| Author | Message | ||
     Dualsportdad |
I currently own a 06 Uly with 14,000 miles on it and I'm about to start using it as my main mode of transportation. My concern is how long should I really expect this engine to last doing this? I figure I'll put about 15,000 miles a year on it in hot Florida. I live Inna city so the bike will see some time sitting in traffic. I will also be relying on this bike a lot so I'm hoping for little breakdowns. I'm at a spot where I can buy a new bike and have small monthly payments and get a 5 year warranty. I'm looking at a fz-09. My main goal is to get at least 6 years (90,000 miles) out of either bike without having to cover the cost of a engine rebuild. Looking to change the oil every 3,000 miles and the other normal maint. What should I do here? I'm not really in a spot where I can afford to make a mistake. Thanks for your opinions. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
I have an 06 ULY and have become very familiar with it and my son's 07 ULY. I'd say the 06 can be your main mode so long as you are mechanically handy and don't fear fixing about anything that pops up on your own. Must have a service manual. Most bikes are this way in my experience. If you are mechanically feeble then maybe you need to use a car. Buells are tough bikes and many things on them are pretty neat once you have worked on them. Anyway, all bikes breakdown or need some maintenance on a regular basis and don't kid yourself in thinking otherwise. I've had my ULY since November of 2005 and with the help of fellow badwebbers and the Service Manual I keep it running all the time....so far. And I trust it for long trips. Mine has about 44,000 miles on it and I have little doubt that it can do 100,000 miles. | ||
| Dualsportdad |
I have some mechanical knowledge, I'm a mechanic at a Chrysler dealer..lol I know the xb pretty well, its not hard to work on I'm just worried about it wearing out. I see a lot of people that have 50-60,000 on their bikes are on their 2nd or 3rd engines. In the brief time I have had my buells ( I had a 05 xb9sx) I have never worked on a bike so much. Both have around the same mileage. I did just take the Uly on a 2000 mile trip and it didn't miss a beat and I didn't think it would as its basically new. I guess I'm just really torn between the two bikes. Plus my Uly is in near mint shape and I know I could get enough for it to put a healthy down payment on the fz. Or maybe I'll just buy the fz anyways with some of the money I get from selling my jeeps and keep both bikes even tho I'm pretty sure if I had a fz the Uly would sit most of the time, just cause I commute a lot and the Uly is a bit big for that. | ||
| Dualsportdad |
After reading my post, I guess what I'm really getting at is I'm worried about cost of ownership and down time. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I have 30k on my 06. 3rd belt, probably fifth or sixth set of tires, replaced the 77 connector, replaced the VR, change the oil, add fuel, and ride. Factory battery. Factory gaskets. I added the comfort kit. Added a kuryakyn voltmeter. Carry a spare used belt. Have all 3 bags. And put on a '10 wheel. Other than farkles that is...literally...ALL I have done to the bike. Wait. I think I broke a clutch cable once. I would ride (and i have ridden) it just about anywhere, anytime. | ||
| Fotoguzzi |
I heard the FZ suspension sucks.. how about a KLR or DR for commute and keep the Uly for hooliganing. | ||
| Etennuly |
Have you ridden it in the city in the heat of summer in stop and go traffic? I nearly walked mine in full gear, from Orlando to Daytona one year, mid summer, due to construction on I4 and several wrecks. That sucked! 100,000 on one of these engines is expected from me. I only have 61,000 on it now. | ||
| Sagehawk |
Commuting isnt where a uly shines. The heat is what will make you both miserable. I pretty much ride on saturdays to work cuz frywys arent so crowded and i can keep moving. Dont know how far you ride but a versys , klr, dr 650, or a dl 650 might be good . Anything with a radiator n a couple of quarts of coolant. Heck, wifes 96 sporster and my 96 road king dont run anywhere that hot. | ||
| Dualsportdad |
I've done the dualsport thing for years. Isold my tagged klx400r that I put 30,000+ miles on for my xb9sx. The dualsports need constant maintenance. I know that the fz suspension "sucks" that's one of the reasons I want it. It might suck as far as sport bikes go but it might be fine for gravel roads which is what I want. I'd be happy with slightly stiffer suspension than the Uly has. | ||
| Fotoguzzi |
you commute on gravel roads? | ||
| Dualsportdad |
I use my bike for pleasure as well. I'm actually trying to keep the Uly but I'm on a very tight budget | ||
| Ulyful |
Dualsportdad, If you want a reliable commuter bike that will last a long time and incur as little downtime/maintenance as possible, buy a Honda (light weight, water-cooled, shaft-drive, multi-cylinder-engine). Save the Uly for evening/weekend/trip duty. While it can be done, a Uly isn't an ideal stop-and-go-traffic commuter bike primarily because of the heat. You can probably eventually get used to the low-RPM engine vibration, but the heat will always be there. The comfort kit does help alot, but the twin-spar frame design that essentially wraps the entire top end of the engine in aluminum, traps alot of heat over the engine, which gets worse in stop-and-go-traffic. The heat really has no place to go but UP, right into your hind end. The Uly was meant to be ridden, not sit idling. If your commute involved little or no idling, then I'd say go ahead and battle stop-and-go-traffic with the Uly. | ||
| Dualsportdad |
Thanks for the info. I do sit in stop and go traffic but its mainly in the winter... Which here isn't all that cold. I can't get over how much hotter this bike feels than my xb9 did. That being said the race kit did cool my bike down a good bit. I have a RSS as well but so far since the race kit the hear hasn't been so bad. | ||
| Sharkguy |
I can't imagine commuting on a Uly in South FL traffic in the summer. I lived in Naples for a couple of years and the traffic and heat were horrendous. Unless your commute is an easy one I would vote for a KLR as a commuter. I pretty much park my Uly for the hot summer months here in Orlando, aside from some early morning weekend fun. my KLR gets commuter duty. Really how much maintenance does the KLR require aside from chain lube, and oil changes? I absolutly hate stop and go traffic on the uly. It does most things well, stop and go in the heat it does not. For me this is my biggest complaint about my bike...the damn heat it generates. On another thread there is talk about fuel boiling in the frame. Mine does this. It's great the rest of the year, and I enjoy the heat it puts out in the winter. Above 85 degrees, not so much. Ok I'm putting on my flame retardant suit now.  | ||
| Dualsportdad |
I have yet to have the fuel boil in the frame. I wasn't too stay away from dual sports right now cause of the cost of tires and the low power output. I will have another dual sport at some point, probably a wrr but that won't be for a long while. I don't know if you have a race kit out custom tune on your bike but when mine was stock I couldn't agree more about the heat. Note with the race fuel maps and muffler the heart is bearable. | ||
| Etennuly |
Sounds like you need to keep your stuff and get a better job!  I know.....I know.....I just could not help myself! | ||
| Dualsportdad |
This is true... Very true. Or at least fair child support payments. | ||
| Buewulf |
I can comment about commuting on the Uly in similar weather to your own (Houston, TX). The bike is no good for commuting if there is any stop-and-go or sub-10mph crawling involved once the temps start reaching beyond 80°. Lots of pinging. I don't even do it on occasion anymore. Assuming the bike doesn't kill itself prematurely from the heat buildup, you best enjoy accessing the rear rocker box on a fairly regular basis. Mine has also been too unreliable for me to ever consider it as primary transportation, but that varies quite a bit from bike to bike. I have only personally met and gotten to know three other guys here with XB12's. One had to rebuild his '05(?) XB12S at 33K miles and the other his '07 Uly at 39K miles. Both of them commuted. The one other guy I know has less than 20K on his '07 Uly I believe but doesn't commute. Same with me. I know that is too small a sample to draw any real conclusions from, but I wouldn't use the Uly for commuting. Not only would it be uncomfortably hot, but I suspect longevity would also suffer. I'm not so sure this is a 100K mile bike. The bike is good for a lot of things, but not this in my opinion. I would suggest a nice little curb-hopping dual-sport as primary with the Uly as a backup and perhaps winter commuter. | ||
| Teeps |
My 2 cents: Uly will do what you need. The question then becomes at what price? The second question: comfort. I would not want to ride Uly, for the purpose of commuting to work, in a place where lane filtering is not permitted.... a deal breaker for me. The Yamaha FZ-09 appears to be a pretty good bike, if you ride within its limitations, suspension wise. There are several that appear at the Rock Store; the owners all say the same things. Great bike but suspension is not up to expert level spirited riding. | ||
| Dualsportdad |
I'm right there with the last two posts. I don't see this engine lasting long in commuting. I have the race fuel maps flashed with stock timing so detonation hasn't been a problem since I've done that. I could imagine I would be constantly servicing the bike. I don't like down time so I keep spate wheel bearings, string stem bearings, rocket box gaskets, intake gaskets and other odds and ends on hand. I rarely ever let the bike go more than 2,000 miles without a oil change but still I feel like the heart is going to get to this bike. I don't have much free time as I'm a weekend dad with a full time job. It's hard to keep a 4 year old entertained long enough to get anything done on the bike. I'm aware of the fz-09 soft suspension. I'm not a aggressive rider so I don't think I'll ever come close to maxing out the suspension. I do ride gravel roads from time to time tho so the soft suspension is a plus there. I would like to keep the uly and get a fz but I think I'll need the money down on a fz. I could take all there luggage off the uly and trade it in and sell the luggage separately and actually make out OK. | ||
| Ftd |
Alex, I grew up in Cape Coral and now live in Orlando (since 1881). .I bought a 2006 ULY IN May '06 and rode it to work until last July when I retired. No issues. Refer to my profile for the various mods I did to my Uly. Frank | ||
| Froggy |
Out of all the things that tend to break on these bikes, the engine ain't one of them. Both my 06 and my 08 are over 40k miles, used for touring, commuting, beating the snot out of, you name it I've done it. | ||
| Dualsportdad |
How many miles on it? What is the direct link map? Nice to see another local a around... Or at least used to be local.. Lol. | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
Since I commuted 106 miles round trip between leesburg and Orlando from 2009 to 2012 I thought I would chime in. I had 5 to 10 minutes of heavy and sometimes stop n go traffic at the beginning and end of each leg of the commute. The mid segment of my commute was highway speeds. Winter riding was seldom a problem but summers were often brutal and I feel were hard on the bike. Also touring two up on it while fully loaded in the heat contributed to the early death of the ecm. I think the uly is capable of accomplishing what u need it to do if you keep it maintained and address the possible things that tend to fail on the 06s. I honestly was grateful we had a backup form of transportation at times and not just because of occasional maintenance issues w the xt but because of tropical storms and the like. Me no likely riding in the lightening. | ||
| Dualsportdad |
Thanks for the info. I listed the Uly on craigslist. If I get what I want out of it I'll sell her and buy a fz. If not I'll keep daily riding the Uly. | ||
| 05mxdiesel |
I don't see how heat or commuting could kill a buell. I also have lived in Florida the last three years and commute 2-4 days of week depending on whether or not I'm dropping off kids. I am more worried about some idiot on i4 taking me out while talking on the phone than wearing the buell out on my way to work. My 06 has 36k and has not had any problems other than normal maintenance items, belt included. Original 77 connector, fan, and rocker box gaskets. On the second set of rear bearings and completely stock. I still have fun twisting the throttle every morning I leave the house and dread when I have to drive a cage. | ||
| Dualsportdad |
I don't know how any of you commute with a stock 12. My bike would stutter or surge so bad at low rpm it was intolerable. Maybe it is cause I had a k&n instead of the stock air filter? I almost want to time the bike for the stock muffler to get the bottom end back. | ||
| Rezial |
Hello. I was hoping to perhaps tack on a bit of my own question to this one if no one minds. Would you all consider an 06 Uly a good choice for a first time rider? I know this motorcycle is larger than some but I'm not a small guy and I have good mechanical skills and am cautious on the roads. Are there any reasons this bike would not be good? | ||
| Panhead_dan |
It would be very good for someone as you described. The only thing bad would be that in the future, they would have a tough time because there is likely not going to be anything to compare it to. | ||
| Ftd |
Alex, The direct link software allow one to tune the ECM. I purchased a Map from Al at American Sport Bike that was developed during the exhaust shootout back in '06. I have a KN filter and Drummer pipe and the Map works great with that set up. Call Al and I am sure he will give you much more info on the system. I feel that the intake and exhaust mods, Direct Link Map, Free Spirit Tensioner, eliminated 77 connecter, Drummer catch can, 2010 wheel, some kind of under seat he eat shield (I use cut up Al cooking pans), bar end weights, larger windshield, signal dynamics voltmeter and right side scoop are needed to produce a reliable/trouble free comfortable ULY. |
