| Author | Message | ||
     Gearhead |
OK before I go on a rant I want to make it clear that I have the best Buell dealer in the world in my backyard!! Dave, Craig, Doug and the guys in the service department, Jim, J.J., Eric, and Reese have done a great job for me and are super to work with. I probably got the first XB12R that was delivered into the state of Iowa back in late August after trading in my trusty M2. Within 3 miles it started leaking oil and eventually would not idle below 1800 rpm. I rode it through that first weekend with no improvement in either department. The idle problem turned out to be a damaged cam sensor which was installed incorrectly from the FACTORY. The bike now ran great but still leaked oil even after several eyes had tried to detect it’s source. It eventually was located and it turned out that one of the bolts had stripped the threads in the starter allowing oil to seep past the gasket, obviously over torqued at the FACTORY. Recently, I had problems with cold weather performance as it’s been just warm enough to get the bike out the past few weeks. The bike ran poorly in temps hovering around 40 degrees, fouling two sets of spark plugs. The service guys picked it up and after a complete diagnostic check they discovered that the timing was substantially out of the factory specs. This is something that wouldn’t normally be checked during set up or when I had the race ecm, filter or Drummer pipe installed and recalibrated. Again, a FACTORY screw up. I picked the bike up yesterday and I’m finally experiencing it’s true performance after over 1700 miles of thinking it was only slightly better than my M2. The point of all this is that the FACTORY I’ve been referring to is not Buell but the HD Engine Assembly Plant since the engines arrive at Buell, ready to bolt in. Eric, Buell is never going to receive the respect it’s due until you and your people have control of the powerplants. I realize this won’t happen in the very near future but as long as the HD assembly line guys who probably can’t even pronounce Buell are in control of your product it will be hard to convince others to climb on board and learn to live with some of these issues!! I’m a Buell guy and a hot rodder so I understand teething problems with mechanically children but not everyone else would be so understanding or have such a great dealer service department working in their corner. |
