| Author | Message | ||
     Vonsliek |
why is it made so damn soft?? i have junked 3 now .. this one died brutally on our local track tonite .. race city, or as some call it *race ••••••* .. bumpy as all hell, patchy as a tourists vest & dammit, its a car racing track, even tho they run canadian superbikes at it. so .. thats the nail in the racer's coffin for the xb12r .. i am too hard on it or it is too soft for me & our tracks. personally me & one of the service dudes at dealerships (who shall remain nameless) agree i got a lemon. i'll make it my touring bike & for the coin it wld have taken to make it a racer, i'll get a used rare-prepped older gixxer 600. sorry guys, but commonsense over emotion has to prevail. paul. | ||
| Typeone |
my first one crapped out at 3K, second one started crapping out a few thousand mi. after that. i haven't replaced it yet but the top tore again so quickly. i've just been dealing with the vibes but it needs to go. aren't the newer ones supposed to be revised in some way? hoping #3 doesn't crap out so soon. service manager told me it was kinda normal, that they are wear items anyway. hmmm. | ||
| Gowindward |
There are a couple of photos of the newer front isolator here. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/3842/191294.html?1145666393 | ||
| Pwnzor |
Vonsliek, could it be you just land your wheelies too hard? Maybe you're doing stoppies? I don't do either of those things, ever, and my 3 year old isolator bolt looks brand new. | ||
| Typeone |
Gowindward: thanks, i need to pick one up. Not sure if my dealer will replace my current one, its not shot as far as my first one... YET. but its toast. Pwnzor: I don't do either of those things either and mine have looked/felt like crap within a few thousand miles. i've got 7600mi on the bike now and should be on #3. first the vibes come, then the dreaded 'clunk'.  | ||
| Pwnzor |
Typeone I just read your bio and it looks like you have nothing but problems with your bike....? I had some real minor things right at first but basically 27k trouble free miles. Over 20k of that on the race kit. I guess I'm fortunate. I've got my forks off right now and was considering replacing the isolator bolt "just because"... but it looks so clean and new I think I'll leave it. | ||
| Typeone |
yup, few snags along the way. i would never recommend these bikes to someone that has the 'set it and forget it' mentality or doesn't enjoy working on bikes. seems to have mellowed out finally though, but whatever, its a machine. lucky i love the thing to death. my wife thinks its a POS  | ||
| Swordsman |
Whoa! Just read your bio out of curiosity from Pwnzor's post. I think I have to agree with your wife. If I'd had even half those problems, the bike woulda' been out the door, and Buell would have made a permanent enemy. New(ish) equipment that fails repeatedly chaps my ass like nothing else, ESPECIALLY when it's expensive. Sounds like a lemon with a capital "Lem". Now that I think about it, I hope I haven't just jinxed myself! My bike's only got 3000+ miles on it... still lots of time for crap to fall apart. Hmm...  ~SM | ||
| Typeone |
Lemon? hahaa. don't think so... most of the items in that list are simply 'Buell traits'  i quickly learned this and put my anger aside. the beast just needs more love than usual, and i take great care of my bikes! | ||
| Swordsman |
most of the items in that list are simply 'Buell traits' Now, if we take "Buell" out of that last statement and replace it with "imported vehicle", wouldn't these "traits" cause everyone to consider it "junk"?  Yeah, I love my bike too. And I will as long as it only hassles me from time to time! ~SM | ||
| Pwnzor |
Don't get me wrong, when I had my warranty issues early on, it amounted to me being without the bike for almost a month altogether.... within the first 3 months of having paid 125 one-hundred dollar bills for it. I was steaming mad for a long time until I started talking to other brand sport bike owners who had similar things happen to them. | ||
| Typeone |
Now, if we take "Buell" out of that last statement and replace it with "imported vehicle", wouldn't these "traits" cause everyone to consider it "junk"? no clue, Swordsman, all i know is this is the bike fore me. i tend to like 'quirky' things so i don't sweat it. i get too much damn pleasure out of riding it, looking at it, talking about it to worry about the minor tweaks needed to keep it in line. | ||
| Vonsliek |
er .. pwnzor, i don't stoppie or wheelie .. hard braking into fast left/right (5th->3rd gear) from 220kmh is what amounts to *stoppie* & fast changing of gears accelerating to that 220kmh WITH clutch = no wheelies. i am afraid i have a mere lemon or, i am just to damn hard on my buell. whatever - the dealership asked me what model i had again - "is it a firebolt, right?!" to which i replied "no, its a fire shit or, a shitbolt, whichever you prefer" so she consulted sevice manager using this, "paul has a shitbolt..." hahaha .. at least there is SOME humor at my dealership - the manager looked a little perturbed by her "shitbolt" comment & stiffled amusement, to seem professional, no doubt. they wondered to me as to whether there were any better isolators out there (after market) & if they were better, they'd look into getting me one of those. they feel it won't be warrantied, but will check. this to me is unacceptable that buell w/ its insistence on almost perfect parts reliability - ok, flame me for some transgression here - can make such a lousy but important part - it throws yr front end out & thats a whole other safety concern, esp. when partaking in some *spirited* riding! these rubbers (may as well be) seem to be only good for grocery getter activities .. ok, others will prove me wrong, but for me & my *not riding to get a damn latte* style, this has broken the camel's back, as these parts aren't even that cheap! i purchased a CA$11'999 bike before all that hd add-on jazz (tax, pdi, tire tax, etc) - a bike that is still stock except race kit - & is now easily a CA$20'000 bike! in ONE year! i have tried to have faith & have spread the word & laughed off the lack of performance (trackwise) & jibes abt the vibration & the lost parts ue to same .. but NO MORE! coz i am so far $$ into it for what is essentially a very used bike, i have 2 choices .. keep it as road bike & get I4 track bike, or chop it & make another stunted rigid cafe racer! think i'll make it roadbike. sorry diablobrian & slaughter & anyone else who has tried to help me to get the racebike thing going, but for the money to make that happen, i can get an already track-prepped I4 gixxer 600 from one of the lads who is buying *up*. tabernak! as the french say! | ||
| Rd3501 |
Vansliek, I think I have an answer for you. Its not the isolator problem but I am guess a really big bad batch that was made and is still floating around. Same thing happened to the tubulars years ago. I went through three of them in less than 3,000 miles. Before Buell finally figured it out. So I would call Buell direct and tell them what is going on. I have 5,000 miles on the 03 and no problems so it has to be a bad batch problem. | ||
| Pwnzor |
You're funny Vonsliek. Good luck whatever you do. | ||
| Bikertrash05 |
I read from your profile: 1st crash impacted heavily on front end IMHO, I would have had it fixed and traded it in. You never know what could be tweaked just enough not to notice but enough to cause problems. |
