| Author | Message | ||
     Telewoodski |
Well I've had the '04 XBr for 3 months now, I put 4k miles on it in that time, and thought I was doing pretty good. Keeping the stick side down I mean. Last night all that changed. I put it in the ditch for the first time, on this bike, lots of times on others (mostly dirt bikes). I had been messing with the suspension, make little tweeks here and there, one at a time, and had a pretty good setup. Only a little different than what was stated in the manual for my weight. I was out running around in the corners, on a back woods road where nobody was around. It was an S complex, a moderate right hand turn into a shorter radius left hander. I came out of the first corner, rolled the bike over to setup for the next one, and started applying the throttle. I went through the compression of the start of the corner and was accelerating out, the front end getting a little lighter, when the handle bars started shaking badly. I applied the front brake slowly, and it made it worse, so I let off. I then started with the rear brake and that worked a little better, but by that time I was running out of road. When the bike was completely off the asphalt and in the gravel and weeds, I was headed for a hard and abrupt stop if I didn't do something. I applied ample rear break, and laid the bike over and slid to a stop. Well, not a stop, more like a whump.... The bike was still running for a while as I shook the stars out of my head. I laid there for a second thinking "Sh*t, how much is this going to cost?" So I went over and picked the bike up to take a look. Ewhhhhh.... Total damage includes: Both turn signals on the left The rear view mirror on the left The oil cooler cover The rider foot peg Bent the gear shift lever and lots of little scratchs on the frame and rear body work. All and all not too bad. I took a look around to see if anyone witnessed it, and fired it back up and rode it home. Well as I was looking over my body back at the ranch, checking for all the black and blue that showed up on my carcass, I started thinking about the suspension settings that I was riding. I had dropped preload, compression and rebound a couple of clicks all around, to soften the ride on the washboard road that I frequent for fishing. I good setup for trout, but not so hot for the asphalt. All of the other bikes I've owned where more dirt oriented, and I still ride a lot in the rough with the XB. Not motocross style of course, but I like to camp and fish. I was lazy, and didn't take the time to switch back to a stiffer setup for the road, and it cost me. I may never learn. Kinda got a little thick headed when I turned 40. So I guess the moral of my story is to double check what my bike is setup for at the time and ride inside those settings, if I'm fishing or riding the curves hard. | ||
| Dago |
Sorry to hear about that, and I'm glad you're okay. You sound like the perfect candidate for a Ulysses. How in the heck do you carry your fishing pole and tackle box? I'd like to ride to my little spot, but can't think of a good way to carry my gear. | ||
| Jasonxb12s |
Glad you're OK. Rock on! | ||
| Telewoodski |
When the Uly came out I avoided this site for days. It figures Erik would come out with something even cooler than my XBr. It's not in the stars for me now to move up to the Uly, but man do I want one bad. Dago, I usually leave me pole and box at the hole, stuffed in a tree trunk out of site. If I need to I throw anything else I need in a backpack. The ride is only half an hour so it's not so bad. I'm looking into some of this kind of gear: http://www.wolfmanluggage.com/ Looks like good stuff, made in CO. Could pack for a year with some of this stuff. | ||
| Frausty12r |
Glad yer alright man.. grass/weeds/ and a bit of gravel are to be taken over asphalt whenever possible, in the event its inevitable. Good news is, I have a suggestion for you on repairing the plastics *grin*, been there done that (lowside in a ditch) Go to home depot, get some tripoli compound and a high-speed buffer (1600 rpm) if you have one. Also get some foam wax aplicator bonnets and several terrycloth bonnets.. use the wax applicator under the terrycloth bonnet on the buffer (keeps the buffer wheel from chewing through the cloth bonnet making a bigger Uh-oh - can you tell I've done this before) Load up the terry cloth bonnet with tripoli (it's the reddish orange dried up vomit looking stuff) then slowly and lightly polish an inch or two at a time.. once you've polished out all the scratches and have a slight haze, a few coats of meguiars car polish, and a few follow up coats of meguiars car wax on a low speed buffer.. and looks like new. Deep gouges may need some sanding, perpendicular to the scratches, alternating 90* for each drop in sandpaper grit ie up-down then left right with next.. this insures all scratches are sanded. Was kinda fun wasn't it? *grin* like a roller coaster from hell that you can't get off of, well you could.. but that would be worse than arriving back at the station. | ||
| Telewoodski |
Wow Frausty, sounds like you have been there before. I was going to go home tonight and stroll into the garage and take a look at the plastics. That technique sounds like a good one. Any ideas on the grey paint on the frame? As far as the roller coaster ride, yea it was a bit hellish. Kinda like the ghost in the machine nightmare. Something invisible reached out and grabbed the handle bars and wouldn't let me have control. Hate to have it happen A little bit farther down the road, nowhere to go..... | ||
| M1combat |
IF you can... I've heard that one sure way to stop a wobble is to get the front off the ground. Granted... landing the front and diving into a now VERY tightened corner at higher speed isn't always the best thing, but I hear it at least stops the wobble... | ||
| Emscityx |
A few points. (1) Glad you are OK. (2) now you can get the carbon fiber oil cooler cover from Am Sport Bike and (3) see http://www.troutlet.com/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=371 a Daiwa Minicast...a packable rod & reel...I have a 20-year old one that I'm just now starting to use to feed the fish my worms with. | ||
| Tunes |
Telewoodski - Glad to hear you're ok. Bikes can be fixed and much quicker too. Take care of those old bones, yer gonna need them later. I own a set of Wolfman saddlebags. I've had them for 5 years now. They're holding up very nicely. I run them on my '67 Atlas, so they get "Brit-bike" dirty, which is the worst kind of dirt.  Excellent material, workmanship, and design. You can tell that someone who rides a motorcycle designed them. Keep the rubber side down, bro... | ||
| Spatten1 |
Good to hear that you are OK. You are way less of a dummy than me. I low sided my nine on the first ride. Irrational over-exuberance in a left-hander. I had similar damage, but the frame was untouched. I made swingarm sliders and bought the frame pucks right away. | ||
| Cmm213 |
Everyone gets the occasional wake up call. I bet you will stay one your toes now. Glad you are ok, replace the parts and learn from it. | ||
| Frausty12r |
Actually Teledowski, I found some paint at Autozone, thats almost an exact match. Don't have the part number handy, but I know it was duplicolor, and I believe it was a gm paint code. Dark graphite or something.. What you could do.. is take off the shifter side peg perch, three allen head screws, I think 5mm (not 100%) take that in with you, and match it to the top of the can. Duplicolor's line is pretty good at matching the top once dried, btw, is yours the light grey or dark grey frame? (I know the blue ones have the lighter of the two, just not sure what color you had) I do know a guy who bought a used XB9r Blue, and the frame paint was scratched up a bit, he bought two cans of another duplicolor GM paint code, masked off the areas not to be painted.. and you can't tell it's not the original paint. | ||
| Aldaytona |
Actually Buell sells the EXACT frame color touch up in spray or brush on. | ||
| Dago |
Good find, Emscityx. I could use one of those. Al is right. I use the Buell frame paint on my frame pucks. It's a perfect match. | ||
| Monorad |
Get a steering damper. Al at American Sport Bike sells the LSL which worked wonders for me. Best 300 I spent on my bike so far. No more wobble. Ever. | ||
| Telewoodski |
I guess I should have logged on last night. I left the office and never looked back to the web. I moved the blinkers around, put the two good ones on the front, and bent the shifter back, and put one of the passenger pegs up front. Back on the road now, and did the commute to the office this morning. All good....  I had one of the compact Diawa's, my sister broke the tip off in the door of the cabin and still hasen't replaced it. So I stick with what I have, kinda don't like to throw too much money at the fish. Then I picked up the idea that I could learn how to throw fly's at the fish, all "A River Runs Through It" like. Still don't quite get the concept. Every bug that bites me when I'm on the river I use as the model for the fly I pick, but the fish never bite back. Must be the cosmic timing or something. M1, I wish I had the extra horsepower to pull of a wheelie at the critical moment. I'm still working out the hole in middle of the power band. I think I'll go with the TFI and hope the shop in Idaho Falls knows how to tune on the Dyno. I had fell below the 4K rpm mark, and when that happens the lag to get back up over 5K is brutal. Once I'm over the 5k mark all is good, but it wasn't happenin that night. Monorod, that's one of the wish list parts that I'm working on. I've heard that the LSL is the sh*t. I washed the bike last night, and she isn't as pretty as she was, but I can live with it. Heck, I even rode it to work today. I'm going to buff out the rear piece like Frausty suggested, and get some of the Buell paint to touch up the rest. I'm thinking of getting those Speedzilla mirrors with the integrated blinkers, and move the remaining front blinkers to the back. Then get the LED tail lights, and the LSL Steering Danmpner, then the TFI, then the pipe, and the head kit, and the... We'll all in good time. Thanx guys for all the support, keep it on the sticky side. | ||
| Nadz |
I second (third?) the Wolfman bags. Have Beta Rear Bag, love it. It also has lotsa places to strap on more bags. -NadZ | ||
| Frausty12r |
Telewoodski, One recommendation/suggestion Get some 80 grit, 160 grit, 400, and 800 grit sandpaper. (depending how deep the scratches are, you may be able to omit the 80 grit, as mine were about 1/32" deep) Use it stepping up grits after cycling left to right up to down sanding. Once you've worked your way up to the 800.. do it one last time WET (up/down - left/right) (I kept a little bucket of water with me and just rinsed the sandpaper off in it) It took me about 3 hours start to finish on the sanding, and the next day I polished/waxed it in about 30 mins. I wouldn't suggest taping off the area you're sanding as then you may have slight thickness variations, but if you don't care.. then tape it off with a few layers of masking tape. (I didn't, and it turned out flawless. lemme see if I have pics somewhere. Before /after (Message edited by frausty12r on August 06, 2005) |
