| Author | Message | ||
     Keith |
Product Reviews The recent trips gave me the chance to test four new products, the Crossroads Handlebars, Icon’s TiMax gloves, the Buell 2004 belt upgrade, and the Buell Traction hand grips. Crossroads Handlebars for the XB9S The stock riding position on the XB9S is great around town or on short trips. For extended riding at 70 mph or higher, it is simply too upright for me and I get tired of hanging on in the wind. I tried two different handlebars and they still did not do what I wanted, so I broke down and purchased the Crossroads from Dave Stueve, one of BadWeB’s sponsors (Harley-Davidson of Appleton).  Crossroads Handlebars Photo by Keith The kit arrived a few days later and was relatively easy to install. Although the instructions are very concise and clear, the Xeroxed photographs showing cable routing are not. As a result, my throttle did not work very freely. I emailed Crossroads and a couple of days later, I had the digital “originals” which allowed me to see the cable routing much more clearly. With said photos in hand, I was able to see that I had indeed incorrectly routed one of the throttle cables. After rerouting, the cables now work fine except for when the handlebars are turned full left lock. The left fork leg puts the cables in just enough of a bind that the throttle hangs. This only occurs at full left lock.  Pinched Cable Photo by Keith The Crossroads routing of the clutch cable puts it in a bit of a bind as well. However, frequent application of cable lube keeps this from being a problem. Icon’s TiMax Gloves I purchased the gloves on eBay and got a pretty good deal. The gloves are really well designed and well made with lots of heavy leather and armor in strategic places. You really feel that your hands could survive just about anything. As a result, the gloves are hot in warm weather and you feel the controls as if you had you heavy winter gloves on.  TiMax Gloves Photo by Keith The protection appears to be outstanding but I’m not sure I would spend the money again. No matter, you definitely get attention when you pull up to the gas pumps on a bellerin’ Buell with these on! Here is a link to a more in-depth review: http://www.webbikeworld.com/r2/icon/ 2004 Belt Upgrade Even though I’ve not experienced any problems, with all of the posts from fellow BadWeBers regarding the fragility of the 2003 belt drive, I was concerned about taking trips into Southeast Oklahoma or Northwest Arkansas where there are few Harley-Davidson or Buell shops. Getting stranded would not only ruin my vacation but those on the trip with me. Last year, Dave Stueve, one our sponsors, put together an upgrade belt kit for those of us with 2003 model XBs who wanted the 2004 spec belt. The belt is much thicker and appears to be designed for extreme applications. Installation was fairly straight forward if you have some basic mechanical skills, a good set of tools, the shop manual, and a bit of spare time. I’ve written a procedure for anyone who is interested in upgrading their secondary drive system.  ’04 Spec Belt Photo by Keith The upgrade looks great and eliminates a potential source of problems. Buell Traction Hand Grips The Buell Traction grips are a welcome option for the seemingly tiny hand grips that dominate the sport bike market. My grips were purchased from Dave Stueve, one of BadWeB’s sponsors (Harley-Davidson of Appleton). They were easy to install and look great. See photo of Crossroads handle bars with Traction grips installed above. If you have any questions regarding any of these products, please feel free to contact me through the email address in my profile. Later, Keith | ||
| Blake |
Comfort and ergonomics of the Crossroads bars? | ||
| Keith |
Regarding the Crossroads, the height and distance from the rider's seat are just about perfect for me. The only thing I would change is the included angle between the bars. They are splayed a little wider than I like and there is room between the bars and the frame at full lock to do this. | ||
| Blake |
Time for an update or WHAT??? Since you are wussing out on Laguna Seca this year, you must spend all race weekend updating your egregiously neglected rider's log. | ||
| Blake |
XB'ers! Rumor is that the Skully the Thrashinator has prepared his XB9S for some fun at the local track. Would it not be cool to see some online documentary commentary on that effort? Who's with me? | ||
| Rpmchris |
I have an inquiring mind - tell us how it's going, Keith!  | ||
| Paulson |
Hmmmm.... I have been enjoying this thread, and think that it would be great to hear what's happened in the past year with the XB. Maybe some more reviews now that there has been enough time to get a good feel? | ||
| Dbird29 |
Keith, Thanks again for the used parts. I did not realize they were BadWeb famous. DBird | ||
| Jon |
Oh wow...was that an R1 in the dirt?! I think Blake ejected his muffler on purpose...yeah that's right... on purpose. Look how happy he is to display the damaged thing.  Dbird29!! Saw you over at SacBorg. I like the cut of your jib...well most of it anyway. See you around. | ||
| Skully |
Wow! It looks like I have been neglecting my duties! It has been an extremely eventful year. I'll give a an update on Dark Horse Moto, what race preparations I have made to the XB, and what it looks like today. Paul- Thanks! A little encouragement goes a long way. Chris! When are you going to come to East Texas and ride with us? David- Yep, that's where the parts came from. I'm truly glad that someone will get some use out of them. Jon- yes, that is an R1. We happened up on the guy right after it happened. It was a miracle that he was not hurt. He was going a bit hot and locked up his rear brake entering the corner... Keith | ||
| Blake |
Post it here! | ||
| Skully |
Well Buell fans, it has been an interesting year. It seems that a large portion of it has been centered around motorcycles. Imagine that. My wife and I traveled to Hallett, Oklahoma in May to compete in the CMRA races held there. It was my first time at a track besides Oak Hill. I finished 25th out of 33 who completed the race. This was fantastic weekend. Blake and I attended the AMA/WSB weekend at Laguna Seca in July. I met several BadWeBers. What a great weekend!  When I dropped Blake off at the airport in San Jose, I picked up my wife and we drove a Mustang convertible from there to Portland, Oregon, all on the Pacific Coast Highway, all with no schedule. I’ve done portions of this road three times now, once on a bike and twice in a convertible. We really like North West California. Last August, on my way to work, I managed to low side my XB. What a way to start a Friday. The damage was limited to mostly easily replaced items like a mirror and a handle bar slider. However, the damage to the swing arm was not so easily repaired or replaced.  This gave me an idea: what if I had a slider on the swing arm like the handlebars? Thus Dark Horse Moto was born. Thanks to the great members of BadWeB and its sponsors, we have sold several hundred sets of sliders, and have new products being developed. I then competed in one final race at Cresson Motorsport Ranch. I finished 6th out of seven racers. Not exactly a stellar ride on my part. The F3 was soon to be sold. It was a great bike, but my wife and I knew this year (2005) was going to be busy, so the F3 had to go. This was not all bad as I kept some of the money and purchased a spare set of wheels for race rubber, a steering damper, and a belly pan so the XB could go to the track! What I didn’t count on was just how busy the year was really going to be… Stay tuned, Keith | ||
| Skully |
Fast forward to 2005… The F3 has been sold and I am collecting various components for the XB to make it track ready. Wheels and belly pan from Dave Stueve, steering damper (CMRA requirement for all bikes) from Al at American Sport Bike, and a lot of broken drill bits and safety wire.     | ||
| Skully |
    | ||
| Skully |
 Oil Filter Safety Wiring  Front Caliper Bolt Safety Wiring  Steering Damper (LSL)  Transponder Mounting Bracket  Oil Filler Cap | ||
| Loki |
hhhmmmmmm, Red Green would be proud of us. We used the magic material, called Duct Tape. | ||
| Skully |
And finally, the belly pan:  Spring appears and we make our annual “He Man Hairy Biker Trip” to Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas to camp, ride, and socialize. Who says you can’t go sport touring on a XB?  The ride up was slowed by light drizzle, fog, and the stator in Blake’s 97 M2 crapping out on a pretty desolate stretch of road. Fortunately Blake’s dad was with us on his Buell S3T which allowed us to swap batteries, unplug the head and tail lights to reduce battery drain, and continue on our way. Have you ever slept in a teepee?   | ||
| Skully |
 This year we end up with folks from Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, and California.  (Message edited by skully on October 16, 2005) | ||
| Skully |
Oops! I almost forgot: We had four Buells together at the same time!  | ||
| Skully |
The next thing I know it’s August and I have not even been on the track once this year let alone raced. Now there is only one remaining race at Oak Hill this season and my XB is STILL not ready to pass tech. I consult with some of the XB racers on BadWeB (Slaughter, Englishman119) and decide to try the Pirelli Dragon Super Corsas. Bryan (S1loki) decides he will come down and go through the new rider’s school which is being held on the Friday before the race weekend. That way he can race if he wants to and he will be able to rent the track with the rest of us. The weekend before the race, I finally get the XB ready and head out to the track for some practice. First thing I notice is how badly the bike shakes when I brake. The second thing I notice is how squirrelly the bike feels under braking compared to my F3. I up the damping on my steering; this helps some. I remember Al at American Sport Bike telling me that the stock brake pads leave deposits that can cause the bike to shudder under braking. This is the first time in nearly a year that have used this set of wheels so I cross my fingers and hope that heavy braking will help remove the glazing. As the day progresses, my lap times fall though still far from the times I ran with my F3 and the shuddering under braking all but clears up. My poor lap times are not the bikes fault – I’m not carrying any where near the corner speed that the XB is capable of and I’m still not happy with the bike under braking. I’m suspecting now that it is a suspension set up issue. The afternoon’s sessions are cut short by my check engine light coming on and the bike sputtering. I’m dreading this one because the last time it did this it was caused by a faulty connector on my PCIII. After I limp back to the pits, I find that the battery shows only 10 volts. Rats! Something in the charging system has died. Is it the battery, the regulator, or the stator? I get the bike home, put the battery on charge, and start checking the charging system. When I start the bike, the battery voltage does not increase at all pointing to a charging system problem, not the battery. I then check the stator and sure enough, it shows a short to ground. A call to Lone Star H-D (Tyler, Texas) results in a new stator and Dennis Kirk has a clutch spring compressor tool that is required to complete the task. It is now the Friday before the race, my bike is not ready, and Bryan is here for the rider’s school. Blake and I escort Bryan out to Oak Hill Raceway and help him get set up. Once he is in class, I head back to replace my bike’s stator. Blake graciously volunteers his time. When we open up the primary case, we are greeted with one of the most awful smells – burnt 75W-90 Mobil 1 synthetic oil. Wow, it even permeates my house! In the process of removing the shift lever, I manage to break it. Rats! I call Lone Star and Longview H-D with no luck. Double rats! Sigh, might as well keep going. We follow the factory repair manual and sure enough, the stator is toast.  Blake and I get the primary buttoned up. The job is nearly complete and Bryan has returned from rider's school with a big grin so we stop for the evening Saturday morning arrives and Bryan helps me get the bike back together and viola! The charging system works! A friend of mine, Martin, says he can weld the shifter back together. It is a race against time as there is a brief, two session practice Saturday afternoon. Martin is able to weld the shifter back together just in time! He also graciously lets me borrow his generator so that I can use my tire warmers. | ||
| Loki |
Sent some pics to your work addy | ||
| Blake |
It's worth reporting that the new stator, a "-B" part number, had noticeably beefier windings than the original. I understand even more improvements are in the works for Buell stators. More on that later in a KV topic near you.  Petite Jean SP ROCKS! The dead stator atop skyline drive in pea soup fog and rain was fun too. There was something cathartic about the whole affair.  I rode the rest of the weekend and all the way home by rigging a small 12VDC to 120VAC converter to a little battery tender type charger. Whenever we'd stop for a meal or to sight see, the old Cyclone turned into a voltage vampire. Thanks big time to my amazingly resourceful friend Ted for coming up with the idea. Didn't slow us down a bit after the initial failure. OHR ROCKS! Thanks Keith. Sorry for invading your abode here. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Why the spring compressor to replace the stator? Why not just remove the clutch pack and rotor cup and primary chain as a unit? | ||
| Skully |
Sorry for invading your abode here. Heck, that is what it's for. You filled in some of the missing details. Reepicheep - According to the factory manual, the clutch spring has to be compressed in order to get the pressure plate off and we did remove the clutch,rotor, and primary chain as a unit. We did not see a way to get around this. Did we miss something obvious? | ||
| Reepicheep |
(we can move these posts to the knowledge vault and restore your nice clean thread once we figure this out)... I have not done it on the XB (yet), but on the M2, I just removed the primary cover (which means you pull the ball and ramp assembly), removed a big (2" diameter maybe) snap ring that holds in some other bits, and you can then get straight to the transmission (counter?) shaft nut. Put a locking link (bar of aluminum) between the sprockets, pull that nut (hard torque with big socket) and the crank nut (psycho torque with monster socket) and the entire clutch assembly, and rotor magnet cup, and primary chain comes off cleanly as a unit. No disassembly of clutch required. I remember reading something somewhere in my M2 manual that originally made me think I needed the clutch spring compressor tool, but Aaron kindly set me straight, and after that I think I did find the above described procedure in the manual. | ||
| Skully |
Dark Horse Moto at Laguna Blaka! We arrive at the track just in time to get the bike teched and out for the first practice session. Our pit area is immediately dubbed “Laguna Blaka”.    | ||
| Skully |
I’m still pretty slow and I’m still not happy with the way the bike feels under hard braking. Blake suggests increasing the preload on the front forks. I have the manual with me, so we use the Buell recommended settings for the race track and I go back out for the second time. What a difference! The bike feels much more stable and my lap times drop a little more. I’m still pretty slow, but the bike is performing perfectly. I just need more time and a dose of confidence.  Sunday morning arrives and I get in a few laps during one of the morning practice sessions. There is no reason for me to wear out my tires, as I’m not going to make any large improvements at this stage. My goal is first, complete the race safely, and second, not be the last in my class across the finish line. Several Buellers visit us from the DFW area, three of which I don’t recall their names. The fourth, however, I do. It’s RPMChris from BadWeB! He saw Blake’s invitation to come and watch in Storm Fronts. I had met Chris back in January when Blake and I traveled to Grapevine, Texas to see Dave Stueve who was attending the H-D Dealer’s Meeting. We had a surprise visit from Erik Buell who ended up buying dinner for about 30 area Buellers. But I digress…  The first race that I signed up for is Unlimited Classic. I spent some time reading the CMRA rules and tried to pick classes that were the most Buell friendly. Anyway, due to the large number of entries on any given CMRA race day, they typically run at least two classes together, starting each class in a separate wave. The Lightweight Twins class was gridded first and Unlimited Classic was gridded second. When the flag was dropped, the Twins took off and then we were given the flag. There were five of us in Unlimited. I was quickly relegated to last place. Rats. I decided to keep my head down and see what happens. You never know… Well, near the end of the race (eight laps), I realized that I was gaining on the guy in fourth place. I continued to gain on him and finally, on the last lap, I caught him coming out of Turn 6 headed up the hill to Turn 7. Now, if I could just hang on… My luck held out and I met my goal of not crashing and not being last. Not exactly a stellar performance but still fun none the less. Now, it was hang time until my second race, the next to last race of the day. Fortunately the weather was not too hot. Hanging out with Blake, Bryan, Karsten, Christina, Ian, and Rodney, watching the races and watching the sights.  Now it is race time for me again and I could feel the butterflies jumping… Once again, my class, Formula CMRA Mediumweight, was gridded second with Formula CMRA Heavyweight being gridded first. I intentionally picked this class, as it is Buell friendly and had low participation during the season. When I had last checked, there were only two of us registered for today’s race. Hhhmmm, getting on the podium would be really cool. Well, the announcer made the final call for Race 19. I headed out for the sighting lap. When I gridded in my assigned position, there was no one else gridded in the second wave! What’s this!? I figured they had mistakenly gridded with the Heavyweight class. I could not spend any more time thinking about it as the flag was being dropped for the Heavyweights. The next thing I knew, the starter was waving me on. Somehow I had missed the start! Once again, I found myself in lonely last place. Rats! I decided to keep my head down and see what happens. Once again, on the next to last lap of the race, I realize that I am gaining on the guy in last place from the Heavyweight class. If I could only get past him, I would feel like I earned a place on the podium. I managed to get right on his tail and finally passed him between Turn 6 and 7. It seems this is my favorite place to pass at OHR. I was concerned as I had to keep this guy behind me for a full lap this time. Once again, my luck held out. Once again, not exactly a stellar performance, but also not only a podium, but a first place finish! If only they all turned out this way.   (Message edited by skully on May 13, 2006) | ||
| Skully |
I owe special thanks to my wife Angela, Blake, Joe Baird, Martin Watson, Karsten Farley, Bryan T. Nill, Dave Stueve, Al Lighton, Steve Slaughter, Mark Godfrey, Ian Beavers,and Jeremy Bartell. Without all of you, this would not have been possible.  | ||
| Loki |
pretty cool weekend wasn't it | ||
| Skully |
Oops! I almost forgot to include a photo of the Dark Horse Moto Racing Pit Crew!  |
