| Author | Message | ||
     Gentleman_jon |
Now that Buells are no longer available to the average rider, the general consensus seems to be that the most fun middle weight is the Triumph Streety. Ever the conformist, I decided to buy one. I must say I have not been happier with a motorcycle in a long time. It reminds me of my XB9S, only better in every regard: faster, better handling, more reliable. I decided to leave it bone stock, for a change, but that plan just didn't seem to work out. Never does, does it? Anyway, here is "The Grey Lady", perhaps a worthy successor to Lil' Blackie. Fun bicycle.      PS: I just fitted a pair of the new Michelin Pilot Power 3's and I am very happy with them. | ||
| Oldog |
Congrats nice scoot.. | ||
| Sifo |
My ONLY complaint with that bike is the saddle. I'll be curious what you think after a long ride. Looks great, even with the single headlight!  | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Thanks, dog  Sifo - Right, the saddle isn't that great. Looking for a Sargent on eBay. But this one does the job for the one hour rides that I and the lads do every Sunday. | ||
| Sifo |
My wife has a Corbin on her's. It's much better, but still doesn't work well for me. She likes it though, so that's what counts. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Thanks, dog Sifo - Right, the saddle isn't that great. Looking for a Sargent on eBay. But this one does the job for the one hour rides that I and the lads do every Sunday. | ||
| 86129squids |
VERY slick, Jon! Color me jealous... I'll be a dollar that it has a SCHWEEEET howl on the pipe! Very few motors can produce that kind of ear candy... Have fun, keep that rubber side down! | ||
| Macbuell |
Nice bike but I prefer the original, the Speed Triple, over the Street Triple. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
the umphs are nice - got to spend a weekend on them at Dealer Demo days in Sound Rider Gorge Adventure ride..... I prefer the Scrambler though fun bikes | ||
| Buellish |
The only problem I have with that bike is,it's not mine.I have long thought the Street Triple R is one of the nicest bikes on the market.I did a test ride a couple of years ago and fell in love.Light weight,plenty of power,great handeling,great brakes and that sound.I dig the sound of a triple with a pipe. I don't get the new headlights though.What were they thinking? | ||
| Teeps |
If it only had a belt... cooling fins... hydraulic lifters; I'd be in, too. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
I didn't even have a belt on my Buell Lost my enthusiasm for them when one parted at a particularly inopportune moment.  | ||
| 86129squids |
Do you still have Lil' Blackie? I always enjoyed admiring your farkleness... Dang but I miss my XB- surely someday in my future I'll find an XB12XT... | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Squids - I sold Lil Blackie a couple of years ago. I was very disheartened by the way Harley dumped Buell, and I sold my Harley and bought a used Ducati 999S with the proceeds. Unsurprisingly, I preferred the Ducati, which as a bike that cost $25,000 or so new, should have performed better than a Buell, (even Lil Blackie), and did. After not riding Lil Blackie for about a year, I sold her for peanuts, ($4,500) considering what I had in her, to a local Harley mechanic. She is alive and well, and belongs to another fellow Long Islander, about 50 miles away, to whom I was introduced by Hammer. I haven't seen her lately, but her new owner seems very keen and knowledgeable, and is promising to ride out here when the weather improves. The early days of the XB's and this board were particularly exciting, and I don't think I will ever forget them. The early adopters seemed to be a special group of riders, with a keen appreciation of their bikes, and a willingness to share their considerable knowledge of them. The March Madness meetings were fantastic, and the opportunity to meet with some of the more colorful members of the group was memorable, as were the furious rides up and down Wolf Gap, and the hours spent around TWO. Sorry for the rather overly long reminiscence. | ||
| Bads1 |
I remember Jon. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
Good for you Jon! I've always wanted a Speed Triple. I need a few more CC's to move my girth down the road  | ||
| Loki |
I love my Trophy, last of the BBBB Triumphs. The long stroke 1200 is silky smooth. On the prowl for a "steamer" Tiger. My next "new" bike will probably be a Triumph. The S1 will not stray from me anytime soon. Thats my weekend rider. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Wolf has brought up an interesting point about the Street Triple compared to the Speed. Unlike the XB9 v. XB12 which were essentially the exact same bike with two different version of the same motor, the Speed and the Streety are two entirely different bicycles. The standard Speed has a curb weight of about 480 lb.s whilst my slightly modified Streety weighs just 400 lb.s with a half full tank. Published quarter mile times are the same. The Streety is a much better handling bike, at least compared to the Speed that I have ridden, (which was not the new R model with Ohlins suspension), and like the XB9, is faster reving than its bigger brother, and to me at least, just more fun to ride. It would be great if Eric Buell Racing set their sights on making a better middleweight than the Streety. You see, I still dream about Buells. | ||
| Daves |
Good looking bike Jon! | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Thanks Dave, nice to hear from you. Hope everything is going well at Double Lung Archery. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
Can you post up some pics of your headlight mod. I can't stand the bug eyes they come with..... XB light would look pretty cool too. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Here is a close up of the single headlight kit. I would have like to have had one on Lil Blackie as well. This kit is made by LSL in Germany and distributed in the USA by Spiegler Performance.  The kit consist of the headlight itself, black billet aluminum mounting brackets for the headlight, two brackets to relocate the instrument pod, and an air intake cover to replace the one that was integrated into the former headlight mounting bracket. The price for this kit is about $400, which I think is way too high, as the basic head light is only about $135. In addition, the air intake cover does not even come close to fitting, and needs to be modified. The instructions are virtually none existent, and occasionally wrong, and neither LSL or Spiegler seem to give a damn. If I were to do it again, I would just buy a Japanese headlight, some British fork brackets, and fabricate the mounting for the instrument pod myself. The only reason I didn't was that I wanted to have a more finished look. Won't make that mistake again. It took me and my long suffering buddy Gerry all afternoon to figure out how to do this basically one hour job. | ||
| Pwnzor |
I got my single headlight kit from LSL also, for the 2006 Z1000. Super happy with it, although a bit pricey.  Love that triple Jon! (Message edited by pwnzor on April 24, 2013) | ||
| Daves |
Jon, Yep, busy as always! We leave for Africa in 36 days. Turkey season is in full swing. Heck, after I get back from Africa I might even have time to ride one of my bikes! Lol! | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
400 bucks is a bit rich, but it looks great! | ||
| Buellish |
That sure solves an ugly problem.Has anyone seen the earlier round twin headlights mounted in place of the goofy late model lights? | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Wolf - That's what I keep telling myself! Pwnzor - Looking good! Dave - Africa! how great is that! Buellish - never seen round lites on later models, but I have heard that people do it. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
a thread about motorcycles.... who would've thunk | ||
| Oldog |
That's a nice looking kit for the head light. I wish that the steel shell was a bit deeper the X1 uses that shell and the H4 hid is a tad too long for it, ( a hammer and wood block fix it, although that ruins the shells looks ) How is the service aspect of ownership for trumpet owners? | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Dog - I have had two service problems with the Trumpet. The first one involved a recall for the voltage regulator. The dealer was able to check the recall status on his computer, ordered the part, and did the install within 10 days. While I was there, they installed a hydraulic brake light switch for $45 which I did not know how to do. This was all done while I waited in about an hour or so. The second problem was a failed rear wheel bearing,(sound familiar). This was a widely occurring problem, but not a recall one. In any event the dealer did not have the bearing, and Triumph did not either, and didn't know when they would have them. Natcherly the bearings turned out to be widely available everywhere else, like eBay or Napa. So I bought a couple at Napa and installed them myself, which took less time than going to the dealers anyway: they are about an hour and a half away. Bottom line: the motorcycle, like most modern machines, is very reliable, and service at multibrand dealers is about average. Without putting too fine a point on it, that is rather better than Buell service used to be a most Harley dealers, not that I had much experience with that either: once was enough for me. |
