| Author | Message | ||
     Tome |
I've been looking at Buells for a number of reasons (I'm sure you all know what that's like) but at this time I can only afford one bike and want to know how Buells hold up to being used everyday. This is UK weather so I could be riding to work in heavy rain or on salted roads then home with blue skies and sunshine. I'm up on cleaning and maintenance and my bike gets a good go over weekly so any crud that might get caught up won't be there long. | ||
| Aptbldr |
Here's resource for local experience, http://www.ukbeg.com/ . Can UK riders buy WD-40 by-the-barrel? : ) | ||
| Rays |
Tom, you will get a lot of different opinions on this but it really depends on your tinkering ability in my opinion. I have been riding a 12X to work as my daily commuter for three and a half years (with regular week-end rides and the occasional interstate trip and have found it very good. I live in Melbourne Australia and ride through our winter which is cold and wet but not snow & ice as a rule. I now have 84,000km on it but have been very particular with my own services. Even when it was under warranty and I was forced to take it to the dealer I did 'in-between' oil changes and lubed my own cables etc. The UK guys seem to have incredibly short wheel bearing life so I don't know if the salt contributes to that? I have had a few electrical faults that I have sorted myself and have also replaced leaking fork seals, replaced fork oil, wheel bearings, broken belt etc so if you like tinkering and are willing to do your own maintenance then I think you would enjoy one of these bikes. If you want a bike that you take to the dealer for the scheduled services and don't want to touch it in-between then I don't think these are the bikes to fit that specification. They require a bit more TLC than that and the Buell dealerships that really care about the product and service are very thin on the ground from what I can gather from the various forums. I came from years of owning Kawasakis and Yamahas and comparing the 12X to a ZZR1100 for 84,000km of very similar use I think the 12X has been actually less work overall. I changed the fork seals about 4 times on the ZZR - very exposed, fat fork legs and the regular valve shim check and adjustment was a complete pain. The fuel tank had rust pinholes appear from internal rust , two sets of chain and sprockets completely worn out etc. I know that the Buell is the more fun to ride and I am planning to get a new bike when this one gets to 90,000km or so -- it has to be another Buell. |
