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Darthane
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 09:53 am: | 
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I don't doubt good JD Power ratings for XBs after 2003. I would be surprised if the 03s faired well.
~~~>Spatten1
Pray tell, other than the belt, what monstrous change was enacted in '04 that would make you think that? Hell, even the belt, when treated as intended, is just fine. My original, non-upgraded 2003 belt is still hanging in my garage as a 'spare', looking no different at 15K miles than it did at 15.
There are plenty of people on the board with '03s that have been, are, and likely will continue to be bulletproof over 20, 30, or 40K+ miles.
-=shrugs=-
I read this board a ton, and even if I don't take into account that we're only a percentage of actual Buell owners out there, I've read nothing that would keep me from recommending or buying another Buell (in fact, I'm looking for a XT right now).
My experiences have been good, most of the people I know with Buells have had good experiences. Most of the people I READ about have had good experiences. I'm sure if I tried hard enough, I could find a ton of people who bitch and moan about the continuous problems of their Ducatis, BMWs, Yakawazukondas, etc as well.
(Message edited by darthane on June 04, 2008) |
Spatten1
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 10:02 am: |
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Pray tell, other than the belt, what monstrous change was enacted in '04 that would make you think that?
1) Wheel bearing failures, TSB or recall.
2) Side stand failures, TSB or recall.
3) Clutch cable adjuster boot didn't seal, let water in tranny. |
Darthane
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 10:19 am: |
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1) Can't say anything about this except that it was handled quickly and well.
2) Still using my original sidestand, never had an issue with it and don't expect to, either. I suspect there was a good bit of user-error involved in this, similar to the belts.
3) Never had a problem with this, either.
Guess I'm just incredibly lucky to have gotten the one 2003 out of how ever many thousand were produced that dodged these bullets. 
I've had more (factory) problems with my Blast than with my Firebolt - which is to say two (dreaded rocker box gaskets and a failed speedo sensor).
I don't like the lights, but that's not a '03 thing, as evidenced by the thread in the Court in Session board. Personally I'd rank the apparently still finicky FI systems as the biggest issue with any X-platform bike at the moment, and even that doesn't see to affect everyone. |
Spatten1
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 10:28 am: |
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Darth,
I'm not saying any of these things make a 2003 XB a piece of crap.
I'm just saying that they would likely preclude Buell from being at the TOP of the JD power ratings in 2003. |
Buelltours
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 10:38 am: |
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Oddball, I actually asked Erik during the Tech Seminar at Homecoming last year about the TT. I had heard from a German HD/Buell dealer that Buells 07 product lineup was hard to sell. He saw the TT as a "paint-a-Buell" which he had problems selling to the sportbike customer. So I mentioned this to Erik and he seemed to get a little frustrated, talking about marketing strategies vs the technical benefits and overall concept of the TT... |
Darthane
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 10:41 am: |
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I put little faith in JD Powers, as their recommendations are based on little real world experience. I'd be more impressed if they did it 2, 3, 5, and 10 years after the item in question was released, but that does kind of defeat the purpose, I suppose. I always laugh a little when I see ads for Ford that trumpet how their quality is now better than Toyota's. Well, no, your initial quality is. Time will tell whether your overall quality is better. LOL
All things in life should be taken with a critical eye and a big f'in grain of salt. My personal experiences with Buell will very likely lead me to purchase another in the near future, and I have high praise for the bikes I own, but who knows - my next Buell might be the rotten apple. The important thing to remember is that it's not necessarily indicative of some kind of company wide systemic problem or engineering design flaw...I might just have that one bike born under the evil stars.
I get your point, but at the same time I have to wonder if things like that would even be picked up, since JD Power is short-term testing before publication. |
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