| Author | Message | ||
     Dirt |
I bought my Ulysses new in Feb 07 and used it daily as my main mode of transportation on my 130 mile round trip commute to and from work. The bike has been ridden in all types of weather conditions (heat over 100F, cold down to 5F, rain, snow, sleet, and hail), and for the most part has performed well. Thats not to say the bike has not, along the way, fallen victim to almost every problem known to plague the model including faulty wheel bearings, broken throttle body shaft, premature belt breaks, etc.. At around 120k miles, I replaced the engine with one from a low mileage salvage bike. I don't think the original engine was completely played out at the time, but it was certainly down a bit on power and the internals were noticeably loader than normal. I spent a long weekend replacing the engine and ended up pleased with the results. I continued riding it after the switch, but other minor nags not related to the engine occurred on a routine basis. Nothing I couldn't live or deal with. I encountered several issues with the wire harness, mostly due to engine vibrations over the years. The plastic mount points on the HB cases also showed signs of wear due to vibration, and on 2 occasions I had to turn around and retrieve the top case from the road. A permanently attached bungee cord solved that problem. I life tested the belt idler pulley to 135k miles (the bearing completely disintegrated). Any high milers out there might want to replace it sooner. I also serviced the fork fluid once a year and am proud to say I never had a seal leak until 144k miles. The leak start very soon after I had the bike towed due to a rear wheel bearing failure, so I'll blame it on the tow truck driver's obsession with compressing the forks to their max while strapping it down. Every tow truck driver I have encountered is of the same mindset when it comes to this. I once asked a driver to please not do that and was promptly told "Sir, I am a professional and know what I am doing". Never argue with a man who is your only ride home. All this leads me to the reason for this post. About 2 weeks ago, just shy of 145k miles, the engine started to act strange. I was on my way home from work when the bike started to loose power and the more throttle I gave it the slower it would go. As I started to move over to the right lane to pull off the road, everything returned to normal, I figure it was an electrical issue (see above), maybe a loose or bad plug wire. A few mile later the check engine light appeared and the low oil indicator illuminated. The low oil light would barely come on and then go off again. It seemed to be on the hairy edge. I knew something was seriously wrong because I had checked the oil 2 days prior and the level was good. While I was trying to figure this out in my head, the engine started to make a loud banging sound. I was only a mile or so from home so I rode it out. Not sure exactly what happened, but either the oil pump gear failed or possibly something else in the crank. The bike still starts, but the loud banging remains. I calculated that the salvage engine I put in the bike has 31k miles on the clock. Sounds like the prime window for other suspected crank failures on this board. The engine is a 2007. Seeing as how the rest of the bike is pretty used up, I have decided to forgo any repairs and will basically part ways with it. It's been a good ride and I will absolutely/positively miss it, but it's time to move on. I don't plan to part it out, but will remove a few items prior to either selling it as is or donating it to charity (yes, I've checked and several charities actually want it). Will probably be selling and or giving away some of the items I have collected over the years including parts from the original engine, which is still sitting in my garage. No complaints, I had a blast. | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Dan, what are you going to replace it with? I think your decision is right. Face it, things just wear out sometimes.. Brad | ||
| Kublak |
Sounds like you had one hell of a run with the bike. The mileage you accumulated is quite impressive. I can only hope to put that much on my Uly. Good luck finding your next steed. | ||
| Dirt |
Brad, I very briefly thought about buying another Uly, but air cooled is just not the right type engine for the commuting I do (i.e. stuck in traffic jams). Can't tell you how many times I had to change the rocker box gaskets over the 7 years I used the Uly. Sitting in long backups during hot summer days is an instant recipe for gasket leaks. That being said, my checklist for a new bike looked like this: 1) water cooled engine - per explanation above 2) belt or shaft drive - been there and done that with chain 3) lightweight - under or near 500 lbs 4) gets 50 mpg or greater 5) capable of mounting 3 decent size hard cases - should look like they belong on the bike and not just an afterthought Right or wrong that was my list and what I found is that very few bike exist that meet it. One that did, however, was the BMW F800GT the sport touring version of the F800 series. The F800s have been around for a few years and like the 2010 Buells the GT is pretty much void of the troubles experienced by the earlier models. Posts on the BMW forum seem to back that up. The dealer in my town has a great reputation and is one of the leading BMW dealers in the country. Maintenance doesn't look bad with the biggie being valve checks every 12k. It actually looks easier to check the valves on the F800 than to rotate the engine on the Uly for a rocker gasket change. Time will tell. The biggest con to the bike is the cost of parts. BMW recommends changing the $400 belt at 24k miles, but the service manager, who rides an F800ST, told me they recommend letting the belts go until 48k. Said they have not had any problems with that change period. Not bad seeing as how I never/never was able to get more than 25k miles on a Uly belt. Performance/handling wise, the Uly is hands down the better bike, but I find the BMW acceptable. For me, it all boils down to what fits your needs. Besides, I still have the S3T in the garage if I want to go for a spirited ride. Another long post I know, but wanted to tell a funny story. When I came back from my test ride on the GT, a GS rider came over and told me to stay away from the F800s. He said the R and K series bikes are the only 'real' BMW's. Apparently the F800 bikes are looked down upon by some of the BMW folks. I couldn't help but laugh seeing as how quite a few Harley riders over the years have told me my Buell was nice, but not a 'real' Harley. | ||
| Kublak |
I had to laugh at your last comment, no matter what you ride someone always knows what a 'real' bike is over what you're riding. | ||
| Arry |
Thanks for your post. Sounds like you got a good, long life out of your Uly, and it was good to hear the condensed version. It doesn't surprise me that commuting was very hard on it (stop & go traffic),and you still got almost 145k. If you get the BMW, I hope you give us a report on it. | ||
| Uly_man |
I had to laugh as well? I think 120k miles on ANY modern bike is a minor miracle these days and 145k miles is big BMW bike territory and I would bet that they look no better than the Uly does right now. Things like tires, belts, chains, rotors are consumables and can last better or worse depending on bike and/ or its usage. Idler pulley to 135k miles? Amazing and only 10 bucks to replace anyway. I wish I could get 25k on a belt and is THREE TIMES more than I have ever had. As far as "sitting in traffic" is concerned why are you doing that anyway? I commute in the City of London traffic and while I do get stuck sometimes it is not very often. Make "progress" on you bike as that is part of the advantage of using a bike. Unless you have some sort of laws to stop that of course. Good luck with the new bike. | ||
| Dirt |
Uly_man, I have to disagree with you. I believe ANY modern bike is more than capable of 120k miles. The reason you don't see more bikes with high mileage is because most people typically only ride a few days a week or on weekends and don't rack up the number of miles I do commuting. Others simply like to sample new models and trade their bikes in more frequently than others. Everyone has a different view of what works best for them. Some people where I work think it's a chore for me to ride as far as I do everyday, but the truth is I feel like the luckiest person in the world. I get to do what I love, even in the foulest of weather. On any given day, I would rather be on the bike than in a car. Some folks see it different and that is perfectly okay. As for "making progress", there are laws here in the US against what I believe you are referring to as "lane splitting". As far as I know California is the only state where this type of riding is permitted. The first time I tried to do it Northern Va/DC traffic would probably be my last. Police and drivers in my area would simply not stand for it. Best for me to stay in line and wait like everyone else. | ||
| 4_pete_sake |
Dirt - Did you consider another Uly??? You clearly know the product and simply put, they are the best bang per buck going in my opinion.... Don't get me wrong, as you hinted at, it's fun to look or ride other beasts, and motorcycles, unlike wife's, this can be done cheaply, but I guess I hate to lose a high mileage, visible individual for the brand.... Anyway, sorry for your loss, and may you have many many happy miles to come Cheers!!! | ||
| Etennuly |
Awesome story. I'm looking for some long miles out of my '06 yet, it's just over 60,000. So would that be considered low mileage?  | ||
| Buellerxt |
I agree with Etennuly, Dirt; awesome story. Thank you. I don't commute and I share mileage with three bikes so I'm nowhere near your Uly mileage BUT, I have over 28,000 on my 08' and so far my original belt looks great!  Am I pushing it? I have a new one all set to go so maybe I should switch it. Best to ya', Man. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Dirt- Sorry to hear about your Uly. What are you gonna do with the remains? Someone could always rebuild your original engine (if you still have it) and have a decent Uly. While you're thinking about what to replace it with, keep in mind that Erik was recently quoted saying "Then we'll have the AX next, which is the adventure tourer coming a year or so from now..." Source, page 78, this article: http://cyclenews.uberflip.com/i/262687 | ||
| Uly_man |
"Uly_man. I have to disagree with you". Hey thats fine Dirt it is just my opinion. I agree as far as modern engines go but not the rest of the bike. I see a lot of bikes in my travels. One example is modern BMWs. I have noted a lot of rusting fasteners and stuff on them. And it is not just me who has noted the decline in BMW quality either. Of course it happens with all bikes I just make mention of the BMWs because of there high price and suggested longevity. "Best for me to stay in line and wait like everyone else". That is a shame. If I had to do that I would never get any place at all here in the UK. Good luck, Dirt. | ||
| Buewulf |
Those criteria certainly do lend to a limited list of prospects! Is there anything else besides the F800GT that meets those criteria? I can't think of one. I rented a F800ST a while back to ride through Utah. I liked the bike a lot and got over 60mpg the whole time. I haven't ridden the GT, but I imagine it is a further refinement of that platform. | ||
| Dirt |
Well I bought the BMW GT. They were offering good factory incentives until the end of March and the dealer made me a great offer. The EBR AX may turn out to be everything I wanted in my checklist above, but I need a bike sooner rather than later. Who knows, I might be back on a Buell in a year or two. It was tempting to purchase a used Uly to tied me over for a while, but I ended up liking the GT. No regrets (so far). I did take one final pic of the odometer, just for the record.  And a poor quality shot of the new ride.  I have a few more items to remove from the Uly and then I will probably just donate what's left to charity. They will sell it at auction and the parts will probably end up on Ebay. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Perhaps it would be nicer to donate it to a trade school. Let the monkeys try to fix it! | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
Wow, what a bitterweet story. Congrats on the new ride! Please keep us posted on how the new bike works out for you. | ||
| Al_lighton |
Dan, Good story. Sad about all the failures you had with your Uly along the way. Many folks with as many issues as you have listed in your profile would be a harsher critic of the brand. I like the way you roll. The bike you've chosen would certainly be in my short list of bikes available now. I haven't ridden one, but they look intriguing. There are few bikes available today that meet my needs as well as my Uly (i.e., 2-5 in your requirements list above). Looking at your failures, and the mileage, it looks like a belt failure either occurred simultaneously or successively to a rear bearing failure. Were both rear bearing failures catastrophic? If yes, I'd sure be inclined to believe that bearing failure and it's associated wheel twist under load caused the belt failure. Just a guess though. Good luck with your BMW, please report in how it does for you! Al | ||
| General_ulysses |
Thanks for the great story Dirt. I read your whole statement above, but do you have a "look out for this" list or Uly advice column you could write for us? You're the highest mileage Uly driver I've ever seen on here (or anywhere else). By now you KNOW the Uly like no one else. It'd be great to hear of all the problems, how they manifested themselves and when we might start expecting them. Thanks again. And is there any way to show us some pics of the 144K miler bike in all its glory? Just wondering what a fully utilized Uly looks like. | ||
| Etennuly |
To save Dirt some time all of that information is available at the top of the BBD page under "new owner information". Many of us early Uly owners have had most, or at least several, of the problems listed show up. For my Uly the problems mostly showed up within the first 40,000 miles, after that it has been nearly flawless, less regular maintenance stuff of course. You are right, more pictures of it are needed, he proved that the miles were there, so it did happen.  | ||
| Dirt |
Al, I had 4 or 5 instances of rear bearing failures over the years. The first inflicted the most damage (new wheel and swingarm). The rest only required new bearings and axle spacer. The drive belts did break shortly after the first 2 failures. I firmly believe that this shortened the life of the belts in some way, but have no real proof. Never saw any correlation after that though. Etennuly, thanks for the help. I really don't have much more to add than what is already posted under "new owner info". That section pretty much details everything that can be expected. I will say that the 2010 wheel is probably the best item one can buy to keep your peace of mind (I paid the price for sticking with the original design). When a bearing is going to fail is probably the hardest thing to determine. The bearings can look perfect one week and fail the next. | ||
| Etennuly |
Dirt, Did you find that once a problem was fixed, other than the bearings and belt, that it was not a problem again? At 60,000 I have done my bearings twice. Then I filled the hub with grease and added a zirc fitting. I then remove the inner bearing seal. Whenever I change my oil I give it a pump with the grease gun. It keeps water out and fresh grease in the bearing. I ran my first belt to 33,000 miles and carry it for a spare(a bit loose fitting but in good shape). The latest updated belt now has about 27,000 and still fits nice. It has not been through a bearing failure like the first one had been. My bearing failure was caught immediately and did not require anything but the bearings. | ||
| Uly_man |
"I had 4 or 5 instances of rear bearing failures over the years". So at near 150k miles that is around 30k miles per set. Just how many miles does any one THINK is normal? | ||
| Dirt |
"around 30k miles per set" I only wished that were true. Failures and mileage were very unpredictable in my experience, but then again some folks on this site claim there was nothing wrong with the design and that the problem was due to ham-fisted owners over-torquing the rear axle. Funny, my first failure occurred prior to me or anyone else touching, let alone removing, the rear wheel. Guess my rear axle was over-torqued from the factory. Get the 2010 wheel and ride without fear. "Just how many miles does any one THINK is normal? Let me see, I put over 100k miles on my 04 Fatboy and never replaced a wheel bearing or had one fail. The belt lasted over 100k miles as well. I have owned 2 Honda Nighthawks. One went to 106k miles and the other to 63k miles. Never changed bearings or had failures. Guess I would THINK 100k miles is normal. Etennuly, I believe you have the right idea. Smother the inside of the rear hub with grease so water can't get to bearings and everything should be alright. I'm convinced water contamination is the main culprit in failures. The one problem I experienced that I could never quite figure out was the 10Amp Brake/Horn/Interactive Exhaust fuse would randomly blow without warning. I would stop to get gas and everything was fine. Start the bike after filling up and the check engine light would be on because the fuse had blown. I must have replaced that fuse a dozen or more times over the life of the bike. I figured it had something to do with the Interactive Exhaust, but could never pinpoint the exact cause. Intake seals and rocker box gaskets were also frequent fail points. I blame this on the lengthy amount of time spent sitting in traffic backups. The throttle body shaft broke, but I never had another problem after replacing it. Mine failed prior to Tootal's offering of a new and improved version, so I had to buy whole new throttle body assembly (not a happy day). BTW, I sent Tootal my failed shaft so he could use it to modify his design to work with the 07 models. Early on I bought a spare front muffler strap as a spare. I removed and reused the original one numerous times (in clear violation of the service manual instructions), but that original strap lasted until 130k miles. Your mileage may vary. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the wiring harness. I swear it was was designed by someone who really hated their job. I had to dig into mine on several occasions to fix intermittent electrical issues. I also had fuse failures due to the many vibration filled miles. I need to find the 30Amp main fuse that was melted and deformed due to arching in the fuse box. I think I still have it somewhere in my garage and will post a pic if I can find it. | ||
| Etennuly |
I had a total of 19 different points of failure in my wiring harness from early on. Warranty was worthless here, they just took the bike in, started it, revved the shit out of it many times, parked it for a week, and said they could not duplicate the problem that could only be known when riding under certain conditions. It, oddly enough, never had any miles put on it by them. I tried to get a new wiring harness under warranty but they could not prove it to be bad in spite of several repairs I had made to it at the time. I think I completed the 19th repair at about 40,000 miles at the WV Buell Rally, and it has been flawless in the 20,000 miles since.....so far. The only time it has ever puked a fuse was 600 miles from home when the fan caught fire and died. FYI it can be ridden 600 miles in 90F summer heat without the fan if you do not encounter stop and go traffic. I changed my intake seals once, but they were not the issue, however I was glad to have cleaned out the huge amount of carbon in the intake. Luckily my only noticeable oil leak is my clutch cable o ring, NBD there. But I am on my fifth front engine isolator, and my manual fan switching has been the best repair of all to my Uly after two summers of "flashy light run skip". Well.....that and the new front brake rotor. To this end.....the bike is smoother and less problematic at 60,000 than it was when new and it still easily does over 50 MPG. | ||
| Dirt |
Front isolator was not a big failure item on mine. Maybe because of the mostly highway miles I put on it. However, I would advise anyone who replaces their isolator to also spend the few extra dollars and replace the bolts that mount the isolator into the heads. I had one snap off and it was a bitch to extract. +1 on the mileage. I always seemed to average about 50mpg regardless of odometer reading. (Message edited by dirt on March 14, 2014) | ||
| Turf_moor |
Etennuly, my wiring harness was chaffing where it contacted with the engine so had a plastic harness fitted at 14K. A good mod, I feel. Uly man, why do you never get more than 8 or 9K out of a belt? Commuting in London must be hard on the belt. Do you have the Free Spirits tensioner fitted? Dirt, a great thread. I hope the 800 serves you well, but it must feel a bit unexciting after the torque monster. | ||
| Tootal |
The throttle body shaft broke, but I never had another problem after replacing it. Mine failed prior to Tootal's offering of a new and improved version, so I had to buy whole new throttle body assembly (not a happy day). BTW, I sent Tootal my failed shaft so he could use it to modify his design to work with the 07 models. And it's still in my tool box! Appreciated the help! Enjoy the new ride! |
