| Author | Message | ||
     Cityxslicker |
This has got to be one of the slickest tuber out there. This just screams hooligan but Next Generation. Nice Job Joe, I can spend hours drooling over that one.  | ||
| Jayvee |
Fester99, NICE! Can you give us any details on the rear pulley used? Any info on where it's from? Or a closer up pic would be great. Most of the other mods I recognize. crunch, crunch | ||
| Fester99 |
Jay, It is actually a belt to chain conversion I just got done with. I ordered the front sprocket, spacer and idler pulley from Al at American Sportbike. The rear sprocket is from Vortex Racing with the Cat5 finish. It was either do that which took maybe an hour or spend 5-6 hours replacing the belt. The cost was a lil more but WAY easier and well it just looks cool. Drummer, If you ask me it looks better close up  The tank is stock no mods either. (Message edited by fester99 on April 10, 2008) | ||
| Fester99 |
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| Limitedx1 |
opinions opinions, crunchy peanut butter to creamy. i would probably with whats cheaper and gives me the same thrill. and at this moment that would be a tube frame. top notch handling is top notch handling even if its a tenth of a second slower than this or that. i cant even ride my buell to its fullest, so a superior bike would be no good to me, unless i was nicky hayden. nothing captures the riding experience like a tuber in my eyes. i even converted a few of my buddies to the hd side after getting off their rockets and riding a muscle bike. only other bike i would buy right now would be an sv, just for the fact that its almost identical to my X1 but smoother power delivery down low. and im sure i can change that on my X1 but it would probably take somethin away from the top end rip. nothin against rotax and im sure the motor they build is superior to anything else, just not in my tuber. maybe a home built hooligan can run a rotax! | ||
| S1wmike |
Paint_shaker You have in your garage what i'm striving to have in mine. I am half way there. just need the white 08 XB12R GOOD STUFF!!!!!!  | ||
| Slaughter |
OK - let's say Buell decided to put out a limited production tuber and attempt to make money doing it. Let's say they could produce maybe 200 a year (doubt they could sell more than that) Who here would pay $40,000 for it? | ||
| Court |
>>>>First motor built to Buell specs - making the bike totally Buell was of course the Buell Blast. That could accurately be asserted with regard to the 1995 Buell. A 1995 Buell motor would not fit in a Sportster. Up until February 1993, Buell worked under a special provision of law. | ||
| Blake |
Steve (Slaughter), That's too rich for me, but $16K would be in the ball park. The XBRR sold for only $30K, yes? Get the quantity up to 2,000 or so. They would sell! I have no doubt. With billet parts and top-notch artisanship and craftsmanship, it should be doable. Not without a LOT of effort of course, probly resources that Buell would prefer to dedicate to other persuits, but if desired, it surely could be done. Maybe they could outsource the work to an outfit akin to Ghezzi and Brian? I think it would also need enhanced performance, something in the solid 120 RWHP class or so to really grab attention. Again a detuned street capable XBRR engine would seem like a great fit. I just drooled all over my keyboard from just thinking about it.  | ||
| Mikej |
"Up until February 1993, Buell worked under a special provision of law." Is that story in the book????? | ||
| Slaughter |
At the risk of Blake-Baiting, I actually have a hard time believing that an RR sold for $30K is being sold at a profit with as few as they intended to sell! Personally, if I were "daddy Harley" and my boy sold his toys at a loss, I'd only let him do it one time without having a REALLY GOOD REASON. | ||
| Xl1200r |
Blake - You're asking for a "top notch quality and workmanship", limited production bike, that's going to use essentially a model-specific engine that puts out something like 40% more power than the current iteration of said engine in street-friendly tune, filled with bits of billet this and that - and expect to pay in the ballpark of $16k? No offense, but you're out of your mind. | ||
| Davegess |
No offense, but you're out of your mind. That would be true in regards to this I think;) | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
"OK - let's say Buell decided to put out a limited production tuber and attempt to make money doing it. Let's say they could produce maybe 200 a year (doubt they could sell more than that) Who here would pay $40,000 for it?" Since Triumph and Ducati still make high-performance tubers that are well below that 40K number, I'd decline. Although I'm still considering adding a tube to the gargage. | ||
| Paint_shaker |
S1WMike, I was looking for a firebolt when I came across the S1W in 2005. Fast forward to 2008 and Buell decides to release a Blue and White Bolt. Sold my horse (4-legged kind) and Harley to get one. I missed having a Harley and bought an 02 Sporty 883 Hugger. I can say this, if I ever had to reduce my 3 bike fleet to one, the S1W would be the last bike standing!!!! Blake, Billet??? That is soooooo 90's!!!! LOL | ||
| Socoken |
 And its raining and 35 degrees outside!!!!! | ||
| Court |
>>>Is that story in the book????? Absolutely. Blake? . . . out of his mind? Is it just me or does that sound like a topic that warrants it's very own thread?  | ||
| Grancuda |
OK - let's say Buell decided to put out a limited production tuber and attempt to make money doing it. Let's say they could produce maybe 200 a year (doubt they could sell more than that) Who here would pay $40,000 for it? Why would they not be able to sell more than that? I know Ducati sells way more S2R bikes than that. Why would it be $40,000. Heck Ducati thinks this is still a thriving market, they have the new 636 and I am shure the new model will transfer over to the other displacements. | ||
| Blake |
Crazy for sure. ![: ]](http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/clipart/proud.gif) The $16K was with a stock engine. Going to a 120RWHP RR street version would up the price to $20K. I'll work up a costing spreadsheet and get back to y'all. I really don't think it would be prohibitive. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
40k for a Vtwin tuber? Have you been looking at the Wakans ?!? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQVz3K5LdnE oh mon duie | ||
| Slaughter |
Much as I like the looks of the "tubers" - it just aint gonna happen. WHERE would Buell build them? Who would build them? When? Or... WHICH XB model would you recommend they shut down to be replaced with a tuber... and WHICH tuber? WHO are they going to pay to re-engineer it to use the better XB engine? (completely different mounting system and load paths) - and then how long would you give them to road test it before going into production? If NOT a new engine then, why would they willingly suffer the indignities of the Sportster? I'm too lazy to go look up sales figures (posted on Badweb in the past) - but the tuber sales were never very good compared to XB. Buell is NOT a big company! Realize that there are BARELY 100 people working at Buell (could be a few more in the past year) But - I still say it's amazing they can put out what they DO put out. | ||
| Blake |
Realizing that my fantasy Buell is purely a wish list... Where? Expand and build them in East Troy or so much better... we happen to have a fair amount of commercial space available right here in Kilgore, Texas. The old Brookshires grocery store is sitting unused and dormant. It would be a perfect facility to build high-end custom sporting muscle bike style motorcycles. Which XB to shut down? None. Who to pay? Me and some friends and associates who are tired of working on antennas. I'm not entirely kidding. I need to build one for myself first. A proof of concept as they say. Dyno simulated/accelrated road testing & actual road testing for months, very aggressively. As I recall, the tuber sales were actually darn near as good as the XB's. I think that just before the Blast came out they were nearing 10K. No? I don't follow the "indignaties of the Sportster" point. It would use a Buell engine, the Buell 2008 version air-cooled engine. But better an even further enhanced XBRR deriviative. I agree on the size of the company. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
Or just to stir the pot, there is a Tuber coming out from the mothership.... XR1200 That is a bike that I would buy, I would even travel to France to get it, and see what I could do with it up against the Wakans ;) www.xrdna.com | ||
| Djkaplan |
I bet that new XR1200 isn't as fast and doesn't handle as well as a 9 year old tuber. | ||
| Sparky |
To quote Al's ad in Cycle World, "Still have a blank canvas?", just paint convincing frame tubes on yer XB and have the traditional look with modernized mechanicals. Remember those coil spring stickers we put on our tuber's can shock? | ||
| Odinbueller |
All I know is...  I wish this shot showed the XB12S I passed in it I had a limited amount of time at Pocono East this past weekend, and I was passing SV650s and a guy on a GSXR750. It made the patriot hooligan in me well up! Tubers Rule! | ||
| Rex |
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| Xl1200r |
If NOT a new engine then, why would they willingly suffer the indignities of the Sportster? Keep in mind that even the Sportster engine mounts differently since 2004. The analogy to Triumph and Ducati isn't well suited for this - For starters, Triumph builds ALL of their sportbikes with a tubular frame, not just one, limited production model. The same goes for Ducati. Both of these companies have all the resources to build a tube-framed bike, and even if there are differences in the frame designs among models, they can still be assembled on the same lines I'm betting. I don't know why I, or anyone else, hasn't thought of this earlier... Buell is great because they constantly look to the future, new ideas, improvments on old ones, etc. They drive home the factors that drive the design of their bikes - among them, mass centralization and chassis rigidity. Building another tuber would be a step backwards. I hate do this, but I have to give credit where credit is due - If Buell built some throwback tuber, they woudln't be any better than Harley-Davidson. (Message edited by xl1200r on April 11, 2008) | ||
| Slaughter |
More morning ramblings while the coffee kicks in and before Sunny is ready to head out to work today... ...not a rant, more like pre-caffeine blathering... Yabbut with the Buell mounts as now used by the Sportster, they're still going to have to deal with the engine. Sporty and XB are completely different in where/how they mount into their respective chassis. I think that the individuals can build up bikes more to their liking in their garages than Buell could come up with a bike that would sell in enough numbers to matter to the wildly different tastes out here. I say if you want a tuber and handling isn't as important, you can get a Sportster or pickup a used tuber and re-work it. I just cannot see it making ANY sense for Buell to do it - much as I think it'd be cool if it happened. They would have to redesign the chassis to mount an XB based motor or redesign the XB motor to mount into the Tuber. Neither is trivial. Sportster engine is very limited without redesign when ridden hard and put away wet. (witness the early Sporty-based Buells) Face it, the bottom end of these engines is fragile when beaten against the rev limiter too often as so often happens in harder riding with low-revving big air-cooled motors. (Last redesign of the XB motor beefed things up a bit in this regard). I like the look of a tuber, like the handling and performance of the XB. (Last night, I looked at Matty's S1 with the XB front end last night... schweeet!) I use my S3 on long trips and gentle curves, my XB gets thrown around more aggressively. ... and I'm still going to get my Blast engine out of storage and put into my spare XB rolling chassis... well... uh... maybe this year. So, let's say they COULD setup production operations for as little as $10M (loan = $20M in 20 years) - and that would be done JUST to produce the tubers. Lets say their tuber redesign and testing could be done as cheaply as $1-2M and their advertising doesn't cost them more than $1M per year. And say that their single-design tuber has a broad enough appeal to sell 10,000 units a year? If I had to review that plan, I'd smile, shake their hands, and show them the door. Let's see... Buell with their Trilogy of Tech and much-vaunted use of technology v. Harley continuously updating chrome and leather... and now we're asking Buell to step back 2 decades in technology? ...naawww... just buy a Harley. | ||
| Slaughter |
Shoulda read Xl1200r (Mark's) points above while writing mine! Yep, yes and you betchya! I'll STILL look for a tuber for a custom garage project - where FORM is more important than FUNCTION... hey, that's the "artist" in me talking. |
