| Author | Message | ||
     Froggy |
Today was the first day in nearly a year that I have ridden my trusty old 2006 XB12SS/Uly. About a year ago, I got into an accident that involved me rear ending a car. Long story short, I got sent over the handle bars, broke my collar bone, wrist, bruises all down my right side. Bike bent the forks, front rim, and some minor other damage like fairing bracket, bent bar end, slight tear on the seat. When I was working with the insurance, I thought I would only be getting about a grand or so as the damage was minor. The insurance adjuster rocked (thank you Progressive), he informed me that I had $3k in accessory coverage (was only $1k the year before, they bumped it up). He started looking over my bike, and started writing up all kinds of things. Those that know me and my bike know that it's far from perfect. He wrote up things damaged in previous minor mishaps, and some things I never noticed were damaged/scraped/not 100% perfect. Needless to say, I got a check for about half the MSRP of a new 1125CR. August 1st I ended up buying an 1125CR instead of fixing my XB. I instantly fell in love with the CR; it was everything I ever wanted in a bike. Faster, more powerful, more comfortable, and more "WTF did I buy this thing for?" moments than either my old Uly or my wrecked XB. I ended up losing all desire to repair the XB. She sat sleeping on Pit-bull rear stand in my garage..... Till now. Slowly I have been collecting used parts on here, scrounging up whatever I can to cheaply reassemble it. I struck gold over the winter; I found a complete set of forks, trees, and wheel off a 08 1125R. Perfect! I got them; they also sat in the garage for a while due to my laziness. About a month ago, I finally decided to get into gear and get her working again. I started buying all kinds of tools I never used before including rubber mallets. I will not bore you with the build details including all the little snags, but I came a long way and got to know my bike in many more ways than I thought I could do on my own. She isn't done, but she is drivable for now. Wow, what a machine. Fired up on my first try, even with year old gas that didn't have any stabilizer in it. I am not sure how many miles are on the tank, as I was hypermiling when I crashed, so I will have to go fill it up soon and see. The bike feels so awkward. The Lightning bars and Uly foot pegs make me feel like I am driving a recliner. I am upright and in the wind, not a feeling I am used to as I have been spoiled by the perfect ergonomics of the stock 1125R and CR. Another weird thing I noticed, I can perfectly flat foot, something I can't do on the 1125's. Unfortunately, my shift linkage is broken, so I used a wrench and nudged it into 4th gear so I can put around. Local speed limits are 40mph, and it wasn't much putting around till I can get to the more open roads, so I figured my clutch won't suffer that much. I get going, easing on the throttle and clutch to take off in 4th. She does it without much effort and gets up to a nice cruising speed of around 45mph. The bike feels so odd; I am not used to the vibrations of the motor, the sound of the Micron exhaust, or the honk of the open airbox kit. The bike is feeling very "loose". She has over 40k miles on it, and every fastener has been removed at one point or another, everything clanks and rattles. The bike clearly feels much hacked together and homemade vs. my newish 1125's which are yet to be violated by me. So far so good, the wheel hasn't fallen off, bike seems to track straight, brakes still work, all systems nominal. I hopped on the highway so I can take it up to speed. I was terribly disappointed here, as even though I was running around 3500RPM's in 4th gear, the bike felt totally gutless and bogged down when I went wide open. It was a total shock to me, as this is about when the CR starts making serious power and in a blink of an eye you are doing triple digit speeds. The bike continued to cruise fine, it didn't skip a beat or in any way make me think anything was wrong, I cruised on home uneventful, pulled up my driveway, and shut the motor off and the fan came on. I thought to myself in that instant, "Wow, the XB fan sure as hell is quieter than the 1125's";. I rolled her back into the garage; she needs some more minor work like correctly routing the brake line and some mirrors and such. Tomorrow I plan on taking it out for a longer ride to see how I continue to feel about her, but she clearly didn't do for me what she's done in the past, and now feels kind of like a worn out old hag. Dedicated track bike? Part out? XBRR conversion? The future holds all the answers. | ||
| Spiderman |
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| Froggy |
Ok fine, I did take some pictures after I got home. I don't think they were post worthy, but here is some   Oh and Johnnylunchbox, I was following your wife on 6N on my way home, she drives slow and I can't stand the fumes from that damn TDI. (Just had to vent)  (Message edited by froggy on May 15, 2010) | ||
| Andymnelson |
now THAT'S an open air box!  the thing I love about the XBs is that they take some skill to be good on. Everyone with an R6 thinks that they are a crazy good rider because their bike is fast. I outrode all 3 of them through some twisties last weekend on my fiances XB9SL while setting up the new suspension! I find them a hoot. I also found the 1125CR a hoot to ride (at 135 mph at Buell demo days last year- our local dealer rocked!) ....but it just didn't do it for me. | ||
| Andymnelson |
glad you're gettin somewhere on the rebuild tho! It's fun when you actually make some progress huh? | ||
| Firebolt32 |
You didn't wear her purple gear though did you Andy? Nice job on the rebuild Froggy. I wanted so bad to buy my bike back when State Farm totaled it. It was legally my old man's and he talked me out of it. I'm trying to find something now I can rebuild while the leg heals. I'm itching so bad to ride again! | ||
| Greg_e |
It's never going to have the same rush as the 1125. Here's my suggestion: Pull the micron and sell it for a decent amount. Put the stock exhaust back on. Put the stock air box back on. Reset the ECM to the stock-ish maps, maybe tweak them a little for a better ride. Treat it like a touring machine and be happy. With the longer frame and swingarm it was never meant to be a track bike and while it would still be fun you would be better off with an R for the track. I'm sure you could trade it even for a decent 12R if you no longer want it for the road. And in that case you would definitely want to put the stock exhaust back on it, and put the Micron on the track bike. | ||
| Barnyard |
That is awesome  | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
Froggy, yes she texted me that you were stalking her with your blue stitch. She does not know how to drive slowly, so there must have been someone in front of her. Funny TDI story. I was in the VW one night and I had a cop following me right on my ass. Looking for a reason to pull me over. So when I got to the light on Rt 6, he was still a few inches from my bumper. It was about 10 degrees out so I'm sure his heat was blasting. I ever so slightly kept my foot on the accelerator and must've stunk up his car something fierce with my diesel exhaust. As I pulled away from the light he backed off. I hope he learned his lesson. | ||
| Tootal |
Don't feel bad Froggy, I took a Triumph Trident apart 20 years ago, rebuilt the engine, had it painted and rechromed and it's been on the shelf ever since. Everything was going good till I bought the Harley. I never seem to work on anything else for some reason!! Then came the 06 Buell that I've evolutionized as upgrades were made available yet the Trumpet waits. Oh well, some day! | ||
| Froggy |
Well I am home after a 150 mile ride. Ran her down till the gas light came on, filled her back up and went for a cruise. I was stuck in 5th gear so I couldn't really wick it up in the twisties, but it felt good on the higher speed sweepers. Something feels funny when I am engine off coasting, similar to the brake pulsing but not quite. I think I may need to tighten the steering neck some more. The bike feels good and seemed much happier today. I noticed the charging system working better because I have 0 accessories on it right now. Normally my volt meter is going nuts at low RPM's, now its solid green even at 700rpm. Greg, you might not be aware, but the XBRR was based off the longer 4.4 gallon XB's. The tree's are different, and I tried to use the 1125R trees on my XB but the lower one is notched differently than the XB ones, so for now I am using the stock trees with 1125R forks. The bike does cruise nice, I will have to see what I want to do with it in the long term. Steve, yea there was a few cars in front of her. Cool story bro | ||
| Greg_e |
Wheel base on the X is 2 inches longer than on the RR or R, the rake and trail on the X is also much different from the R and RR, all of these things will add up to much slower cornering (but will be more stable at speed). Specs from: http://www.buell.com/en_us/experience/news/detail. asp?news_id=783 http://www.buell.com/en_us/bikes/sport/XB12R/speci fications.asp http://www.buell.com/en_us/bikes/adventure/XB12X/s pecifications.asp While the frame may have the same fuel capacity, until you get the steering head angle to be the same, along with the rake and trail and probably wheel base it will never handle as quickly. The lean angle between RR and X is also fairly different so you might end up grinding parts on the track in the corners. I could see you spending thousands of dollars trying to get the X into an RR configuration. Still, I'm certain it would be fun on the track, but I think you would be better off with a 12R or even a 9R as a dedicated track bike. Maybe really get into it and build a 9RR with good ram air induction and see what you can really crank out of it. | ||
| Ustorque |
Wow Frank, I forgot how good that bike looks when it isnt sticking out of the truck of a honda accord!  glad to see you got her back on the road. | ||
| Ulynut |
Wow! A ram air seat cooler! Why didn't I think of that? The gonads are gonna love you. | ||
| Froggy |
Greg, yes I am fully aware of the minor differences in the specs between bikes. Like I said before I was going to try and use the 1125R trees but they are not compatible with the XB frame (at least without grinding off the stops). I will eventually pickup some Firebolt trees to get rid of that few degree differences in the specs. I am going to put higher pegs on regardless as it drags way to easily plus I find the low pegs to me uncomfortable. I have already estimated the cost for the conversion to be about $3000, with majority of that being the bodywork. I have not contacted Erik Buell Racing yet to confirm pricing and whatnot for everything I need. It will sure be interesting, thats for sure! Oh yea the hero blue airbox cover is back on now, so no more ram air cooling   | ||
| Greg_e |
What is the possibility of getting an ECM and TB that allows for proper monitoring of the manifold pressure from the ram air? I'm VERY interested in this as I would really like to make my 9R have a real ram air induction. | ||
| Froggy |
Thats a good question, the XBRR does use dual T-bodies and DDFI3 fuel injection. the 1125's also have dual throttle bodies and DDFI3 with MAP sensor. |
