| Author | Message | ||
     Uly_man |
At 6400 miles it now (with some mods) has almost no engine vibs even from stone cold. Perfect idle. Goes like a train in all gears (second and third will scare you if you get carried away on the throttle) and will pull hard in 5th up hill at 70 mph. Runs to 120 plus easy. Near perfect throttle control, even in first, and has NO flat spots. Handles better than the 06 bike. Will start from cold in 0c weather and starts easy from a two week stand. And some of the best build quality I have ever seen. Lights are good but great with HIDs. Engine braking is great and you can run the bike without using the brakes at all, if you try, even in traffic. The controls are great and lane splitting (we call it traffic filtering) is just sublime. The bike feels like it was made for this and fast road bends and makes many a modern sports bike seem like rubbish. I know, I have had them. I do not do "its my bike, like it or not, because I put up money for it" or a "bike fashion deal". Its a machine to me, has to work right and do what I want or I will dump it. How this bike can what it does is just amazing to me. | ||
| Yo_barry |
lane splitting (we call it traffic filtering) Here in kinder, gentler Northern California, we call it "lane sharing." | ||
| Motorbike |
Uly_man, Hmmmm, something is wrong with your bike. The normal XB12 vibrates, especially when cold. They idle rough. They do run hard but will not scare the average mo-ped rider. Hard to hit 70 on level ground in 5th. Tops out when engine runs out of power. Throttle control not the best and surging is normal at steady speeds, some flat spots. Handle OK with good tires. Hard to start, especially when cold after setting a while. Build quality is average. You better have someone who knows what they are doing take a look at it and see if they can get it back to normal. I would recommend your local Harley / Former Buell Dealer. Just kidding Uly-man! Sounds like you got a good one and made it better with your Tuner-pro tweaks!  Enjoy the ride! | ||
| Etennuly |
Well Uly-man.....you have so eloquently described a ride on my '06 Uly. After three years of me generally fixing a lot of wiring shit on my '06, it's ride does the same as your '10. I do have to manually control the fan to make it happy though. At top speed 105 to 120 can take a while, but I'm sure if I did it more often it would learn to do so more easily, the same way it picks up mid range after wringing it's neck for a while. The damn thing anyway!  | ||
| Uly_man |
"After three years of me generally fixing a lot of wiring shit on my '06, it's ride does the same as your '10. I do have to manually control the fan to make it happy though." Yes ET I had to do the same with my 06 bike. Everything was great and was VERY happy with it, then it got stolen. Having it stolen was bad enough but all the work I put in was the bigger pain. It did teach me a hell of a lot about the XBs though so something good, as well as the 2010 bike, came of it. "Tuner-pro tweaks!" Yes they do work and worth the effort of doing it. But the bikes should run ok from the start (a point I have tried to put over in my past posts) so using it to fix something it is unable to IE a wiring fault will just confuse the issue. "Will start from cold in 0c weather." It does but slowly but any other time is fine. I would leave it on a charger but I have to leave the bike outside with no access to a power point. Big V-Twins are always hard on starting even modern ones like my Aprilia RSV-R. That bike was always a pain to start. No bike is perfect and, having read about some other modern bikes of late, the XBs seem to fair no worse than many others. Electrics are a bigger problem than many would think from a modern bike. Its a great bike and I think one of the best "all round" bikes ever made. It is, however, not for those who will need to have others fix any problems. Trying to fix some things over the Net, like electrics, can be very hard to do even if you do have some idea of whats going on. I work with VERY complicated electrical systems and was hard pushed with the Uly. | ||
| 1324 |
Oh man, you guys are making me nervous. I'm seriously considering an 06 with 20k+ on the clock. Its clearly had some teething problems, but now I'm wondering. Can I trust this thing? I plan to ride it in place of my Speed Triple to Texas for motogp in April and to Maine for a saddle sore...in January! My 03 was electrically sound except for a loose fuse on the tail light. My 05 was mostly good, but the 77 connector did leave me stranded. Also had a freak/random 'no start' condition right before selling. What should I expect? | ||
| Etennuly |
It seemed to me that 90% of the problems on my '06 were wiring related. $380 will replace the entire harness. Knowing now what I wish I had known then, I would have just replaced it. HD would not replace it under warranty even after several wiring failures. None of the problems caused the bike to not make it home. It limped back a couple of times, but always made it with on the side of the road fixes. The only time I have had to be towed home was with a flat tire. This bike, accepts repairs well. It seems that as each problem was fixed the bike just got better and better. None of the repairs have gone bad so far. Since about 40,000 miles I don't recall any non wear related failures. The bike is now at nearly 60,000. I will ride it anywhere. | ||
| Uly_man |
"Oh man, you guys are making me nervous." No need 1324 as a 06 Uly is mostly the same as your 05 bike anyway. Just give the bike a good check over and replace the wheel bearings if they have not been done. They will need it at 20k. And take a belt with you on a long trip. Its not a bad idea to keep one "on hand" anyway as you will need one sooner or later. If you do only buy the AKF version. Its amazing how a few little mods can make this a MUCH better bike and most are free or very cheap. | ||
| 1324 |
Guys, interested in knowing more about the harness replacement. The owner of the bike I'm going to look at tomorrow just informed me the bike stalled in traffic today. The ECM has been relocated, but a wiggle at the connector brought the animal back to life. I need a reliable bike I can ride 20k miles in 2013. What exact shortcomings does the replacement harness address? Does anyone have a part number? Thanks, Nick | ||
| Uly_man |
As far as I can make out the harness is sound enough apart from the spliced wires, stupid idea, in the cowel/front section. They all go mine did on both 06 and 10 bikes. I would not replace it as its a lot of money and even more work to do. If your going to do a lot of miles (20k is a long trip) I would say you will need to know the bike "inside out", know all of its "funny ways" and be able to fix them yourself. HD will be (mostly) of little help with some strange running problem as they could not fix them even before they dropped Buells. You will have some problems on a 20k trip on ANY bike. Thats just bikes. If the ECM was moved it may have had a problem in the past thats still there and may be a damaged ECM socket. The plugs themselves are military grade, the best you can get and I have never heard of a bad one if used right. At least the owner is honest so thats a good start. The mechanics on the bike are strong enough, even on the 06 bike, its the electrics that can cause problems and mainly with the engine control IE ECM, grounds, spliced joints, etc. The key, and its just my opinion, to finding these faults is to use something like TunerPro. The reason for this is because the ECM will change settings IE timing, fueling, etc due to many conditions IE load, idle, air and engine temp and are something, unless you are VERY aware of them, you will not notice. Running a log for faults is normal for ALL EFI systems for this reason. Yes people do "second guess" the fault and get lucky many do not though and can change out enough parts to be able to build a second bike. More than one here has in the past. | ||
| Etennuly |
There is no need to panic into buying any thing for a bike you have not bought or investigated the problem on yet. Problems and their repairs cannot be forecast. Replacing parts without knowing if problems will arise does not help. It seems to me that if you want to own the bike, just buy it and fix the problems that arise as they happen.....IF they happen. A lot of folks have been putting a lot of problem free miles on their Ulys. On a forum like this you are likely to hear a lot more about problems than not. Like Ulyman says.....it is best to get know the bike inside and out. It is an adventure bike after all. BadWeB has been a terrific source of help. More so than the dealerships and the service manual. It is available 24-7 from anywhere in the World. If you are more concerned about problems that might happen than the awesome ride of what is the Ulysses, perhaps a Honda Accord is more of what you need. No offense intended. | ||
| 1324 |
Absolutely no offense taken... FWIW, I'm not embarking on a sole 20k trip. Between the 2-3 trips I have planned plus commuting and weekend romps, I'll hit 20k in the next year easily. I've been putting ~13k per year on my Speed Triple. Just want to know what I'm getting myself into. I liked my XB's. A lot. They were a love/hate relationship, but they generally were good (except for the 03 that blew an oil seal on the track and sent me flying at 75 mph, lol). I have no problem fixing and have had all of my motorcycles apart many times. Even rebuilt an XB engine in my 05 to fix bad valve guide seals. So basically, work isn't the issue. Getting stuck in MO en route to MotoGP is a concern. I have good AAA coverage for my commute, though I don't want to stand on the side of I80 in NJ if i can help it. Definitely not looking to buy parts for a bike sight unseen. Just looking to become educated on what changes may have been introduced as running change. I know of several areas on these bikes subject to such upgrades and wanted the 'truth in lending'. | ||
| Uly_man |
1324 you have said it all about the bikes and all you need to do is treat them as you did with your old XBs. Sounds like you know the bikes so running a Uly will be the same. You just need to ask if you want to. You should now better than many. |
