| Author | Message | ||
     Jake_blues |
well i've been inactive on this forum for quite some time now. I bought my 05 xb12r a year ago in july w/ about 35,000 miles on it, and from the word go, had the regulator go out 3 times, had a rockerbox leak and some other problem i cant recall, this all being spread out over about 9 months(the first regulator was w/in the first week of me buying it. but last october after about 2 months in the shop waiting on parts i finally said f*** it, and started looking for a new sportbike. and decided on the only jap bike i could ever own, a 08 kawi ninja zx6r. well i put it on the market, and almost immediately had another problem(this time was the rocker box) and it stayed in the shop for about 3 months waiting on them to find the leak and waiting on another v.r. so by april i finally started pushing to sell it again. after many calls of interest, a few online scammers and even a tow truck that tried to tow it because it had a for sale sign on it, at my work, in the employee parking area($120 to get it off the truck right then, the owner of the lot got an ear full from my manager and reimbursed me), after all this i finally just traded it in at the end of july towards a 09 nightster for my brother, he also traded in his 02 blast, and since i owed my mom money and she was helping him get his so we just called it even when i traded my bike in for him. I loved my firebolt and truly miss it like crazy, but it was just more trouble than it was worth, it had a lot of miles on it so some stuff was to be expected but my biggest problem was the fact that i couldnt get parts for it w/o waiting for more than a month(and since i dont deal w/ my local buell hating hd/buell dealer,) the only decent dealer was about 3 hours away near new orleans. i was pretty active on here up until last october, and once my bike was in the shop i just got out of the habit of getting on here. and i just wanted to thank everyone that ever gave me any advice on anything for all their help. this website was by far the best thing about the buell culture that i've found and i wanted to congratulate everyone on here on having by far the best motorcycle forum on the internet!!!! the people on here are by far the most friendly, and helpful that i've come across. I now visit zxforums, and kawiforums a lot, and i've gotta say, a lot(not all) of the people on there are the kinds of sportbike riders that give all of us a bad name(squids). Ha i do my best to counter any anti Buell/Harley statements(since i still own 2 harleys) i will always love buells, and hopefully one day down the road own another one, but that wont be until i move out of state, unless jackson, ms's dealer undergoes a drastic change. yall be careful, and have fun. i'll probably continue to be the occasional lurker on here  | ||
| Jake_blues |
 | ||
| Blake |
What dealership took 3 months to resolve a rockerbox leak? | ||
| Blake |
Regulator going out is probably a bad ground or short somewhere. When the second one went, they should have known that they needed to look for another root cause other than just a bad regulator. | ||
| Nobuell |
I hate to hear about the loss of a fellow Buell rider. Good luck with your new ride. | ||
| New12r |
+Blake Shame you gave up on a bike with a simple problem. This is the reason none of my bikes get touched by anyone but me, EVER. Good luck with the Ninja! | ||
| Froggy |
I also am sorry about your loss, the problems you encountered with service never should of happened, especially several times over. Good luck with the Ninjer.  | ||
| Kdogshirow |
I have had no problems with the 2 Buells I have owned . A 00M2 and a 07XB9R . If I did have an issue , it was because of something I did . I think you might have had a lemon or had a bad shop working on it . I also work on my own bikes , because you just can't trust these Harley shops , they don't like Buells . And most of them don't like modified Buells and will blame any problem on that . | ||
| Metalstorm |
Don't be a stranger. Stop by the BadWeB from time to time and say Hi | ||
| Jake_blues |
well i had told them i thought maybe it was leaking fork oil(because that was the furthest point forward and up that was showing oil) but i also made sure to tell them i'm not at all mechanically inclined. so they rebuilt the forks and everything looking for it and couldnt find anything. so called me when the vr finally came in and said it'd been test ridden and they couldnt find a leak(when i took it in the whole right side was covered) so paid the $50 ded. and took it up the interstate to check before loading it up for the long haul home, and kept it up around 85-90mph for about 10 mins to wake it up a bit after its long nap, and sure enough i got to a turn around to head back and it was soaked in motor oil...so apparently whoever test rode it never went more than around the parking lot...and when i brought it back they apologized and knew right then what it was(when i brought it down it was in pouring rain so the original mess was washed off). this was in hammond LA, but other than that they were nothing but good to me. i wouldnt say that a few problems is the reason i got rid of it...it was just because i couldnt afford to keep going to hammond or houma to the closest decent buell shops...that was my biggest reason. and i am not at all mechanically inclined. so far so good w/ the ninja...if i can just keep those damn dodge rams out of my way. i had one pull out in front of me on a main road in my college town and just stop dead in the middle of the road giving me all of about 1.5 seconds to pic a spot to go(ridiculous amounts of gravel to the right, and 2 full lanes of traffic to the left) so i picked his left rear tire and slammed into him at about 35mph due to my brakes locking up, and did a stoppie into the bed ha...luckily i landed like a cat and all that was hurt on my bike was the fairing. ha i had just had my first oil change(600 miles) done the day before(i'd had it for a week and a half) and then that happened...ha i thought i was gonna cry...luckily the only damage was to my fairing, the guys rim and 3 small scratches on the inside of my elbow. luckily a friend of mine's dad builds custom choppers so he is now my harley mechanic, and the only one i trust to work on them, the man is a freaking mechanical genius. i'll keep an eye out on here from time to time...i do know that my next buell will NOT be used(i am now in love w/ the 09 black 12rs...when the 08s came out in black w/ red and white w/ blue i wanted to combine the black w/ blue and thought it was be gorgeous...and i was right!!! ha...maybe in a few years  | ||
| Firebolt32 |
Better the Kawi than the Buell! Kidding...sucks to hear the troubles. When you buy another Buell get the shop manual. If you can read, know what tools are and can use them, you can work on your own bike. Good luck bro! | ||
| Jake_blues |
well the kawi is my baby though...ha the buell i bought used cuz i wanted something that wouldnt get jacked while at school...and was gonna upgrade to a brand new one when i graduate. yeah i'll just get a shop manual and do it myself if i dont live near a decent shop by the time i'm in the market for another buell but one is definitely in the future...just no idea when | ||
| U4euh |
Hey whats your username on ZxForums? I'm on there as Buellin8tor. If you ever decide to take that strap off your rear seat let me know, I have one without that I'll trade you! Yea don't be a stranger, I now ride a Z1000 but like you said above, this is by far the best forum with the best people on it! | ||
| Jake_blues |
its just jakeg823 on there. zxforums is ok...its a shame that this site hogs all the cool people ha. can you put up a picture of that seat on ther? i never thought about that | ||
| B00stzx3 |
Commie traitor!!! Jk, good luck man. Next time buy a Buell with less than 35k  ZX6Rs are quick lil bikes and eye-catching in "kawi-green" | ||
| Andymnelson |
Yeah it's tough to see your experiences. I have owned my XB for a couple of years now- 100% trouble free. I wish everyone had the same experience as me. Good luck with the Kawi- avoid those Rams! | ||
| Zatco81 |
Yeah...if you can't Dodge it...well you know. | ||
| U4euh |
Yea I'll get a picture 2nite. At work right now won't be home till after 6. | ||
| Jake_blues |
yeah i mean every bike has problems, and i got the extended warranty for that reason, but i also bought the bike while i was still on good terms w/ the local shops service dept...plus the $50 deductible was ridiculous...2 years of ex warranty was like $1000 for the buell...4 years on my ninja was $400, plus it doesnt have a deductable, and kawi has a lot more dealers in my area so its not a problem to go to another shop if i have to. i'm still very pro-buell, there isnt a better looking bike in my opinion, but the kawi ninja has always been my favorite sportbike, as far as jap bikes go, plus there tend to be less squids riding kawis, unlike the gsxr riders(thats at least in my area, cant say what all gsxr riders are like) | ||
| Wavex |
Dude you lucked out... when I ran into a car @ 35mph (same scenario you described) my bike was broken in half, and I flew in the air and landed 40 feet on the other side of the car... you just broke a piece of plastic and landed in the bed of the truck!!! nice... | ||
| Jake_blues |
ha actually i landed on top of the bike...my hands were on the fairing and tank and my legs were spread out onto either side of it...it was pretty crazy...i was up and cussing that dumb @$$ before he even made it out of his truck | ||
| Metalstorm |
I'm glad you're liking the Kawi. I had really good luck with my Kawi's. I had an '87 EX 500 and a '92 Zephyr 750. neither bike ever had to visit the shop except for routine services. Well... there was the thing about the EX snapping clutch cables but that was before I learned that you're supposed to lube them! It wasn't the bike's fault. Operator error. Come to think of it, I've had really good luck with my XB too. Just don't don't ask me what I think of my old '85 Honda Nighthawk 450 (first bike). She was an evil, evil little beastie. What she lacked in power she made up for in vindictiveness. I think Kawi will always have a place in my heart. Lots of good memories on that Zephyr. | ||
| Jraice |
A kawi would be fun but the police look at me so much more differently on the Buell then my old R6. | ||
| Jake_blues |
ha yeah you do lose a certain amount of respect on a kawi that you get when on a buell, maybe its cuz it just doesnt talk to you like the buell...the sound i truly miss  i would go through parking lots and set off every car alarm w/in ear shot...it was pretty awesome, but my sporty does the same so its no biggy. but even(most of) the old harley guys like buells, one guy came and talked to me at hammond when i got done test riding after a stay in the shop, and i told him it was for sale and he said he couldnt own one cuz he'd have too much fun on it. |
