| Author | Message | ||
     Stou |
I went to a Buell demo ride today in Laval, Quebec. I waited almost a year to get a chance to do a test ride on the new STT. I wait in line almost 1/2 hour to registered for the demo ride. Once at the desk, the girl didn't know what was a XB12STT and she didn't have it on her list of bike available! WHAT!!!! The only new bike in the 2007 line up and they don't have it on the demo ride!!! What the hell is that??? Since I waited 1/2 hour to registered, I sign for a demo ride on a Thunderbolt. I went to the ride.... 10 minutes east on the highway and 10 minutes ouest to get back.... what a very nice ride to try a sportbike, 100kmh (60 mh) on a straight line. Those people will kill Buell market, that's very bad!!! | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
that does sound stupid. many dealers in my area have a number of bikes to demo and it doesn't have to be any special day. I think you should call areound your area for a simmilar setup. | ||
| Cyclonedon |
Thunderbolt??? Buell stop making those in 2002! at all of the Buell demo rides I ever went to, you sign-up at the desk and then you go and talk to the Buell rep. in charge of the rides and he will check off the motorcycle from a list on his clipboard and then you go and ride that model. I usually ride several different models at every event! I like riding them all. Even test rode a Blast at this year's Homecoming at Road America. And it was fun too! | ||
| Alchemy |
When HD does demo rides they may have some Buells but it is hit or miss it seems. I waited in line 40 minutes at Americade and they only had a blast and a thunderbolt. There was a Lightning that was unavailable due to being serviced. No Ulys or TTs. At least it very clearly demonstrates the environment where Buell is trying to make progress. | ||
| Stou |
Cyclonedon, sorry I misstyped it, Firebolt, not Thunderbolt And yes, it was a Harley/Buell demo rides. Natexlh1000, I will check next week with the dealer for a STT. Last year they took a brand new XB12X out of the show room and let me ride it for a test ride. I think the dealer is really not bad, they work to promote Buell. But the demo ride is not organised by the dealer, it's organise by Buell. I'm in Quebec and all the bikes was with Ontario plates. I don't know why Buell organise demo ride without all the line of the Buell motorcycle. There was other guys who was there to try the STT and they where really disappointed. | ||
| Lost_in_ohio |
What did ya expect? You have everyone from race types to newbies demoing the bikes. they have to set it up for the least skilled rider. Most dealers are not located near any decent twistys anyhow. They demo'd the bikes on the cart track at road america and well several of them got bent. Do you think they will do that again? | ||
| Chellem |
We have a similar problem with the demos here in Jersey. We're getting the Demo Truck in September (Sept. 22 for our Anniversary Bash, BTW!!) and I have no idea where around here to safely send people on any kind of good ride. We have highways, but to get to any nice windy roads it's at least 25 mins one way, then, of course, 25 mins back - it's too long that way and fewer people get to ride. So if anyone knows any good roads like, 10 mins from Rahway, please let me know! (Good=twisty, yet safe, with little pedestrian traffic and a reasonable speed limit for Buells.) | ||
| Jimidan |
Buell's demo rides have the most comprehensive coverage of North America than any other manufacturer. Most foreign sportbike companies do not off any of their sportbikes for demos at all. Go to Dayona Bike Week try and demo a Suzuki sportbike. Go to a Ducati dealership and tell them you want to demo a 1098. So credit should be given where credit is due...it is only fair. Are some of the demo rides less than a fast pace jaunt through the twisties? Sure they are, but you do get a feel for the bike...which is more than you can say for most other sportbike manufacturers. Now, I am not sure that Buell will let the new 1125R be demoed at Daytona, but I would bet they will. We will see if the new bike is in the fleet come March. | ||
| Stou |
What did ya expect? Lost_in_ohio, we have very nice different kind of roads around here. I went to a KTM demo ride the other day and we did highway, back roads and a bit of city riding. All that in a 20-30 minutes ride. That give a good idea of how the bike can be in different kind of riding situation and it is not boring. The Suzuki demo ride was done out of town on nice country roads, that was also very nice. You don't need a race track to do a demo ride, just a mix of nice and different type of roads. We have nice spots to do it around here. It is just that they didn't tried to do it right and went to the easy and boring way to do the ride. To the Buell staff in Canada, next year, try to bring all bikes models and try a little harder to organize a ride that can be interesting!  | ||
| Mikef5000 |
They will be Demoing this bike this fall at the track events, so I just assumed they would have it at all there demo events late this fall and next year. | ||
| Glitch |
I went to the ride.... 10 minutes east on the highway and 10 minutes ouest to get back.... what a very nice ride to try a sportbike, 100kmh (60 mh) on a straight line. That's why we invented March Badness. A good 20 or 30 minute ride in the twisties. Here's the route map.  We had a couple of guys come from Canada last year. | ||
| Etennuly |
They demo'd the bikes on the cart track at road america and well several of them got bent. Do you think they will do that again? Why not? They finished the day out without further incident. There have been accidents on the highways with them also, but they still run. The suspension settings we were riding with had nothing to do with the crash. The lead rider hit a patch in the asphalt that the sun had warmed up to the point of being slippery. His rear tire slid out and re-caught, that high sided him and we were too close in behind him to avoid hitting each other without making the horizontal sacrificial instantaneous decision to dump. The suspension settings were were working fine. They could have been adjusted to make us go faster but the point was they handled real well as they were and we were not pushing the bikes too hard for those settings. We got caught up in a circumstance where we were simply too close to each other for the speeds that we were running. OMG that was soooo much fun though!!! I learned that no matter which XB you are on, on that tight of a track they are all awesome. I'd be willing to bet that as a Blast owner, the Blast would nearly keep up too. That is what I was going to ride next......but they wouldn't let me ride any more that day.....oh yeah....it hurt a bit too. Man what a great day it was! | ||
| Jlnance |
So if anyone knows any good roads like, 10 mins from Rahway, please let me know! Can you run the demos from somewhere besides the dealership? The March Badness event that Glitch refered to has become tremendously successful. People come from all over the southeast to go to it now. If you're aren't familiar with it, click the picture.  (Message edited by jlnance on July 29, 2007) | ||
| Etennuly |
March Badness +100  | ||
| Old_man |
Cerini HD/Buell took over a local oval race track for their demo rides, they included an inside the oval section for some turns. I was able to ride the TT and the Uly. The bikes I wanted to try. I liked the Uly best. I didn't have to wait and enjoyed myself. |
