| Author | Message | ||
     Tripper |
Heading for Topeka to demo a Buell and get my sling bag on Saturday. Anyone else? | ||
| Tripper |
Blue Springs had the sling bag hanging on a floor bike. I wonder what you have to do to get one? Nobody wanted to talk to a customer. | ||
| Dasxb9s |
Topeka... Maybe... I have my son (14 years old) this weekend and it depends on weather and departure time and if he has stuff scheduled for Saturday and if he wants to ride on the back of the BMW. What are your thoughts on leaving when from where? to answer the question... Possibly do the 1960s Buddhist Monk routine. Set in the middle of the parking lot, douse yourself with gasoline and light up... then you might get some attention! Until they see the Buell hat... and they once again ignore you! | ||
| Tripper |
Leave about 10am. Can meet at..... pick a spot. Desoto at K-32? | ||
| Kcs2 |
Dave, If weather permits, I'm in for a Topeka ride. Neill | ||
| Kcs2 |
It was good to see everyone last night. Sam - I've got to say your wheelies have improved!! Now if you can only build that wheelie trailer you were talking about, maybe the rest of the mob can play too. | ||
| Tripper |
FOUL! I got there at 7:30 and saw nothing. Where'd ya go? | ||
| S1lightning |
Hey Richie, Check this shit out!! REAR ISOLATOR PROBLEM (Isolators,part Deux) BMC sent a service bulletin to all their Buell dealers, in Dec.1998, covering all this information plus procedures to install the isolator kits. BMC also put into effect a Product Program. This says that all 1996-1998 Buell owners can bring their Buells into their dealer for isolator inspection. If the isolators are found damaged, they will be replaced with the new kit for free. This covers all Buell 96-98 whether under warranty or not. If your isolators are still good you will be sent on your way and you will have to wait until they go bad for replacement. Everyone get the first new kit free. After that, it's a normal service, paid by the owner. This program is open ended, time wise. So if you original isolators fail in a year from now, you’re covered. This program gives the dealers authority to do the replacement without contacting BMC for authorization. The bottom line is we all get the replacement isolator kit for our 96 thur 98 Buells. This is great news but why wait until they fail somewhere on the road? Why not just have the dealers contact their Buell customers and arrange a schedule replacement service. They are going to replace them all anyway, why not save the aggravation of a breakdown on the road somewhere. My friend Peter just bought a 98 S3T but won't use it as a touring bike for fear of being stranded somewhere. He may buy the isolator kit and put them in himself so he can have faith in the bike. The other thing is to make sure you get the kit and NOT an isolator out of the parts bin. You could end up with another defective isolator. I know of a few owners who had their isolators replaced, before the kit was available, to have the new ones fail soon after. A new problem may have arisen from all this. I first became aware of this when I was talking over the isolator problem with Cliff Hagwood. He had them fail on his 98 S3T, early in the summer. He had them replaced. Months later, he had a complete front motor mount failure. The two motor mount bolts sheared, the triangular motor mount cracked and a piece of the head broke off. We both tried to figure what made this happen, to no avail. It couldn't be a design problem because we had never hear of any problem like this on the RSs, S2s or 96 S1s. During the time I was investigating the isolator problem, I had heard of 3 or 4 owners, who had what was described as front motor mount failure. All the bikes had had their isolators replaced. This fall, I heard that John Jackson's 98 S3T had the front of his motor drop out while riding. The same thing had happened to his bike as Cliff's. Both motor mount bolts had sheared and the mount broke. He too had his isolators replaced. Why was this happening? Next I read the service bulletin on the isolators, that BMC put out in Dec. In it they describe how to replace the isolator. Basically they say to disconnect everything in the back of the bike and take a lift and raise the rear, pivoting on the front isolator and front heim-joint. I called Don Cichocki about this for he had changed the isolators himself and is a good mechanic. He said that he was very careful when raising the rear and he disconnected the front heim-joint to keep some of the pressure off the front motor mount. He said he raised the rear just enough to get the isolators out and in. If he raised it too much, it would put too much pressure on the front. The last bit was when I talked to a bunch of dealers about the isolator problem. Some of them described tying the motor down to the repair stand and using a fork lift to raise the rear. Now the pieces of the puzzle came together. I can just see a couple of mechanics using a "precision instrument" like a fork lift and raising the rear end plenty high enough so that they could get at the isolators real easy. Basically they have just put stress fractures into the two front motor mount bolts and after a couple of thousand miles of motor vibration and riding stresses, the bolts shear and the motor drops out. I have notified BMC of my observations and conclusions but have heard nothing back from them. What can you do to prevent this from happening to your Buell? Well, if you had your isolators already changed and are worried about the front bolts, just change them. Go to your Buell dealer and buy the correct bolts, PN 3425Y and 3436Y, and carefully install them. You can do one at a time and make sure they are correctly torqued. It's a 5 minute job. If you are going to get your isolators changed, I would recommend having the dealer use the installation method described in the Dec. Weather report and on the tech page on ATC's web site. It's easier, takes less time, and there is no chance of stressing the front motor mounts. Remember, it's your motorcycle and you're riding it, so the dealer should listen to you, or find another dealer. So, I hope this is it for the isolator subject. I hope all of our troubles are or will be solved and Buell marches forward, a better bike. The one thing that I would wish BMC to do is please, please, put back the removable isolator plates, on both sides and on all models. This would make Buells a service friendly bike in all areas. The removable plates are not just for isolators, but for replacing the rear belts ( 20,000-40,000 miles) and servicing the rear swing arm bearings, which the factory calls for every 10,000 miles. The picture to the right shows how easy the isolators are to service, on a S2 or RS. Disconnect the linkage and remove 3 bolts. That's it. It's so easy that an isolator could be replaced on the side of the road, with a couple of tools and a new isolator. Found this in American Thunders Archives Sound Familiar???? duh. | ||
| Keef |
though if you have hardened bolts it's the aluminum mounting bosses that take the stress and they break.....  | ||
| S1lightning |
Keef WHAT? | ||
| S1lightning |
Never Mind I get it! DOH!  | ||
| S1lightning |
wow, where did everyone go??? just checkin! | ||
| Shazam |
Waterloo............. | ||
| Dasxb9s |
Let's see... Saturday I had my son this weekend... Spent too much money on Buell stuff at Central HD, hung out with Jeff and Frank... Cussed profusely at the rain Saturday... Sunday taught my son how to replace tail lights on my Kendon motorcycle trailer (he did it all)... taught my son how to rewire a utility trailer (he did all the work)... drank some vanilla vodka... watched the movie Master and Commander... cussed the weekend coming to an end!!! Wow... it is exciting to be me!!!!!!!!!!!!! | ||
| S1lightning |
Good to see your alive Dennis, at least you know how to live!! Waterloo, hhmmm lets see, Sam went by himself, didn't bother to ask fellow Mobbers to go, "snif" my feeling is hurt. I could have dove the bus you know,  Well, how did it go Sam? big winner ? or wiener ?, which is it.  | ||
| Daves |
Is the title safe in KC? Dave | ||
| Shazam |
Paul, check my post April 21, 5:20pm. that was me fishing for interest in going. I should have been more clear. Big weiner, for crashing in practice....big winner for sucking it up and taking first. Dave, Yes! Your boy TJ(?) on the blue SV made it tough on me his final run he beat my 53:61 by .001 sec. I saved my best time for last...53:46. both of us were still improving our times at the end of the day. Doug was going to try and top the time after I left I wonder if he did? It looked like it was going to start raining again. unbelievably good time! | ||
| Darthane |
Shazam - give me a call, please (313) 595-7765 before Saturday. Bryan | ||
| S2scott |
The isolator problem has been known for a while and When they replaced mine a couple of years ago they did not do it riht and in a short time the front head cracked. They put too much stress on the front mount and cracked it where the mount bolts on. They did replace the head under warrantee without any question even though the bike was years out of warrantee. | ||
| S2scott |
Guys Tina and I have a ride planed this Sunday afternoon May 2nd, it is about 70 miles long and has alot of great curves. We will meet at 5800 Winner road in the parking lot at 2:00 and depart promptly at 2:30 to ride. We will stop for dinner after the ride if you are hungry. Tina and I are going to be plannig a ride each month and they will be Sunday afternoon rides and I hope longer than 70 miles but this is a start. Please feel free to invite your friends no matter what they ride, we will provide route maps before we start so those that want to go faster can ride ahead and other can follow at any pace they are comfortable with. You can contact us at scott.tina@trible.us if you have questions. edited by s2scott on April 26, 2004 |
