| Author | Message | ||
     Steveford |
Getting there...  | ||
| Bfallon |
Any thoughts on preventive maintenance? Do you seek a particular RPM while riding? I'd like to take this same picture some day. My '07 still runs and looks remarkably new; 17,000 miles. | ||
| Rcf2 |
 | ||
| Steveford |
I don't think I do anything that's really out of the ordinary. I do the maintenance at 5,000 mile intervals and that consists of Mobil 1 15/50 in the engine and primary, a Purolator oil filter, adjust the clutch and lube the cable and clutch lever. In the Spring I change the brake fluid and clean and oil the K&N air filter, TPS reset is done every 10,000 miles and every once in a blue moon I'll change the fork fluid. Wheel bearings at 40,000 mile intervals are a good idea and neoprene fork gaiters slobbed on the inside with grease will protect the seals. I normally ride in the 3500-5200 RPM range with an occasional full throttle blast or two to blow the cobwebs out. I've only done stoppies when trying to keep from dying in traffic, no wheelies, I'm smooth with the clutch and it doesn't go off road. It kind of leads a hellish existence as the majority of miles are spent either doing 80 MPH or 3 MPH in city traffic. Acid rain from being parked outside during the day has certainly taken it's toll. All in all it's been pretty good, I don't see why it won't hit 200,000 with enough perseverance. Things wear out or break and I replace 'em, hit it with a hammer and back to it. | ||
| Ourdee |
Congrats. | ||
| Motorfish |
 | ||
| Brother_in_buells |
Very good | ||
| Hughlysses |
Long live the Uly!  | ||
| Roostre |
| ||
| Rays |
Nicely done! My hat is off to you sir. | ||
| Smorris |
i hope mine will get there. having better luck with high mileage on the 04 triumph Sprint ST. but now with the bugs worked out of the Buell, its become my go to bike for solo riding and non- long distance 2 up. | ||
| Steveford |
Smorris, You have good taste in bikes! I've filled up the garage with Sprints, they're just great bikes. The only thing I see you may not have done is to get that stout throttle butterfly shaft and move that ECM as far away as possible from the seat pan. | ||
| Smorris |
have the tootle shaft in the parts box and ECM also completed. guess i need to update. thanks for the comment about the bikes. both nephews that ride went the triumph route. i'll try and post, but i restored the 1970 CT70H, that i got new as a kid. parents kept it, i got running again for my Dad to ride after he retired and then my sister ended up with it, then back to me to get running and R & R. still in original paint | ||
| Steveford |
Old pile actually got abandoned on the side of the road this evening due to a snapped belt and no tow trucks available. Looks like tomorrow I have to arrange a tow and then it's new belt and rear pulley time. The rear pulley is pretty notched so maybe that's what's caused belt Number Three to snap as I shifted into 5th on the highway. | ||
| Dualsportdad |
Hopefully she's back on the road now. May I ask what miss you have done to the bike and how long they have been in place? | ||
| Steveford |
Actually it's in the classifieds but if it doesn't sell I'll get it back on the road and keep on going. Selling stuff is always challenging but buying things is easy for me! There must be a typo in your sentence about what "miss have you done to the bike". If you mean modifications it was race kit and Lightning bars, cables and fender right out of the crate, r/h cooling scoop shortly thereafter, low seat, luggage, neoprene fork gaiters, different brake pads and that's pretty much it. I set it up the way I wanted it and then broke it in whenever there wasn't ice on the road back in 2006. The wear and tear stuff has been getting me down: clutch, rear wheel bearings, front isolator, now belt and rear sprocket all within a short period of time. I probably should have done it all at the bike refresh. | ||
| Steveford |
I should mention I went with a Barnett clutch which is working out perfectly so far. I guess it's been in there for 7500 miles or so, good bite and predictable release. | ||
| Dualsportdad |
Thanks for letting me know, and yes I did mean mods. It seems like all the high mileage bikes have a race kit installed. I wonder if that helps the bike last longer. I notice way less heat on my right leg with a race kit installed but I can't take the noise so my 06 has slight mods done with mostly stock parts. | ||
| Steveford |
My guess is the kit has helped to keep me from getting run over by texting nitwits. I can't really comment on the stock exhaust as I removed it as soon as I signed the paperwork. At the time I was the "Buell guy" at a dealership so onto the lift it went, I got rid of all of the dirt bike-type stuff, put on the race kit and started the break-in during the Winter of 2006. Bags went on that Spring and as I was showing off my wonderful bike to my future wife a latch snapped off in my hand! Hmmm... One observation is that when Syn3 first came out I tried it in the bike and it made the cooling fan come on all the time. After a few hundred miles of that I dumped it out and went back to Mobil 1 15/50. If the bike hadn't finally sucked in a bunch of road grit from construction I had to ride through every day I'm pretty sure the engine would not have had to come apart. | ||
| Dualsportdad |
I hear you about the texters. I live in a town where there is a lot of snow birds that don't know where they are going, texting etc and make last second manuvers. I wish the race pipe projected the sound more out and away instead of right into my helmet. Shame to since it really does smooth the engine out and help it run noticeably cooler in South Florida heat. Oh so the engine has been apart, I wasn't aware of that. | ||
| Tleighbell |
Dualsport, do you ride with earplugs? I never ride without them now. They make a big difference in riding enjoyment. MY ears don't ring after a long ride. Very highly recommended. | ||
| Steveford |
I think it was 93,000 it got a rear cylinder and piston, front cylinder just got rings, cleaned up the heads, new PCV valves, reed valve, that kind of stuff. There's a thread on here a year or two back about it. | ||
| Dualsportdad |
No, I don't ride with ear plugs. The town I live in has me spending most of my time idling in traffic. On the rare occasion I do get out of town it's usually to the Everglades to ride gravel roads. Steve I'll look back for the thread. | ||
| Steveford |
Found them. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/791231.html?1470251264 http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/803910.html | ||
| Steveford |
I must admit, when I was working on my 06 Triumph Tiger today I appreciated the simplicity of the Mighty Useless. At least some thought was given to actually working on the motorcycle instead of doing something daft like, oh, I dunno, having to undo 11 screws (plus pull the battery) to remove a gas tank because that's needed to get at the radiator cap. | ||
| Tootal |
You know...there's some great engineers out there, and then there are ones you'd like to meet in a dark alley!  | ||
| Ourdee |
Having worked in the auto industry, I get why some things are assembled certain ways. Some of those ways do not make later tasks to maintain the vehicle easy. It comes down to saving pennies per unit. $0.05 per unit comes to $150.00 a week if you do 3,000 units a week, or $7,800 a year. Some of those decisions are stripped from the engineer. Then ask yourself, how many things got nickeled-and-dimed. The industry has became that brutal. I didn't just consider man hours in repairing product, but had to count how much value it used out of a piece of sandpaper with velcro backing that was on my tool. Justifying a repair became easy when plant capacity was maxed out and all the products were already sold. That wasn't always the case. But when it was, my budget could go into the millions per day. I digress. | ||
| Steveford |
You could see it with Buell as once Harley got control they instantly started making the bikes cheaper and sometimes more difficult to work on. Alloy oil tank or removable side plates come to mind. With the Tiger, my 955 has a the coolant overflow tank built with an opening inside the dash which is a nice feature. On the 1050 Tiger you have to pull the tank (which is a project) to top it up. They probably saved a dollar or two per unit doing it that way. Just crazy. | ||
| Sprintex |
I had a 97 Sprint Executive , I hated working on it,nothing was simple. Sold it and my Ducati Paso to buy the Uly. Other then working on it it was a very nice bike. | ||
| Steveford |
You had three carbs, too, and the Paso bodywork, what fun! The best description I've heard of the Triumph triples and Ducatis is that they are "wrenchy". Not bad bikes by any means but just like you said, nothing was simple. |
