of a narrow two lane road. Suspected bearings but could not locate the problem. (no slop in rear wheel) Rode 4 miles at 45 mph to the next wide spot. It was now bad enough that I could detect the problem. It was there that I called for help and had the bike towed. Fortunately for me (and Buell) I was in a location that I could call for help.
Damage had already occured to the axle spacer. I believe If I would have tried to ride the bike just a short distance further there would have been much more damage. This was day one of a 7 day 2250 mile vacation. I replaced the bearings myself so I could continue days 2-7.
Had heard about the problem but had not paid too much attention. With the care I take of my bikes I certainly was not expecting a failure. |
Ratbuell
| | Posted on Saturday, September 27, 2008 - 09:31 am: |
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I believe that Ratbuell is a salesman at Frederick.
That's correct, and I'm about ready to go back to work part-time, now that PT has me walking again after my little...uh...incident  PM me if you'd like to chat any.
Also - in the list of things to prepare for during Uly ownership: "hey man, you've got a headlight out". "Uh...thanks" (it's SOOO much easier than trying to explain that the "dead" light is actually the high-beam....). Happens just about every time I stop for gas. Figures, the cagers notice a bike *at the gas pump*. Wish they'd see me more often *on the road*, lol. |
Keith_mahoney
| | Posted on Saturday, September 27, 2008 - 12:23 pm: |
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Dirt - well when you elaborate like that, ok I get your point. From your original post it sounded like your bike was sitting in a dealership for a while waiting on bearings or a belt. And for that I stand by my original statement that it would be a lame reason to not have your bike because you didn't want to change out a cheap part yourself. Your case involved a bit more than that as much as I would hate it I would have to turn my bike over to a dealer as well. No where did I say it was your fault.
Out of curiosity after having the whole back end replaced how many trouble free miles have you put on your bike? Most people seam to be getting at least 10k miles from a set of bearings and your bike trashed 2 with in that time frame. Do you think something was out of alignment on your bike?
Cycletlh - I was under the impression that the bearing spewed out all their grease before going bad enough to cause problems. This should be easily identified. Is this not the case? |
Tipsymcstagger
| | Posted on Saturday, September 27, 2008 - 01:07 pm: |
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Bearings are cheap enough that if you want to bet very anal and proactive you can change them at every tire change for less than $50. Tada no problems with worn out bearings.
I thought you could only replace the wheel bearings X number of times before causing damage (wear) to the wheel? Aren't the bearings pressed in place?
Tipsy |
Cyclonedon
| | Posted on Saturday, September 27, 2008 - 04:59 pm: |
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all I want to tell you about purchasing a Ulysses is DON'T make the mistake that I did. I waited 9 months before purchasing mine after first test riding one and I feel that was nine months of missing the best motorcycle ever built! I have an 2006 Uly and love it! I'm NEVER getting rid of it! |
Froggy
| | Posted on Saturday, September 27, 2008 - 05:55 pm: |
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I always joked and said that the only one i would sell my bike too would be the insurance company. Sad part is that it became true. My SS is just missing something compaired to the Uly. |
Dirt
| | Posted on Saturday, September 27, 2008 - 08:32 pm: |
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Keith, bike has approximately 6k on it since the last failure and so far so good. I don't believe anything is or was out of alignment, but I am a believer that routinely riding in the rain was a significant contributer.
The original poster indicated he would be commuting on the uly and that means (at least with me) riding in a fair amount of rain. That was the reason I posted my experiences. I'm convinced my belt failures were probably related to the bearing issues as both snapped very soon thereafter. The rear wheel wobbling down the road probably stressed the belt to the point of failure. If the bearings fail again I'll know to replace the belt as a precaution.
Hope you enjoy your new XT. My X was black to begin with but I've since re-skinned it with blue. Who knows, maybe blue will bring me better luck. |
Thetable
| | Posted on Saturday, September 27, 2008 - 09:26 pm: |
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The original poster indicated he would be commuting on the uly and that means (at least with me) riding in a fair amount of rain.
I do unfortunately spend a fair amount of time sloshing through puddles on the way to work. While I could park the bike when it is raining, I do take some joy in the looks people give me when I come in and my jacket and pants shell just drip all over the floor at the security desk. On occasion I try to explain it to people, that they wouldn't cancel their doctors appointments because of rain, therefor, I am not going to cancel my therapy session for a little rain. Most don't get it, so now I just look surprised when they mention something about rain. |
Keith_mahoney
| | Posted on Sunday, September 28, 2008 - 08:24 am: |
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Unfortunately I will need to ride my bike daily and it rains almost daily here. I just hope I end up have good luck with my XT since I could have had a GSA 1200 for about the same price with BMW military sales plan, actually I was looking at the F650gs twin, but hey that would have been even cheaper. Unfortunately for those that own the new BMW twins, I have read reports online of people wrecking when the engine cuts out half way into a corner. |
Cityxslicker
| | Posted on Sunday, September 28, 2008 - 01:53 pm: |
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Its three days later, you could already have been a thousand miles from home.
There are many reasons the Buell might not be your bike. I have 25thousand reasons why the Buell will always be my bike. The down time in the shop, just give me more time for the next mod.
Fall is here, time to go mud hunting. |
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