| Author | Message | ||
     Muppet |
T'was a lovely start to the day - wheel the bike out, warm & dry, great. A short but entertaining ride to Bristol to take the beast in for it's 10k service. If you don't know, I have a Buell Ulysses. Knowing I'd be there for a while I'd arranged a test ride to keep me occupied. The pleasure: A go on the new Buell Ulysses XB12XT. The XT is a derivative of my current bike, an 06 model year Ulysses XB12X. It's more street orientated, with shorter travel suspension, uprated front forks, and the new 08 improved engine. It also comes with hard luggage for about £8k, pretty good. I was very pleasantly surprised at the engine mods, oit's much smoother at lower revs than my bike and trickling around at tickover speeds and pulling away is very nice. The handling is a bit improved as well, the front end seems more planted and more stable than mine, if perhaps very slightly slower to turn/steer. Overall, whilst the bike itself is very similar, the details make it more desirable and I can see me changing to this model when I decide to change bikes. I've yet to find any other bike that can drag me away from the Buell Ulysses. The Pain: I had a go on the new Buell 1125R. It's small, it's cramped, it hurt my wrists, neck, knees and back, but by 'eck is it fast. Something like 140+ bhp at the back wheel in a very light superbly balanced bike makes for a very entertaining half hour. It's very smooth, very easy to ride (not comfortable, but easy) and a very forgiving machine you can jump on and feel instantly at home on and in full control. You can certainly explore it's potential right from the off without fear of it biting you. Did I mention it's fast? I'm sure it's right up there in R1, Ducati, Blade territory, but as OI've not ridden any of those bikes I stand to be corrected. Great bike, bloody uncomfortable fro me, but I'm sure it will appeal to many. Well done Mr Buell. The real pain: Unfortunately my poor bike has a bit of a problem. The thread where the drain plug screws into has sort of decided to part company with the swing arm itself. No thread means drain plug doesn't do a very good impression of screwing up, ergo not rideable. The cure for this? A new swing arm. Luckily it's still well within it's 2 year warranty (halfway through it) and there wasn't a moments hesitation from the service manager when he said they'd order and fit a new one as soon as possible. I have had a couple of problems with this bike - the drive belt broke in France but was replaced under warranty and Buell Assist (1 years free European breakdown) paid for an extended stay. It also had a front fork seal leak, which in turn ruined the front brake disc and pads - these were noticed on it's last service and replaced without question. Great service. So, unless something stunningly new and wonderful comes out over in the next 12 months I reckon you'll see me astride a nice, orange XT - the best colour of course! Besides that, the sales guy down there made an interesting comment whilst I was chatting to him. He basically said that it's quite likely that the XT will become the only model if Ulysses available at some point in the future. Could this be true? (Message edited by muppet on April 26, 2008) (Message edited by muppet on April 26, 2008) | ||
| Harleywern |
Might be, at least for Europe, cause we don't have much gravel roads over here (as you know). 99,9% of all XB12X never see anything than paved roads. So I think he might be right. Another reason to keep mine. Ride safe Werner | ||
| 08uly |
Sounds like they over torqued your drain bolt... That sucks! The torque has been questioned as being too high (26-29 ft-lbs) for the aluminum swing arm. Last time my dealer touched it I told them no more than 16 ft-lbs. --- 08Uly See my Uly Data Page (Message edited by 08uly on April 26, 2008) | ||
| Nevrenuf |
they'd have a lot of people in arms if they did away with the standard uly over in the states. well i don't think it would go that far but if i was a little taller i would have gone with the standard opposed to the xt but becuase of poor gene's, i'm stuck at 5'8", which makes the xt almost perfect for me. still a tad high but not to much. and because you get the bags with it, that was the deal braker. i've always had bags for the bikes and wouldn't know what to do without them. | ||
| Rwven |
I regret to inform you that the XT doesn't come in Orange. You'll have to settle for Red, Blue or Black. | ||
| Crusty |
Or take the Sexy Barricade Orange bodywork off a Uly and swap it for the bodywork on an XT. | ||
| Dick_stilton |
Who did that to you? Bristol = Riders right? I have a friend in Bristol who bought a HD Street Bob from them and sings their praises so Im surprised.  | ||
| Muppet |
Dick, I have nothing but praise for them too. THe service manager there, Duncan, pointed out to me on the 5,000 service that he was slightly concerned about the drain plug then as there was a tiny weep and they couldn't stop it. He pointed it out to me voicing his concerns but I accepted it then and took the bike away. Now, at the 10,000 service it failed, but without hesitation he said they'd order a new swingarm and get it fitted for me. He called me yesterday to say the bike was ready, I collected it today complete with a nice shiny new swingarm. The cured a couple of other very minor issues, carried out the service and didn't charge me for the engine oil, putting that down on the warranty claim. All the guys there do a great job, are nice people to do business with and are very professional. I'm not blaming anyone for this fault, I'm very happy with how they dealt with it, and the other warranty problems I've had. Buell as a company seem to be very customer focused, backed up by this dealer and it's hard working staff. A refreshing change in a normally uninspiring industry. Got the bike home and it's running great, ready for my Pyrenees tour in 2 weeks time. | ||
| Dick_stilton |
Glad all is well that ends well Muppet. Sounds as if my mate is right, service guys there go the extra mile and not just on the Harleys but the Buells too.  Best of luck with Pyrenees tour. If at anytime you are In Eastern Switzerland Nr Liechtenstein tip me the nod as I live nearby. Im just putting the finishing touches to a planned tour of Southern Texas in November so it would be good to meet a fellow Brit and motorcycle tourer. Cheers - Dick  | ||
| Muppet |
Dick, I'll be in Grindelwald in July/August. 26th onwards for a week, looks to be about a couple of hours away from you or so if you fancy coming over or meeting up whilst we're out & about?Details here: http://www.bikersoracle.com/tours/forum/showthread .php?t=589 | ||
| Dick_stilton |
Hey great! Found the thread Muppet, I think... Grindelwald I know and could make it over there no problemo. How long you going to be there? Will there be beer involved? (Stupid question probably). If so, I may stay down overnight and flatten a shedload myself. Do you have a hotel checked out or are you camping? Looking forward to meeting you and your crew. Cheers. Dick  | ||
| Danger_dave |
The Ulysses is not being imported to Australia or NZ any more. Only the XT. I had a hissy fit. | ||
| Muppet |
Danger Dave - guess you could order the X suspension seperately and fit it to an XT? Or buy one from maybe Europe or Japan and get it shipped? Dunno what the costs would be like though. Or, buy an X from the UK and for a very modest fee I'll ride it to Oz for you  Dick - CAMPING!!!!!  Good grief, this is a bunch of hardened, mean, experienced rufty-tufty bikers we're talking about. Course we're not camping! Staying here http://www.hirschen-grindelwald.ch/e/hotel.php?sp=e from Sunday 27th July leaving Saturday 2nd August. Feel free to come over for a night or two if you can get away mid-week? A couple of our daily rides will be heading out Eastwards a bit, so we may be able to hook up on one of those and you can come back to the hotel for a beer of five. We'll talk details nearer the time. (Message edited by muppet on May 05, 2008) (Message edited by muppet on May 05, 2008) |
