| Author | Message | ||
     Chadhargis |
I had someone email me requesting that I document the installation of my race kit. Well, I was really excited to get it bolted on, but I took some time to snap a few pictures along the way. I'm not a web guru, and at 10pm last night decided it would be easier to create a PDF and let anyone interested download it from my website. The PDF is about 4mb. On a broadband connection, it shouldn't take too long. Here's the link: http://www.chadhargis.com/buellxb12x/race_kit_install.pdf As far as how the bike performs, well, let's just say that it's now performing how it should from the factory. I know Buell (and everyone else) is held back by the EPA so it's not possible to sell them in this state of tune, but the bike is vastly better with the race kit installed. Yes, it has more power which can be felt, especially in full throttle roll ons. It revs quicker than before and even in second gear, the front end gets light without me even trying. What surprised me the most is how smoother the motor is now. With the stock parts, the bike wasn't really rideable below 2500rpm. It would shake, shudder, and otherwise protest being operated at those rpms. Granted, I could always roll on and pull from down there, but it didn't like cruising at those rpms, so I always kept it above 3000. It's bad to lug an engine anyway. I take the bike out for its test ride last night, and I'm very aware that the race muffler is LOUD. Forget what you hear about it being quiet. It's not. It's damn loud. Not as loud as a big twin with drag pipes or anything, and it's not too bad at idle, but give it any amount of throttle and it honks. So I'm idleing out of my neighborhood at about 9:30pm trying not to make any noise when I realize I'm running 1500 rpms and it's glass smooth. WOW! It's never done that before. It's not lurching and shuddering like it used to (thanks to the EPA mandated lean condition I'm sure). I ease out on to the secondary road behind my house, still letting the bike get warmed up. I ride maybe a block, and I'm up in 3rd gear turning fairly low RPM to keep the noise down, and the bike is simply running beautifully. Even at idle it seems to shake less, and I can't explain that. So I get out away from the houses and really get on it. OH DAMN! It sounds like a Harley! ACK!  At this point I'm thinking, "Can I ride this thing for 500 miles making all this noise? I'll be deaf." Then I realized that in my excitement, I'd left without putting in my earplugs that I always ride with (didn't take my wallet either...glad I didn't get pulled over). So, maybe it's not as bad as I think. But BOY it sure does run better. Then I start thinking about how fast the darn thing would be with 100rwhp. I bet it's hard to keep the front wheel down. I'm a go fast in the corners guy, so straight line speed doesn't really turn me on that much, but I've got to admit, I'm curious as to how a Buell with the Micron and Direct Link setup would run. Not that I'm going to spend the money to find out, but it makes me wonder. My wife disapproves of the new muffler. Her comments were, "It sounds so redneck". Remember folks, I live in Tennessee and my property backs up to a pretty busy road right between two 4 way stops. So we hear our fair share of fart can ricer cars, loud bikes, and boom-boom stereos go by our house. It's not uncommon for someone in Tennessee to spend their welfare check on an exhaust system for their pickup. Yeee haw! I've read a few things here and on other sites that I want to cover: 1) My sidestand does not hit the muffler outlet. It comes within maybe an eighth of an inch, but it doesn't hit. 2) My bike started and idled great, even with cold. Ran flawlessly with no backfiring or popping. After my 20 minute test ride, I'm pleased with it. Yeah, it's a bit loud for my tastes, but that's a personal issue. Like they say, "If it's too loud, you're too old." So call me an old man. At 34, I'm getting a few gray hairs. My wife, who knows nothing about motorcycles and could care less about them, said to me after I got home, "Your other bike sounds better...it has a deeper sound to it." My other bike is a Ducati Monster 900 with Staintune pipes, an open airbox, and flat slide race carbs. Guess the Italians do have a way with the ladies. I gotta say, I like the sound of any twin. I'm just not a fan of the angry bumble bee sound of an inline four. Long story short, if you're thinking about pulling the trigger on the race kit....do it! At $600, it's a good deal. The muffler is very stout, not flimsy and cheap feeling. It can still be used to jack the bike too...and big plus for me. | ||
| Daves |
Glad you like it Chad! | ||
| Chadhargis |
It make a bike I was already happy with much better. Transformed the feel of the engine. Much smoother now. Money well spent! Thanks Dave! | ||
| Mrvvrroomm |
Excellent write-up. Pretty much the same installation on my 9 'cept no exhaust valve bs. I've never been too good at documenting my work. | ||
| Stevenknapp |
Chad, I'm confused. Your wife liked it or didn't? "My wife disapproves of the new muffler. Her comments were, "It sounds so redneck"." "My wife, who knows nothing about motorcycles and could care less about them, said to me after I got home, "Your other bike sounds better...it has a deeper sound to it."" | ||
| Chadhargis |
Me neither. I always get too focused on turning the wrenches that I forget to take pictures and make notes. | ||
| Fubar |
How long did the install take? | ||
| Chadhargis |
I would say it took me about two hours give or take. I had a few phone calls, and had to babysit for a bit until my daughter went to bed so I didn't do it from start to finish. It really wasn't difficult to do. The Ulysses seems to be easy to work on, but solidly put together. Those darn counter sprocket screws were on TIGHT! | ||
| Lowflyer |
Nice job, Chad!  Did the info. for the TPS reset come in a set of instructions with the kit? | ||
| Blake |
Great job! Really great job! Thanks so much for sharing that here. | ||
| Pbransonii |
Chad, What's the new muffler made out of? It looks like stainless. Does it look like it will hold up better than the apparent rust bucket that comes on the bike? Paul | ||
| Chadhargis |
The TPS reset instructions are included with the Techno Research software and cable. It's pretty easy to do. The race muffler appears to be ceramic coated steel. My stock muffler wasn't rusting, but the stock unit is painted. All it would take is a few paint chips and I could see how rust could form. The race can looks to have a pretty substantial coating on it, and it's still a jack point for the bike, so you know it's got to be pretty stout. (Message edited by chadhargis on March 03, 2006) | ||
| Lowflyer |
Paul, it's not a "rust bucket." It is a "rust collection device."  | ||
| Lorazepam |
dang, nice writeup! looks pretty easy to do, now I just have to get 600 for the race kit, and 600 for a computer, and the money for the software. Getting a new bike can be expensive. | ||
| Eor |
Nice work, Chad! I've thought about putting the race kit on mine, but been afraid it would be too loud. I wasn't very impressed the the XB9 race kit I put on the CityX as it really hurt the low and middle range performance. The Uly doesn't have allot of low end to give up, with the shuddering and surging it does at 2500 RPM +/-. Your wife might be more impressed with your bikes if you'd finish that garage. | ||
| Pbransonii |
Chad, One more question. How much does it cost to connect your bike to your computer and do all that cool stuff. I would be interested on how much the cable and software and any connecting pieces cost. That looks like the way to do it to me. Paul | ||
| Lowflyer |
$195 at American Sportbike. | ||
| Chadhargis |
Eor: The race kit actually makes the bike run much smoother at the lower RPMs since it's actually running at the proper mixture. It's the single best improvement with the race kit. Belive me, the engine has PLENTY of torque. Right off idle the thing has like 60lb or something like that. No issues there. Pbransonii: The Techno Research software is a couple hundred bucks or so. Give Daves a shout and he'll toss in the BadWeb discount for you. There is more advanced software that allows you to do more, but I just got the cheapo package that allows me to do TPS resets and a few other diagnostic things. | ||
| Solarbri |
Does anyone know if the tps reset software is mac compatible?  | ||
| Lowflyer |
WTF is a Mac?  | ||
| Solarbri |
Uhhhhh... Macintosh Computer?  | ||
| Smcnamara |
Gee Solarbri, I've got one of those too.. Does that make us "Double 3%-ers?"  | ||
| Dudeman |
Chad: So the '9305 - 99-06 Vehicle Diagnostic Scan Tool for Windows' is what you used? Question: My understanding is that this can be used on tubers and XBs. Additionally, no key is required so it can be used on more than one bike??? What bueller discount does DaveS provide?(private PM if need be). | ||
| Al_lighton |
yup, tubers and XBs, no key required by VDSTS, as the security mechanism is a dongle in the cable. See http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/3842/142751.html?1137088521 for a description of the TPS reset procedure, and http://www.americansportbike.com/shop/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?usr=51F5689924&rnd=8127 14&rrc=N&affl=&cip=69.160.135.44&act=&aff=&pg=prod&ref=9305&cat=&catstr= Al | ||
| Al_lighton |
Chad, On the Live Buell chat, I got the impression that they said that the belt guard will hit the muffler tip at full swingarm extension (you know, when you're up in the air while executing doubles and triples ). Does it look like it will? Al | ||
| Thesmaz |
Chad, Great write up! I've got a couple of questions for you; What made you choose the Buell race exhaust over a Special OPS or Drummer? Did you consider having the ECM reprogrammed instead of getting the Race ECM? I'm trying to decide which direction to go when my Uly finally arrives (should be here in a couple of weeks) and would really like to hear how this setup works for you after you get more miles on it. One thing that I'm really curious about is how this mod will affect fuel mileage. I'm planning on doing quite a bit of touring here in Europe with the bike and with the cost of fuel (about $5.50 per gallon) I don't want to cause a serious decrease in mileage as I make mods. Thanks again, Steve | ||
| Dudeman |
Al: So I can use the scanner on both my x1 & uly? (i.e., no need for 2nd key/dongle) I'm just making double sure  Thanks, Alan (Message edited by dudeman on March 04, 2006) | ||
| Chadhargis |
Several factors led me to choosing the Buell race kit. 1) The muffler can still be used to jack the bike. The only other option that I know of that might allow jacking is a Dummer modified stocker. 2) The cost of the race kit is a turn key solution that is a factory piece. 3) It's very good value. 4) I wan't looking for peak HP, basically I wanted to get rid of the exhaust servo which had been giving me fits, and dump all the EPA lean fuel mapping. The full Micron system with a re-mapped ECU is the way to go for power, but at nearly twice the price. I'm sure there is a bigger fuel hit on that configuration too. I don't know what my mileage is going to be like with the race kit, but I've been told that it's not much worse. I also didn't want something really loud. The Race muffler is plenty loud for me. The Uly is my sport touring bike, so I will be doing a lot of long rides on it. Being bombarded with loud exhaust and poor fuel economy were not on my list of things I wanted. Hopefully I've got the best of both worlds now. $5.50 per gallon? Really? Holy smokes! On this side of the pond we're complaining about $2.25 a gallon. That's half what you guys are paying. | ||
| Namibian |
Thanks Chad, truly appreciate the write-up. Will help when my "race kit" arrives. DaveS is doing the Directlink Map 2 update on my ECM. Hopefully will have even better low end. John | ||
| Daves |
I sell the Techno software you are talking about for 195.00 Like Al says,will work on all FI Buells |
