| Author | Message | ||
     Maximum |
...for a while. No I'm not selling it, but I am letting my brother use her for the next year while I am in Iraq. So in my last hurrah (for a year) I am taking a three day journey from Golden, CO to Southern New Jersey...a little over 2000 miles. I'm am leaving Colorado first thing on Saturday, and planning to arrive in NJ in time for dinner on Monday! Here is the route:  So if anyone sees a Red Uly X on the route...feel free to ride along for a while. I plan to visit Etennuly and some of the Tennessee boys while passing through their great state...but you never know who else I may see! I am now over 40k on my 2006 Uly, so I did the normal prep work like: 1. New tires (relatively). 2. Checked oil levels. 3. Installed new drive belt (old became spare for the trip). 4. inspected rear bearing (anti-seized the crap out of them). 5. Installed freshly painted OEM muffler (removed Drummer) for a more quite ride. 6. Performed TSP reset (obviously since I put stock ecm back on). 7. Updated my Zumo maps. 8. Verified torque of major nuts and bolts. She still looking pretty sweet...even if I say so myself...and she is riding as great as ever.  I'll keep you all posted on the trip, and I hope to get my brother hooked on Badweb too. While I'm overseas, you guys will be the best source of advice and info should he encounter any issues (hopefully not)! | ||
| Buellerxt |
Great looking bike, Maximum. Ride safe and have a good, safe year. We'll look forward to your updates from the road and from the M.E. Be safe. | ||
| Cyclonedon |
Have a great trip Steve! We're going to miss you at Homecoming this year. | ||
| Paralegalpete |
That looks like a great ride, enjoy, and post some pics up | ||
| Ratbuell |
If you're in Maryland near bedtime, give Kim and I a shout. We've got a spare bed and a cold one for ya  If it's a Weds or a Sunday, it's my day off - I'll join ya for a leg of the trip! | ||
| Nevrenuf |
max, have a safe trip and god speed when you head to iraq. thanks for your service. | ||
| Etennuly |
Steve's itinerary has him here Sunday evening. I am planning a Beer Burger Bonfire for Sunday evening for just after 6 pm. I'm located East of Knoxville Tn. Buellers in the vicinity are invited to see one of our veterans off on his next tour in Iraq. Shoot me a PM if you can make it. | ||
| Ronmold |
Is that this weekend? | ||
| Etennuly |
Yep.....he will be here Mothers day. | ||
| Tootal |
Maximum, wish I had a longer heads up, your going right past St. Louis, you would have been welcome to crash here if the timing worked out. Have fun in Tennessee, just be careful if Vern starts playing with fire! Have a safe ride and thanks again for your service. tootal | ||
| Xb12xmike |
I sent him a pm but probably too late. I am in jersey and could ride for a bit. It be cool to meet up and take a couple pics at least. | ||
| Jhallgren |
Have a safe trip bro, and thank you for your service. Best of luck to ya!! | ||
| Sekalilgai |
Have a safe trip Steve! | ||
| Crusty |
Good Luck, Steve. Hopefully ypu'll be back for next year's Homecoming. | ||
| Rangerpj1 |
Ride Safe Maximum. Thank you for your service. RangerPJ in KC | ||
| Spud |
If you need help or want to see Ft. Campbell, give me a call. | ||
| F_skinner |
Ride safe Steve and drop me a line if you need anything. Frank | ||
| Maximum |
OK...here's the deal at the end of day 1! I am getting off the interstate exit to my buddy's house in Columbia, MO....and the bike dies. I limp it to his house, take the air box cover off...and guess what? I HAVE A BROKEN SHAFT ON MY THROTTLE BODY!!!! I will post this on the quick board...but does anyone in the vicinity of Columbia have a spare XB12 throttle body???? | ||
| Maximum |
If someone is close enough with an extra part that could help...call me @ 303.520.5783 Thanks! | ||
| Etennuly |
If anyone has a spare throttle body between Knoxville Tn. and Columbia Mo. let us know. I could leave Knoxville in the morning to pick it up to take it to Steve. Intake seals are fresh and should not be a problem and he has his laptop with his cable for a TPS reset. | ||
| Snowscum |
Hopefully you find one tomorrow. Thats a real bummer! | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
Man that SUCKS! I'm sure you will keep us posted | ||
| Rangerpj1 |
Steve, did you get her back on the road? | ||
| Florida_lime |
Sounds like it.... http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/562579.html?1273532961 | ||
| Maximum |
I just arrived in New Jersey...870 miles today! I will post pictures and a trip write up tomorrow. | ||
| Florida_lime |
 Well done. | ||
| Sekalilgai |
congrats! Have a safe tour in the sandbox! | ||
| 04buell |
My goodness.....that was just almost an Iron Butt!!!!!! Glad you made it safe and sound. Have a good visit and tell the Mrs. Happy Anniversary from us when you get back home. Jerry and Carol | ||
| Maximum |
I had originally planned to write up some trip stuff each night...but I got a little busy (as you all can probably imagine) after breaking down after the first day. So here are some of the highlights I can remember. The started off bright and early on Saturday morning at 6 am, I figured that I would get an early start because with a projected 750 miles...this was to be my "longest" day.  Because the first day was going to be mainly getting through eastern Colorado and Kansas, I though that my first 20 minutes of riding from my house down Golden Gate Canyon would be the most "exciting" part of this first day...boy was I mistaken! Anyway, for the trip I mounted my new Casio Exilim G1 (shock and water resistant) camera to the handle bars so I could do a little video and some pictures. This is my first attempt with video and uploading to YouTube, pretty much raw video and no cool music...so go easy on me. Here are two video's riding down Golden Gate Canyon, two parts because the camera stopped recording at 10 minutes...so I had to restart the camera. The best parts of the road are in part 2...the lower half of the canyon. Of coarse the first part of the trip was as expected...flat and boring. I had a strong, gusty headwind that was kicking my butt and fuel mileage. Doing 80-85 mph in those conditions yielded a 37 mpg average (more than 10 mpg less than my home average)!  Finally Missouri provided some terrain relief that made things a little interesting again.  One last fuel stop around 6 pm (central time) and I would be inbound to my friends house in Columbia, MO....so far so good! As I approach the Interstate exit (#124) for my days destination I move into the right lane to exit, and some dude starts moving into my lane next from the left (obviously he didn't see me). So I downshift and get on the throttle to clear the danger. As I slow down for the right turn at the bottom of the exit ramp, the bike dies! Being a former "77" connector failure victim...I first turned all electrical gear off as I coasted to the shoulder. But the "fatty" voltage monitor was telling me that voltage was fine! I tried to restart...it idled, but died again as soon as I added any throttle. I was two miles from my friends house (not a motorcycle guy, so no trailer), and all I could think was..."not now". I tried a couple more times to start...and finally somehow I was able to get it to start and get the rpm's up. As long as I kept the engine above 2000 rpm's the engine stayed alive. I limped the bike the two miles to my friend’s house and as soon as I let the rpm's fall below 2000...the bike died. I was shaking, but could not figure out if it was because the anxiety of getting stranded, or the fact that I had turned off all my heated gear for the last two miles (I think it was the latter). I enjoyed a great meal with friends...then rolled the bike into his garage to have a look. I had suspected the throttle body...and when I removed the airbox assembly for inspection I found the shaft broken and actually the butterfly valve was jammed at a 45 degree angle! I have no idea how I was even able to encourage the Uly that last couple miles...it should not have been possible based upon what I found! Unfortunately I got a little distracted and stopped taking pictures...sorry guys. Sunday I was to ride into Tennessee and visit with Etennuly and some of the other guys down there...so the first thing I did was call Vern to let him know that I had issues. The second thing I did was make a post on Badweb as to my situation and what I needed. This is truly were the magic began. I got two offers (from NY and WV)to ship a used one to me that these guys had on the shelf. I got a call Saturday night from a 2008 Uly owner in Saint Louis offering to have me come to his house and take his throttle body right out of his bike...but I pretty much figured that I needed one from an '06-'07 Uly (or older XB). Vern talked about driving out with his throttle body the next day if there were no local options...but we figured we would wait till the morning to see. My only disappointment was as I tried to use the BRAN list on Badweb...the first two guys near me that I called were no longer owners of Buells...they were nice, and tried to call buddies that were Buell owners, but this did not prove to be a good resource. The BRAN list seems to be in need of some updating. If Blake wants, I would volunteer to work on this while in Iraq...as a Medevac pilot, I hope to be bored over there (soldiers/civilians not getting hurt)! Early Sunday morning Vern calls me to see if I had any solutions. When I said no...he could not be talked out of making the 10 hour journey in his truck to help me. I really hated to see him do this...so it was great to get a call from a Buell friend that I had met at the 2007 and 2008 homecoming (who did not wish to be recognized) and he wanted to help me. Since he had never taken off his TB before, he elected to load his bike into the trailer, drive it 2+ hours to me, have me help take his Throttle body off, then load his bike back into the trailer and go home. First off, let me say that this sacrifice is exemplary of the Buell family and the Badweb community. When you own a Buell, you get the support of many family members! I was able to call Vern before he got too far down the road...and saved him a very long drive! The transfer went fairly well, but too longer than expected (just like all of my projects). It took 4 hours, so it was going to be about 6 pm before I would be ready to hit the road again. After posting that I would be changing my route to direct I-70 in order to save time, I had an invitation from 04Buell (Jerry and Carol) to spend the night with them. I was 4 hours away...which would get me there around 10 pm, I figured that would be enough riding for that day so I accepted their offer. They feed me, had some great Buell talk, and then provided a bed! Once again, great example of the Buell family! I got up the next morning and was on the rode by 6 am...it was going to be a long day. The bike was doing great, although every noise I heard or vibration I felt made me paranoid. Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia went by pretty quick, then it was time to hit the long state of Pennsylvania.  Although the highway is not my favorite way to see the US...the PA Turnpike does provide some nice gentle curves and rural scenery to make it a little interesting. Even a few tunnels that made you feel like you where getting ready to be launched into space!  The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, yet more exciting the closer I got to my family in the Ocean City, NJ area. Although within 10 minutes of being in NJ, some car thought that they would share my lane with me...so I gave him the evil eye as I accelerated out of the danger zone. I am looking forward to a nice day and a half visit with family, a flight back to Colorado on Wednesday, celebrate my 21st wedding anniversary on Thursday, then off to mobilization and Iraq on Sunday. Going to be a busy week!!! Thanks again for everyone evolved in my adventure...even for those who just keep me in their thoughts and prayers! | ||
| Crusty |
A little adversity that's overcome will turn a trip into an adventure! I'm glad it's all worked out. Buell riders are a Class Act. I also hope you have a boring time in Iraq, as well. I'll look forward to seeing you at Homecoming 2011. Thanks again for your Service. |
