| Author | Message | ||
     Marauder |
Help, last year on the way home from CADAVR rally in Eagle River WI the XT started to vibrate like you were riding on the rumble strip on the side of the road. It was loaded with wife, I and all the gear for a week of camping (100lbs short of the GVWR give or take 20lbs). Also the temperature was in the low 90’s. Since then I have switched out the rear wheel for the 2010 wheel and added the Race ECM from Erik Buell Racing. Maintenance for this year was new belt, tires (Dunlop RoadSmart with Dyna Beads). Hoping all this would cure the above problem. Nope, on the way to 35th Annual Hiawatha Rally in Money Creek MN. Again temps where in the low 90’s and 4 hours into the ride it started the rumble mode again. It is the whole bike, handlebars, seat, foot pegs and frame. Tach is indicating 3000-3500 and speed 60-65mph. Pull in the clutch it will stop rumbling and increasing rpm to 4k and higher will smooth it out. At 4k in top gear is 80+ mph, you cannot keep this up for long. Shifting down one gear will also increase rpm only thing is it goes higher in the rpm’s to maintain 60-65 mph. As I was on a weeklong ride I tried setting the suspension to max setting on both ends, next min... Found that setting the front forks to the middle of the spec’s and rear shock to one down from the max setting gave the best ride and handling. But the rumble would start in after a few hours (heat soaked?) of riding and stay the rest of the day. Now I have searched the forum for any help and have found reference to similar problems, only no solutions. I need a direction to go in to fix this. The ride gets longer and very uncomfortable. Help and Thank you for reading this. | ||
| Portero72 |
Check your front isolator, as well as all muffler straps and header bolts. And a good look at your fork/steering head is a good place to start. (Message edited by portero72 on June 12, 2011) | ||
| Hughlysses |
Isolator sounds like a good culprit. It may be marginal and the heat makes it soft enough to completely collapse. Other than that, check your primary chain adjustment. A poorly adjusted primary will cause obnoxious vibration. | ||
| Ratbuell |
4k in top gear is 80+ mph, you cannot keep this up for long I do it for hours and hours on my X. Not many other ways to ride from East Troy, through Chicago, to Maryland in one day... I'd second the "check exhaust, muffler, and isolators" suggestions. If 4k makes it happy...ride in 4th. We just rode to DC and back on the X and 4k in 4th was right around 70. | ||
| Etennuly |
I would think the front engine isolator also. My Uly has required one about every 8000 miles from a lot of two up duty and being about 100 lbs over GVWR. When they are really bad the isolator will set down on the bolt and vibrate everything a lot. There a lots of good threads for information on these in the past. | ||
| Mnrider |
I also heard of someone having a rear mount fail. | ||
| Marauder |
Front engine isolator is on order. Will follow up with a ride report. | ||
| Marauder |
I Replaced the Front Engine isolator last Friday. Sunday we went for a 300+ mile ride. The vibes are still with us, just not as much. Next thing I did was swap out the Race ECM with the stock one. This time sneaked in a week night ride of a 100 miles and that was it, smooth at 60mph pulling 3k on the tach. Now I have a 2008 rear wheel with good bearings and a 2011 Race ECM in the “now what to do with box”. We are happy campers again, yes this thing rocks. Two up will all the gear you need for camping and it goes everywhere you ask it to. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
>>>4k in top gear is 80+ mph, you cannot keep this up for long. Wrong. Buells are made to thrive at that rpm range. I have Spent hours at @4K, and the bike loves it. Very surprised to hear the race ecm is a cause of the problem(s). I would email ebr, and tell them of the issues. | ||
| Etennuly |
My '06 Uly has run at.....lets say above 4500 rpms for hours at a time. It is really not an issue to cruise at those sustained speeds. | ||
| Hangetsu |
+1 on the highish RPM cruising speeds. Most of my riding is open road touring and I spend hours at a time between 80 and 100 mph. The Uly loves that RPM and speed. In fact, at any RPM below 4000, it chugs and vibrates more. On the Engine Isolator, Etennuly, what the bell are you doing to eat one (or more) up in 8K miles. 75% of my riding is two-up and nearly 50% is two-up with luggage and at 20K mine are still in perfect shape. I don't get it. | ||
| Mbest |
If any of you fellas have a blown out front Isolator that's headed for the trash can, I could use one for a side project. thanks mike | ||
| Marauder |
80+ without getting a performance award from a LEO is what I'm referring too. Nothing the Uly can't handle. Insurance cost for me on high side with an H-D on the title. | ||
| Etennuly |
My front isolators seem to have failed due to going well beyond the GVWR and playing in the twisties. On long up hills it maxes out it's travel and pulls too hard on the rubber webbing. I came to accept this as a condition of running too heavy. | ||
| Marauder |
Will we're here again. The same problem is still here. The week long ride ending in Eagle River for the 4TH ADV rally was a trip of endurance. The vibes came back in a big way. The only thing that reduced them was setting the suspension to the softest settings and riding the bouncing Uly. The only thing I did not do so far is replace the rear motor mount. Done everything else, even on the road set the primary adjustment to both the min and max setting. No change at 2800 to 3200 RPM's beats the piss out of you. Wife had a tumor remove from behind the left eye suffered the most as the helmet moved the plate around where they went in. Had to stop every 100 miles to get a break from it. Any ideas? If not sadly it has to go. Can't ride like this. |
