| Author | Message | ||
     Earwig |
I picked up this month's issue of Sport Rider Magazine and it has an article "The Firebolt Project - After a lot of experimentation, we find some simple modifications that make the Buell XB12R easier and way more fun to ride" | ||
| Mr_cuell |
I was fairly unhappy with my XB when I first bought it. I too found the handling quirky, and not confidence inspiring. A friends RC51 felt absolutely rock solid and planted no matter what was asked of it. His FZR400 was worlds away from the XB. I was disappointed and miffed to say the least. Changing to the M1's helped tremendously. It still takes more effort than it should to turn, and hold a line, and is not stable relative to other other bikes when leaned over through bumps at triple digits, but it is not so "quirky". It now handles reasonably well. Not great to me, but plenty good. I usually forget the bike is there when I am riding, which is a good indicator that it is doing it's job in my mind. I am semi-tempted to go the full monty with their mods, but because I am happy where it sits now and it is faster than any reasonable person would need on the street as it stands, I am going to let sleeping dogs lie. I love riding it so I guess I have arrived already - | ||
| Buellshyter |
Someone buy the rag and tell the rest of us what the mods are  | ||
| Aatch |
all i think they did was put the city x handle bar, seat and tires on it. i skimmed the article at the store, but that's about it..anyone else? | ||
| Buellshyter |
CityX handlebars on a Firebolt and called it an improvement?...Is that even possible? | ||
| Mr_cuell |
Farted around with a bunch of different tire/fork height combo's and went to a race spring in the back, along with a new top triple - I would get the specifics, but I just watched 4 hours of tivo'd bike racing, and I am feeling find of shot and I don'know where the magazine is - | ||
| Mattwhite |
The Cityx bars and seat change were on cycle world's long-term XB12S test that they just finished. | ||
| Aatch |
..i stand corrected. sorry for the misinformation! | ||
| Buelltroll |
They put on a set of Heli triple clamps,a set of Sato rearsets,the Buell pro springs(front n rear),a Ti-Force exhaust,some Pilot Powers,and a longer front brake line. | ||
| Stefanoxb12ss |
hello i'm from belgium and this article can be of some interest, can someone post or send a scan of the article? | ||
| Earwig |
I can scan it tomorrow if no one beats me to it. I don't have a scanner at home so I'll have to bring it to work tomorrow. | ||
| Beachbuell |
Sport Rider Magazine changed the upper trees to Helis, tires to M1's, suspension springs to Buell Pro Series (front+rear), exhaust to Ti-force with race ECM/filter (because the factory kit was too loud they say), Sato rear sets and for some reason changed the brake line to a longer one where it meets the caliper. I am not sure why they opted for the brake line change. But, those changes made the bike more stable, took a lesser effort to hold a line and got rid of the handling "quirks".?? | ||
| Skyguy |
I was playing bouncy bouncy with the front shocks the other day and I noticed that the front brake line goes tight when it is unloaded. To tight IMHO. | ||
| Diablobrian |
Lets see, they put on solid mount pegs and then complained about the vibration (Duh!) They also noted what we all already knew, the stock dunlops suck. They changed out the stock handlebars for clip-ons. That's more of a personal fit change than anything IMO They say both the Ti force and the Buell race pipe run better with the race ECM (this is news?) They removed the Buell race pipe because it was too loud(?) and installed a Ti-force pipe which they deemed an improvement. That sounds like they liked the aesthetics of the Ti-force more than sound, because the ones I've heard are louder than the race can by a fair amount. They also say they got better Hp out of the 06 with the outer airbox cover removed. Does that surprise anyone? The same labyrinth effect that quells intake noise restricts smooth air intake. All in all it seems they spent a lot of time talking about how "sensitive" (in a bad way) and "quirky" the Buell suspension is. They claim these few changes make the Buell FLY where the stock XB "was struggling" so that the rider wasn't as distracted by the bike which they found tiring. They call this one of their "extended projects" it sounds like a weekend's work to me. They should have spent an hour or two reading here before starting. It would have saved them a bunch of trouble. | ||
| Beachbuell |
""They call this one of their "extended projects" it sounds like a weekend's work to me. They should have spent an hour or two reading here before starting. It would have saved them a bunch of trouble."" Thats great, couldn't have said it better myself, LOL!! | ||
| The_new_guy |
"They claim these few changes make the Buell FLY where the stock XB "was struggling" so that the rider wasn't as distracted by the bike which they found tiring." The only time I find my XB distracting is when I'm surfing this site during work! | ||
| Elff |
I am laughing at this because BeachBuell is sooooo dead on with his comment Tooo funny Arent they supposed to be pros? | ||
| Kootenay |
The only time I find my XB distracting is when I'm surfing this site during work! And every time I see see it in the garage.  |
