| Author | Message | ||
     Harnish |
I just had my stator go bad after 2500 miles. 09 1125CR. I’m one of the lucky ones that got to pay full price for this rolling disaster. So I had the dealer pick the bike up, 4 days later I called them since they didn’t call me. This is what they said – “Ah, right, bad stator and some other stuff”. “We ordered the parts”. “We can repair it the day we get the parts”. I asked how long for the parts. The guy said maybe two or three months. WTF! Are they serious, or are they screwing with me. Anyone else have this problem, or is this what it has come to? A short discussion confirmed that indeed it may take that long and the stator issue is quite common. A reoccurring problem even; I suppose that would make it a lemon in some states if they failed soon enough after each other. It’s too bad the warranty doesn’t last long enough to get to your second or third stator replacement for free. At what point do I get a loaner so at least I feel like I’m getting something? Anybody interested in a black CR? I was planning on trading it in, had the deal worked out, but Kawasaki wouldn’t hold the new bike nor do they want mine now for what they initially were going to give me. Bad timing on the stator failure. At least with the Jap bikes I go 17,000 miles before stuff starts breaking. Initial question – are parts seriously taking that long? | ||
| Jramsey |
>>some Jap bikes go 17 miles before stuff breaks. I fixed it for you. | ||
| Froggy |
Yes, stators are on backorder.
Never. Some dealers do provide loaners at their own expense though. | ||
| Milt |
Harnish, you're not too far from a competent, Buell friendly dealer. If I'd had half a brain, I would have rented a trailer and taken my bike there. | ||
| Jules |
It kinda depends whether you went in displaying the same attitude you did at the start of your post: I’m one of the lucky ones that got to pay full price for this rolling disaster Like it or not these guys have some control over how good the service you receive is. I maintain a REALLY good relationship with my dealer as I know they'll be 100% instrumental in getting me back on the road or failing that giving me a loan bike (which they have done religiously every time I have asked for one). Yes, parts are a PITA and the stators are on Back Order. It’s too bad the warranty doesn’t last long enough to get to your second or third stator replacement for free. Buy the extended one - it will then.. Or we'll have alternative options available (like re-winding). I know it's frustrating but you need to keep the dealer sweet..to a degree.. | ||
| Tpoppa |
Stators have been on back order 4 times that I am aware of. Probably more. It sure seems like HD is ordering small batches when they get enough failures instead of stocking them. The level of support from HD is unacceptable  Is HD living up to their commitment??? Parts Information Harley-Davidson, Inc. has made a 7 year commitment to supply replacement and service parts at over 250 authorized Buell® service locations. Giving you the confidence your motorcycle will be kept in top performance. http://www.buell.com/en_us/owners/ | ||
| Spank |
They made a commitment...they just didn't say when you'd get your parts! | ||
| Keef |
i had my first stator replaced in May and am waiting to have my second one replaced... | ||
| Harnish |
Thanks for the verification. To reply back to a few of your comments, No, I did not come into this situation with any attitude, which is why they picked it up for free two towns over. My local Woodstock Harley dealer I stay away from. Had my high bars installed there and they charged me 4.5 hours of labor and lost my clubman’s. The dealer I just sent my bike to said never more than 2.5 hours. The only competent dealer in my area is Mchenry HD in Illinois. I don’t have a problem with them. I do have at least half a brain. Why would I buy an extended warranty on a bike worth 5g that I’m trying to sell? I have already bit the bullet on the 6g rebate loss, why spend more money? So I can have a warranty and wait half of another riding season for parts; like I said. At least half a brain. Jap bikes, yep, I’ve had many, every brand. Never had one in service for anything but normal wear and tear. I must be very lucky. I’m 41, and have owned a least one sport bike since I was 16. And if it did break after 17 miles I would probably get it back in a week or get a new one depending on the severity of the problem. Nor have I ever lost half my investment in a matter of months. Of course I’m frustrated; this is a ridicules situation from the start. Who wouldn’t be? I can understand being a Buell supporter, but at what point do you stop sticking up for the problems. The bike is awesome when it runs, no doubt. This forum is wonderful too. But this stator issue is not acceptable by any standard. Sorry if anyone disagrees. Buying the extended warranty is pointless based on the value of the bike and the future wait time for parts. Thanks for not ripping on me to bad. Just doing what I can and want to ride the rest of the year. Who doesn’t? And God Bless, I hope Eric signs on with someone and gets the Buell machine back in business. Might buy another one someday. | ||
| Froggy |
It has been one continuous backorder. First come, first served.
HD re-negotiated all the supplier contracts after the closing so they could buy smaller batches. It would be stupid (and expensive) for them to buy 6000 stators a year without new bikes to put them in. I believe the issue came from them underestimating the need for the stators.
Bingo, but the stator is the only part I have had to wait more than a week for after ordering.
The extended warranty is transferable, it may be a good selling point, assuming you can recoup the cost.
Very few parts are on extended backorders, and you can always source aftermarket parts to help you get back on the road faster, but the warranty probably won't cover those.
You must of never bought a new vehicle ever, and you must of been lied to and told it was an investment. New vehicles take a significant hit in depreciation the moment you sign the paperwork. Only way you would make money off of it is to not have it titled, then put it in some kind of vault for a few decades.
Cool, I know personally I wasn't so lucky, and I only rode Japanese bikes for 2 years before switching to Buell.
Agreed 100%.
The value of the warranty is debatable, as due to the low resale value it is very practical to buy a second 1125 and a wrecked 1125 for parts if the first two ever need them. The extended warranty is an insurance policy, some will cash in on it, many wont. I personally feel they are a ripoff, but those who have had motor replacements (XB, don't know of any extended warranty 1125) will tell you its worth it. | ||
| Reepicheep |
The other way to look at the warranty is that it is just a burden already, so buying more of it is putting good money after bad. If this was not constrained by warranty rules, you could just get the bad stator, pay $100 to have it rewound, and be back on the road in a week or two. I'll take a no charge warranty if it is offered, and do use it as a metric to tell me how much confidence the vendor has in their product (if they won't pretend to warranty it, I know it's junk). But I'd never pay more for one... the vendor has too much control and holds all the cards. | ||
| Bextreme04 |
I'm still waiting for the recall harness mod on my '09 R with 2,000 miles on it. The dealer has put it into the computer twice and called the factory three times to see why it isn't going through. It has now been almost a month and they can't even tell me when the parts will be here to do the recall because no one will call the dealer back about the problem. Not only that but my lower fairing heat shields are baked and the fairing is melted and sometimes I get a System voltage message and the IC and lights die. When i shut it off and back on the voltage is reading like 19v and then slowly comes down to 13.7v .. the dealer has told me they will address all these problems when they have the bike in for the harness recall but they have no idea when that might be. I love the bike but the support is definitely lacking. | ||
| Frogbuster |
Yea, my 09 CR started the clutch weep scenario. Dealer put the kit in. Two days later, clutch out again, back to dealer. Dealer replaced another gasket, then on way back home, clutch out again. Back to dealer, this time (after two weeks) the complete diaphram assembly was replaced (no vacuum hole was drilled in diaphram). Works great now. Then the harnes recall. While waiting for the repair, I traded it for a Super Glide, Im happy now. Buells are great, but I struck while the iron was hot, got worried about future parts/breakdown issues. Problem solved. | ||
| Harnish |
Oh, Froggy, Quote Froggy> You must of never bought a new vehicle ever, and you must of been lied to and told it was an investment. New vehicles take a significant hit in depreciation the moment you sign the paperwork. Only way you would make money off of it is to not have it titled, then put it in some kind of vault for a few decades.Unquote> I see you like to make your point, and some actually might be valid. But please don’t give me a lecture on vehicle depreciation. I’m not in third grade. As I mentioned, there is no situation in my lifetime when I had purchased a car, boat, or motorcycle where it had become worth half its value in less than a year. If you wish to validate that statement please give me an example of any other motorcycle that has done so in American history. If you can, you would greatly earn my respect, if not your just arguing a valid point for no good reason other than to hit a nerve with me. You come up with an answer for that and I will never post on your board again. Besides, who said I was trying to make money off my “investment”. BTW, I buy a new bike every three years, sometimes two. I’m used to depreciation. Waiting for answer on that quiz - You answer it, Im gone forever! Otherwise its just a stupid statement! | ||
| Dongalonga |
We all need to stop drinking the kool aid people. Customer service has always been questionable at best. Now its just unacceptable. These bikes, if not purchased during the fire sale, are the worst single investment/purchase most people people have ever made in their lives. Sorry thats just the honest truth. No one buys anything expecting to lose as much value as has been the case with the 1125 bikes. There is no reason to bash a guy for being pissed that he has gotten screwed from every angle since dropping so much cash. | ||
| Tpoppa |
HDI did many underhanded things to BMC. Now they are treating Buell owners as 3rd class citizens & and dragging the Buell name through the mud in the process. | ||
| Jules |
I am sure you all know that depreciation itself reduces over time, so yes if you sell the $12000 Buell that had it's value halved by the firesale NOW then you are indeed screwed.. it's a shame but that's life. If you sold it in 5 years and kept it in reasonable condition it'd still be worth SOME money, possibly not a lot less than you'd get selling it now so that depreciation is then spread over 5 years. My Jag was $90k when new, a year later it was worth about $60k, 5 years later it was worth about $30k, now (15 years later) it's worth about $3k. If I'd sold it after year 1 i'd have lost $30k a year in pepreciation. Now I've only lost about $4k a year. Even if Jag had done the whole "firesale" thing I'd still be in the same position, $4k a year depreciation but the first year would have seen the value plummet even further - which is irrelevant if you're in it for the long haul. | ||
| Ron_luning |
Harnish, There is no point in saying ANYTHING bad about a Buell bike on this site. Regardless of your statement's validity, you will be branded as a 'troll' by the individuals who have nothing better to do than refute arguments all day. The 1125R/CR is a great motorcycle let down by H-D's actions (closing Buell in the first place, then failing to live up to customer's expectations regarding parts availability). I could probably buy a book on stators and figure out how to make one in my garage faster then H-D is supplying replacements. And I would also like to know of another motorcycle model sold in the U.S. costing more than $4000 that has ever lost 50% of its value in a matter of months. You have to eliminate the cheap bikes because they can lose that much, especially the chinese junk. | ||
| Milt |
At least they're treating us better these days. | ||
| Attweco |
I attended our regional HOG rally, last month. While there, I button-holed the VP in charge of parts and dealer support. I told him the problems which many Buell owners are going through, using the 1125 stator situation as an example. His reply: Buells are collections of foreign made parts assembled in the US. Each of these parts suppliers have their own manufacturing, supply chain, and shipping schedules which we have no control over. And, while we are committed to supporting the Buells, we have no obligation to buy a warehouse full of spare parts. So, every part order is for the minimum quantity which the part supplier will allow. And that means back orders for you. I then followed-up with a query as to whether there was any plan to address the ongoing problem of the failing '09 1125 stators. His reply: I don't know anything about this problem you describe. To the best of my knowledge, there is no plan to re-engineer or change the manufacturing of this part. I don't know that anyone considers this to be a problem which needs be resolved. He did take my name, phone number, and email addy, and he promised to look into it. That was more than a month ago, and I never heard from him, again. As an aside, since H-D outsourced their parts distribution business, H-D owners are experiencing almost the same sorts of back-order delays which Buell owners get. I have a friend with an in-warranty Road King, and his bike has been laid-up in the shop, waiting on parts, for more than 2 months now. | ||
| Al_lighton |
Long lead times and backorders out of HD are making my life miserable, to be sure. At American Sport Bike, my goal has always been that the majority of the products on my web site are IN STOCK at all times. Now, that is the GOAL, and we've missed that goal plenty of times, but for the most part, if something wasn't in stock, it was usually only days away. Our stocking models and consumption models have, in the past, been reasonably synced. If we typically sell one or two shifter pedals a week, I try to make sure that I have 5 on the shelf, and order within the normal lead time to ensure that when folks order it, we have it. For the most part, that is still working for aftermarket parts. For OEM parts, its getting VERY hard. It goes like this: HD goes onto back order. Folks scurry around, and the 5 shifters that I normally have are gone in a few days. I re-order, and now I'm backordered too. It sucks, but what sucks worse is that these backorders aren't getting cleared in a timely manner. Wheels and body work, or for that matter, virtually anything that is now "Vendor Direct" are becoming a nightmare. HDnet has always had unrealistic lead times, but they typically say 2 or three weeks for Buell Vendor Direct parts, and I'm seeing 10-12 weeks as the norm on such items. In many cases, I'm upping my stocking quantities on common "tipover" and maintenance parts. But we don't have a 20,000 Sq Ft warehouse and a $2M inventory budget. I can't become the West Coast equivalent of the HD Franklin Distribution Center. And even if I do, all it does is change the number of days when HD goes into backorder until I go into backorder, because they aren't properly managing their supplier lead times any more. I'm hoping that it is just a speedbump. Remember, not only did HD shut down Buell, but they laid off a LOT of employees. People there are doing more, and different, jobs than they used to before the cuts of the past year occurred. I'm hoping that they're going to get better at it. ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!! Al | ||
| Cowboytutt |
I bet we all didn't realize we actually bought "Etalian" bikes, huh? At least as far as parts availability goes. Buells have become hard core, quirky exotica. Enjoy the pain.   -Tutt (Message edited by CowboyTutt on August 05, 2010) | ||
| Jules |
Buells have become hard core, quirky exotica. Enjoy the pain Well, as I live in the UK Buells have always been hard-core, quirky exotica - so no change there then  | ||
| Blackstripes |
I just got the call from dealer, they just ordered an stator for my bike. We will see how long it takes . I am really looking to buy another bike, so the CR will be my moody model girlfriend... the one who blow you away with amazing sex and sometimes will piss you off like no end. And then the other one (maybe a Blackbird) the reliable girlfriend that is always for you to clean your house lol. | ||
| Pariah |
I'm curious to see how this goes as well. I ordered some basic parts on July 22nd, including oil filters, a few washers and the latest clutch repair kit, for my '08 R. They still haven't shipped... no cause for alarm just yet as it's been just two weeks so far. But in these posthumous days of Buell I find myself wondering what it might be like to own a BMW or a Honda instead. Less exciting, perhaps, but also fewer worries about the future... | ||
| Jules |
Blackstripes has the right idea if you can... I just bought an ex racing ZX9R as my commuter hack, it's nowhere near as much fun as the Buell but it'll keep me on the road IF (and it's only an IF) I end up with backordered parts. Besides, every time I get off that and back on the Buell it reminds me just how awesome the Buell really is. | ||
| Harnish |
Blackstripes is correct Jules, I took that same advice and just bought that “reliable girlfriend”, the one that’s not much fun but gets the job done when you need her! Picked up a new 08 ZX6 for next to nothing. Not as fun, but from past experience it won’t get pissed at me and cause me grief. You have to drive her like you stole her, but hey, it’s a ride. Living up north, the objective is to get as much riding in as possible before your down for 5 or 6 months. Cant be waiting for parts. | ||
| Jaimec |
I did the reverse. In 1999 I picked up my (then brand new) BMW K1200LT. In that same time period, I've owned three different Buells... the M2 Cyclone which to me was ergonomically one of the most perfect motorcycles I ever owned, but spent too damned much time in the shop getting fixed. Ditched the Cyclone for the 2006 XB12Ss which was almost as good ergonomically as the Cyclone but a helluva lot more reliable... at least till the R/R left me walking and pushing to a haircut appointment. Probably should've kept the XB12Ss, but the siren song of 146bhp in that sexy red 2009 1125R was just too irresistible to me. So far, no issues beyond waiting FOREVER for what SHOULD be off-the-shelf in-stock parts. Through it all, the old faithful K1200LT still racks up the miles day after day, week after week and month after month. It doesn't seem to mind my "fling" with the sexy "red head." 11 years old with 140,000 miles and still going strong. Just turned 13K on the 1125R, too. | ||
| Thedavyboy |
I feel your pain Harnish as I just trailered my 09 cr to the dealer for a failed stator . But your lucky as my dealer who I have a great relationship with and is a Buell friendly dealer in NJ, could not even give me a time as when parts would be in . This is my second failed stator . In fact I gave him a list of things broken , leaking or just not working and they told me " we will try to address as many problems as we can " !!! I'm at my wit's end , I just don't know what to think anymore . Gonna try and stay positive , and you should too . Like you I also was privileged to pay full price . | ||
| Tpoppa |
Thedavyboy, Did you have the harness upgraded? Did the stator give any symptoms prior to the failure? |
