| Author | Message | ||
     Rotchcrocket51 |
I was at Road Atlanta in May with NESBA on my 1999 M-2 and the top exhaust stud in my front cylinder broke off. Road Atlanta has a LONG back straight and the throttle on the M-2 was pegged for a long time. The stud broke on the first session of the day. I've had this problem once before and it was in a similar situation. I was running the FUSA course at Pocono. That course has a long back straight also. I still have the old style front muffler mount. There must be something about the sustained high rpm and the resulting vibration that is causing this to happen. I ran over 150 miles on the north course at VIR just last week with no problems. The front straight there isn't as long as Road Atlanta and the problem didn't surface. Any thoughts?  | ||
| José_quiñones |
You look so cool in that picture! Yes I would upgrade to the newer front muffler mount, Part #S1001.01A1 You'll have to pay for it now as it is beyond the warranty period, I think it's like $90. Hey Johnnie, are you thinking about doing the California Superbike School at VIR in September? | ||
| Reepicheep |
I second José (both about the cool picture, and the front mount). A lot of us just bought the part anyway, even while it was under "goodwill", because it was less trouble then fighting the dealers. I broke that same stud, and the updated mount solved the problem. I just drilled out the stud, retapped the hole, and put in a new one. That was over 15k miles ago, and its still doing fine. In hindsight, I probably should have used a helicoil in there, and I will if it fails again, but so far so good. On that old front mount, the bushing "ears" get cut through in pretty short order. I think American Sportbike has more durable inserts for the original mount that will wear better, but the new mount is REALLY nice. | ||
| Aaron |
I'll third their comments. The nuts loosen and the studs break because the pipe is flexing right there, relative to the head. Mount the pipe more solidly, which is what the new mount does, and you reduce the flex. | ||
| Rotchcrocket51 |
I got my broken stud repaired quickly..thanks to Jose sending his tool ASAP. Since then I have bought my own tool so I'll probably never break another stud. I'd really like to do the Keith Code school but my big September event is going to be the Running the Ridge Rally in Boone, NC. I didn't get to do a rally last year so I am really looking forward to putting the Buell into touring mode. I'll be back at VIR in October to do the Patriot and Full courses with NESBA. Then in November it's the full course with Cornerspeed. On Tues-Wed after the Full course they have a Ducati event on the north and south courses. I hope to slip into that one also. I LOVE playing with Ducs at the track! | ||
| José_quiñones |
Johnnie, I'll be doing Boone, but I thought I might as well take the whole week off watch the AMA races, do the school (on the SV), then head for Boone. It's in the planning stages at this point. See you soon. | ||
| Djkaplan |
I love the photo! You don't see M2s on racetracks that much. Coooooool! | ||
| Rotchcrocket51 |
I started doing trackdays with NESBA in 2000 on the M-2. I wanted to go FASTER so I got a 2001 RC-51 the next year. I rode the Buell at the BRAG trackday in September 2001 but I hadn't had it on the track again until this year. I really wanted to ride it on the Patriot course at VIR this year. But then in March I put a set of 208 GP's on it and started looking forward to using it for other trackdays as well. I did a weekend with NESBA on the south and north courses at VIR and really enjoyed riding the Buell again. Then I took both bikes to Barber Motorsports Park a couple of weeks later. I rode the RC only one session each day. BMP is made for the Buell. I was having way too much fun to ride anything else. I felt like my corner speed was better using the Buell. My son checked my times and I was running within a second or two using either bike. The Buell can't match the straight line speed of the RC so the difference had to be in the turns. I love my M-2. It does it all and does it all well. |
