| Author | Message | ||
     Petro_freak |
Dear gurus/Ulygans, New to Uly and Buell and the American big twin. I recently acquired a fun loving American twin in the form of a '06 xb12x. So far no complaints (knocks on wood) and plan to keep it that way. I haven't had the pleasure of riding long distance but I have been doing a few 25 mile long to and fro fun runs on the freeway. Yesterday might be the first time I noticed something strange, may be it did happen before, but I was so new to the bike that I might've not found out. I rode in the evening in Houston at an ambient temp of 90F and after traveling 10 odd miles, the fan came on while riding and was on throughout the ride until I switched the engine off and even after for a good 5 minutes. During the ride I was cruising only to twist off a short burst to 100 mph only once in a while and found the engine a bit hesitant for a micro second to respond. But once it did the power was linear and very very satisfying. It pulls like a train and I think loves to rev and wants to stay above 3K RPM @ 60-65 mph. I was told by the previous owner that he had a race ECM installed, is there a way to check this ? I figured that if it were race ECM then why hesitate ? May be I am being overly concerned about something that I don't need to be. That's where I think y'alls' experience might guide me. Cheers.... | ||
| Yo_barry |
I'm not an expert on all of your questions, but here are my thoughts. Fan--turns on when engine gets hot and runs for several minutes when you turn the Uly off. This is normal. I always tell my friends it's my turbo spooling down  . Race ECM--I'm pretty sure it will be silkscreened on the top with "off road use only" or something similar. This is what is on my Tuber Race ECM. I only have a stock ECM for the Uly. I don't know about the hesitation question, someone else will chime in. Enjoy the ride, Barry Hollister, CA | ||
| Reepicheep |
No worries about the fan, that's the sound of your oil and motor not burning up. It is supposed to run when the bike is off, that heat soak without air or oil circulation phase is one of the *worst* for killing oil. When I am walking away from my bike and somebody asks what that noise is, I tell them it is the sound of my oil not breaking down around my rear head exhaust valves... then ask them what noise their motorcycle is making. Ok, I don't really say that, but I want to! Race ECM should be marked on the ECM (under the seat) with "race use only" or something. Though they may have used ECM spy to mess with the factory programming and done it that way (with who knows what). | ||
| Petro_freak |
Thanks for the replies guys, appreciate all the help and the knowledge shared ! I am not used to big twins and may be that's where most of the confusion comes from. Also, from the threads here, looks like there are several upgrades I need to carry out. I am not exactly sure of all the upgrades from the previous owner. But, I presume that the upgrades listed under the bulletins might've been carried out so far. Cheers.... | ||
| Jstav2012 |
I too live in Houston area, and before I tuned my bike, the fan would come on while riding and stay on if the ambient temps were high. I think the bike runs lean as stock, although not sure about the race ecm. | ||
| Thumpthump |
Turbo lag.  | ||
| Petro_freak |
@Jstav, nice to know a Ulygan close by ! @Thump, that would be great if it were true, wouldn't it Cheers.... | ||
| Froggy |
The hesitation is due to the excessively heavy flywheel. | ||
| Etennuly |
You may not have been able to hear it due to excessive permagrin over pressurizing your ears into the inner sides of your helmet, but if you are riding in high temperatures and crack open the throttle the engine may have pinged a little bit on it's fuel. This can be a cause for feeling a slight hesitation. | ||
| Sagehawk |
Petrofreak, justav2012, what side of town do y'all hail from. It would be neat if some of us could get together from time to time. Just saying! | ||
| Jstav2012 |
I live off 1960 in Atascocita near Kingwood... | ||
| Petro_freak |
I currently live off BW8 and Aldine. That' s a great idea @sagehawk | ||
| Reepicheep |
Upgrades on an 06? There is a shorter seat that came later you could probably swap somebody for if you want that. A little bit shorter, a LOT bit narrower. There is a comfort kit (scoop, ecm flash, etc) that you can probably still get that is a good idea, not sure what all bits come with it, my used bike came with it. If you don't like the longer travel forks that were normal for the 06, you can make them more like the 07 and later forks by changing the fluid level. I drilled out my pulley mounting bolts slightly to take a little tension off the belt. At a minimum, this makes roadside repairs a bit easy. Some of us think it lowers belt stress as well. Don't go crazy, just make the holes slightly bigger so the whole assembly can move some very small fraction of an inch as you are bolting it down. | ||
| Buewulf |
I live in the Houston area as well (Porter right by Kingwood for the inquiring minds), and the fan gets a lot of use during he summer (and winter, fall and spring for that matter), so no worries there as others have already said. The hesitation is another thing. Is it truly hesitating? Or is the throttle response lazy compared to say a late model Yamaha R1? The hesitation may just be perception relative to your previous mount: the heavy internals in this long-stroke twin need a second to get up to speed! I suffer from quite a bit of detonation at these temps, and the initial power loss feels similar to fuel or spark induced hesitation. You should definitely hear the pinging if that is the case though. You may also have too much play in your throttle cable. | ||
| Petro_freak |
@ Reepicheep, Thank you for your input regarding the upgrades, appreciate that sir ! The engine is un-raped 14K miles and I would like to not fiddle with it for a long time. I was more worried about the VR, connectors etc etc. Any minor upgrades externally w/o opening the cases would be a great. I have been going through the Noob to Uly posts few weeks before I started posting here and like you said, that is one of the important upgrades. @Buewulf, nice to see that you too hail from H-town as well. I am getting used to the fan whining and if it helps keep the engine cooler, then why worry. But, this sprouts a few questions. Do these fans have a particular life duration ? any upgrades ? Ball bearing mounted fans ? Maintenance ? Also the thing about hesitation is mostly due to my prior experiences with two strokes only (parallel twins = RD350+works). May be the bug inside my head makes me believe that way. But yes, the V-twin does take a while to respond. Once it does respond though, the power is linear and always there for you to command and man that torque ! The first couple of times that I was riding, I popped wheelies without any effort and the people might've thought I was showing off ! | ||
| Buewulf |
The fans certainly can and will fail at some point, though I don't know if there is an established, probable life. If it goes, you'll have to replace it. You could do maintenance / surgery if you are a tinkerer I suppose, but the assembly really isn't manufactured to be serviceable. There is a good chance you might damage it irreparably during disassembly. However, a replacement fan is cheap (or at least used to be) - ~$80 or so, though I know "cheap" is a relative subject. Best thing you can do is keep an eye out for oil that has has been liberated by a sympathetic rocker box which can cake onto and ruin the fan. |
