| Author | Message | ||
     Ferris |
He fought a bit which was nice...  | ||
| Rick_a |
My bike has been outside for the past year plus. Once my neighbors saw a flatbed pull up right beside it. The occupants apparently got spooked by all the attention and took off. That was a week after we moved here and no problems since. I'm thinkin' she's probably now too dirty, corroded and chopped up for people to want her!...that and there's always people awake at all hours of the night hanging out. I can't imagine having her stolen...that'd be a real heartbreaker! It seems like stock appearing bikes are more likely to get stolen...it's hard to hide something that looks radically different. I know a few guys locally that've had Buells stolen. | ||
| Court |
Anybody else recall the Brit mags feature on how a group of Hooligans helped make bike theft a "participant sport" in the London area? They hid in a van and staked out, wearing masks, liely bikes and waited....what they did, when someone tried to steal the bike, was quite ugly and word spread among the low-lifes quite quickly. They, generally, left these guys about at the "2 breath from death" level and called the ambulance as they were leaving. | ||
| Firemanjim |
Jim,I'll have to dig up a couple of shots of James in action for you. Lornce,check your package as I may have sent you a 27t front instead of 29t--too many parts laying around the barn!!! | ||
| Ferris |
we received a Thank You card in the mail today, addressed to "The Participants of Oktoberfast", which reads, in part, as follows: I wish to thank all of you dearly for your generous donation in memory of my son, Daryl C. Levesque. It was greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Shirley J. Levesque the card included a photo of Daryl on an S3, obviously doing a track day somewhere, with the following caption: "The road in heaven is paved in pure gold and goes on forever and ever." indeed. ride in peace, Daryl. Ferris and Denise | ||
| Bartimus |
My bike had been chained and locked next to 4 other bikes. (one my wide glide) why they chose the Buell, Ill probably never know. Other than the fact it was the most ridden in my stable. I think they may have cased the place and thought the others may have been broken since I don't ride them as much. They defeated the alarm, but i wish they had at least bumped into one of the others that still had the alarm intact. It just goes to show, no amount of prevention will protect your baby except your physical presence. <sigh> I miss my baby.  | ||
| Lornce |
Good work Joel. When my S1 disappeared the local PD wouldn't come to look at evidence left in my garage. Said it was pointless, their MC recovery rate is about zero. I'm guessing the perps know this.... Thanks Fireman, I'll keep my eyes peeled. | ||
| V2win |
These make good bike sitters too.  | ||
| Stringbean |
Anyone ever hear of Cyclones getting stolen?? Just curious.. I've got a 2000 M2, and always thought that NOBODY wanted to steal them.. It's kind of a nice feeling actually. I like it, but nobody else does enough to take it from me  -SB | ||
| Sparky |
CCryder, The owner of Torque Master retired and sold the business to Extreme Spark. Same great plugs; new players. Extremely new (ugh, bad pun) in fact -- have the part number handy when you call. Ref previous post. Sparky | ||
| Rick_a |
Lightnings, both S1's and X-1's, seem to be real popular among thieves in my area. | ||
| S1joel |
People around here still don't know what a Buell is. The punk little thugs we have would spend too much time trying to find the ignition, get frustrated and leave. Not to mention around here if it's not Japanese, they don't want to steal it. I did hear of one Buell stolen about a year ago, that was an S3. As far a recovery of motorcycles, they come back in pieces, ragged out and crashed at the least. The pic in my profile is one I recovered a few months ago. I feel bad for the little kid that it once belonged to. | ||
| Glitch |
My Bandit was stolen last summer. The punks that stole it ragged the piss out of it, and layed it down. I was more pissed off after the "recovery" as the bike was trashed. One good thing came out of it though. I bought my Buell instead of fixing the Bandit or buying another one. I love my Buell more than I ever loved the Bandit. | ||
| Kaudette |
Anyone have a tip on what to do with the XB12 muffler valve mechanism when swapping out for a race exhaust? Does the race pipe absolutely have to be run with the race ECM or can one simply undo the white wire from the ECM controlling the valve and "undo" the physical connector under the motor? Any advice would be appreciated (I've looked on the KV and not seen any reference to this topic.) Thanks again! | ||
| Firemanjim |
Hey,Art--I have a real nice S-2 coming up for sale.Low mileage(for you and me at least)only got 20,000 on it.Let me know and I can send pics and details.P.S. I seem to remember meeting you at SW Buell ralley in Taos a few years back. | ||
| Glitch |
Kaudette: Buckinfubba recommends the race ecm in all muffler changes. | ||
| Stringbean |
S1joel: I live in the bay area (California), and around here there are TONS of Buell owners (in the east bay anyway), and I never hear of any being stolen.... EVER. Well, there was a Blast about a week ago.. That just had to be some kids out for a joyride (who would steal a Blast??) I'm sure name recognition has a lot to do with it too.. If they don't know what the heck it is, they're less likely to bother with it. There also aren't as many Buells made as other bikes. I think (generally speaking) that a bike/car/whatever has to be made in pretty large numbers (or be incredibly valuable) to make their parts worth anything on the black market (like I have to tell you this?) That's not to say that that's the reason I bought my Buell, but it IS a nice bonus! -SB | ||
| Sandblast |
HAHA  | ||
| Bartimus |
Firemanjim, I am VERY interested. I was at the Taos run, and maybe Breckenridge if you were there... I'll send ya an email B edited by Bartimus on November 30, 2003 | ||
| Kreinke |
Hello guys! I own a BMW but have an incurable fixation on the Buells. I find that from lurking your site the Buell and BMW riders have more common than we care to admit. We both complain about the dealers and the manufacturer. We both talk about apexes and reference points. The only difference I see between out two camps is the countries our bikes came from!I love the engineering and have test ridden a Firebolt and a Lightning. One thing I can't get over is the steering and how difficult these bikes are to keep leaned over. My BMW F650CS is kind of Beemer's version of the 883 sportster and is very flickable. The bike feels like an extention of my own body but when I test rode the Lightning it felt like I was in an arm wrestling match on curves. <image> http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3ce02b3127cce80f7062c3a8c0000001610</image> The other criticsm I have is Buells handlebar controls. The switches are way to tiny and wimpy. That little starter switch just screams out "Break me!". Gauges are kind of cheesy too. If Eric would just fix these little problems I WOULD DEFINATELY add one to the stable. | ||
| Lake_bueller |
Karl....Welcome  I took a quick peek at your profile. Where are you location in Wisconsin? There are some great Buell riders that just enjoy a good ride in the Dairy State. I'm personally located in Green Bay. The Brew City (Hal's) and Uke's (Racine) chapters of BRAG have some great rides. As for your 650, I thought it was more like Beemers version of a Buell Blast than the Sporty 883. I think the reason you feel like the bike needed to be muscled into the corner has a lot to do with the riding position. You sit taller in the saddle on the Beemer. I found the Firebolt harder to ride than my S3T (more like an S1 or X1). But the Lightning rode more like my S3T. Just my observations. And again, contact one of the BRAG clubs for some good rides. | ||
| Stringbean |
Funny that you should mention the gauges on the Buells... I always thought the ones on my Cyclone were the coolest looking I've ever seen.... Yellow numbers, back~lit on a white face. When described, it sounds like you wouldn't be able to see a damn thing. In fact they're quite easy to read (day or night) and look pretty neat too. As far as cornering goes: I've never noticed any tendency for the bike to fight my steering inputs at all. True it's a rather top heavy bike, but with the short wheel base (damn near vertical fork tubes) it practically falls into the turns. I road a BMW R-65 for a couple of summers, around the Moab area (great bike!). -SB edited by stringbean on November 30, 2003 | ||
| Kreinke |
Laker Bueller, I live in the Adams County area North of Wisconsin Dells. We've got some great twisties in these parts as you may know. F650CS is BMW's entry level bike but don't let the entry level label fool 'ya. Look at the stats in Motorcyclist. The CS is only about 1.3 sec slower in a 1/4 mile than a firebolt and actually has the same 60-80 roll on time. Liquid cooled Rotax engine in bombproof and super torquey but yet not buzzy. Suspension is great and bike is generally all-day comfy. While the CS is kind of a dog in the straights you can mop the floor with Ninjas and other rice rockets in the corners. Neutral and effortless steering is great. My bike has ABS. Real nice to have when you have to throw out the anchor for a deer. Lots of guys that have had bigger bikes and bought their CS models now let their bigs bikes collect dust in the garage because they're so much fun. | ||
| Prof_stack |
Kreinke, the XB suspension needs to be set up for your weight, riding style, the type of road you usually ride, and tweaked for temp's below 65F. Tires must be inflated properly. I did all that today and immediately noticed how much better my XB9S handled the corners than during my last ride. Motorcyclist magazine calls the handling of these bikes "way quirky". Agreed: until it is set up for YOU. | ||
| Lornce |
Any ballistics curious out there? Check this out... http://www.docsmachine.com/nonPB/mortar.html  Lornce | ||
| Daveblaster2 |
Questions. Will a stock 2000 M2 Airbox fit my 98 S3T Bolt and will I get to retain the fairing lowers? Or should I bag the stock look and spend a ton of money on a forcewinder?}} | ||
| Ferris |
Firemanjim, I am VERY interested. I was at the Taos run, and maybe Breckenridge if you were there... Bartimus, i've seen and ridden with FMJ's S2 (the one he is soon selling) and it is indeed very nice. btw, FMJ and i did the Taos rally together, before riding to the east coast to do JB2's BRATPAC rally (the Blue Ridge Parkway and Hurricane Floyd -- what a combination ) FB | ||
| Rick_a |
Beemers VS Buells... I see a Buell as a simple basic machine that achieves certain design criteria. They're fairly bare bones from the factory but beg to be tweaked further. I love BMW's but they're currently (for the most part) too cluttered in needless bulk, trickery, gadjets, and unnecessary plastic. The old tube frame Buells seem to steer more neutrally than the new XB's...but sacrifice stability at higher cornering speeds. | ||
| Opto |
Geez, an "arm wrestling match on curves"?? The BM must have power steering?!! Welcome Karl, hope you enjoy the BWB! | ||
| Kreinke |
I have to agree with the comment on Beemers being cluttered. We F-bike owners like our bikes for the same reasons you guys like the Buells It kind of brings the motorcycling experience back to the basics. We're kind of looked down upon by regular BMW owners because our bike's engines are not made by BMW but rather Bombardier/Rotax. Never mind the fact that the transmissions of the R and K models are outsourced from Getrag and not made by BMW. Actually the BMW f-650 line was originally built for BMW by Aprillia and simply re-badged from 1993 to 2001. Essentially the bike was a re-badged Aprilia Pegaso. After winning I think 5 Paris-Dakars with the design and having scores of people put 100,00 plus miles on the Rotax engine without so much as a valve adjustment someone in Munich decides "Maybe we better assemble these ourselves so we get credit instead of Aprilia." The bikes are now made in Berlin. In a further stroke of Teutonic genius BMW still used the bombproof Rotax engine but designs and intalls its own head and adds Motronic (some call Moronic) fuel injection and screws up the FI mapping on the US models causing about 1/10th of the US models to buck like a bronco at certain RPM's.Fortunately after two or three software updates and many pissed off owners the problem with the US bikes is resolved. BTW the current world record holder for mileage, time, and riding on SEVEN continents is a woman named Benka (also the first woman to circumnavigate the world alone on a motorcycle) and she did it without sponsorship on a BMW F650 "Funduro" model. The F650 I own has been bullettproof and starts reliably every day cold or hot. Handles like a dream. The only thing I've ridden than was easier to corner is my Trek 970. The best I can describe these bikes is that they're "sneaky fast" and very fuel efficient. I simply can't get over my love of Buell's radical bike designs and have now tested both the Lightning and Firebolt. I find that the XB9 models are more like the F650CS than different. Perhaps David Robb was taking cues from Eric Buell when he designed the F650CS. The f650 has radical fluid storage locations. The gas tank on the F650 is under the seat while the bike's frame is the dry sump oil resovoir. Both bikes are belt drive. Both bikes use an older proven engine design and are designed to exploit the strong points of that engine. The one thing I have come away with in test driving the Buell's is a love for those perimeter brakes. I have top of the line Brembos with ABS on my bike but I felt very confident with the feedback from the inside-out brakes on the Buell. |
