| Author | Message | ||
     Tigerbuell |
Hello BadWeb! I've been on this site almost everyday for about a month learning everything I can about these awesome machines and I finally got mine yesterday! It is a black '03 XB9S with a D&D pipe and TFI. There aren't many Buells around my area and I have already experienced the joys of owning a Buell with the typical: 'Man that thing sounds like a Harley, what the hell is it?' I would like to give a thanks to the admin for running such a great site. There is so much info on here it is overwhelming for a junkie like me. Naturally, I already have some mods planned like performing a cheese grater delete and painting the bike (plastic) flat black. Any other suggestions are welcomed! TigerBuell | ||
| Daves |
Congrats of the new bike! | ||
| Holling |
Congrats on the bike. I too have a 03 9S and enjoy it. Some mods to consider: k&n air filter, xb12 airbox lid, remove belt guards, buy service manual, setup suspension per body weight. | ||
| No_rice |
take some time with the suspension and get it set up to fit you. and if it still has the stock dunlops on it DITCH THEM! congrats on the bike. | ||
| Slaughter |
SUSPENSION!!! These bikes can do wonders with a PROPERLY setup suspension. You'd be amazed what you can do with proper setup Amazing how much "faster" life is when you have a predictable turning and braking bike. You can buy power, you have to EARN speed. | ||
| Ulywife |
There aren't many Buells around my area First off, welcome to BadWeb. Check out Storm Fronts. There are two groups close to you, one being Carolina Corner Carvers, yes we're NC, but some live pretty close to the NC/SC line. The other is in SC, http://www.badweatherbikers.com/cgibin/discus/show .cgi?tpc=37&post=709223#POST709223. Enjoy your bike!  | ||
| Diablobrian |
Welcome to badweb! By buying a Buell you've just become an addict, but the good news is you are not alone  No other motorcycle I've owned (in the past 27 years) has had the sense of community that I've found in Buell riders. Now, make plans to be in the Milwaukee area the first weekend in June for Buell Homecoming. It's a great time with great people...even if some of the BadWeB miscreants show up; | ||
| Tigerbuell |
I forgot to mention that it does have a K&N already. So the past 2 nights I've been working hard and so far I have set the suspension up for my weight 180 lbs per the manual. Is this what is recommended by most of you. I don't know jack about suspension so it will be hard for me to tell what is right and what is wrong. I am a novice so I want stability for now because in the little riding I've done so far the steering does seem very sensitive compared to my CBR I used to have. When I check the suspension it was not set up for me and the tire pressure was a little low. It was raining hard all day so I have not been able to test the new setup so we will see. I removed the belt guard and what a job! Man, maybe I did it wrong but it was hard to break loose on the the allen bolts and ultimately I had to break part of the guard to get it off. Is this normal? Is it possible to remove this guard without breaking it? Anyway, its off now! The cheese grater is off and will be cut today! I plan to sand the plastic and paint with Krylon fusion flat black so hopefully that will turn out well. The weather is still nice some here and it is going to hit low 70's later this week but my bike is in pieces now. Please let me know what you guys think about the suspension and any other mod recommendations. | ||
| Glitch |
Good choice in bikes Welcome to the BadWeB! If you're ever in the North Georgia mountains give us a shout over in the 3%er's section of Storm Fronts. We ride up there quite a bit. Hope you can make it to the biggest and best Buell get together in the Southeast, March Badness IV, you'll get to meet a lot of people from all over. I'll give more details as they're available, right now just be prepared to have a long weekend off sometime in March. The suspension setting in the book are a good place to start, you may not even have to tweak the setting after that. Also, make sure when talking about your weight, you're talking about your weight with all your gear on. I would like to give a thanks to the admin for running such a great site. Thanks for the kind words! | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
At the risk of repeating myself, I hope no one will take offense if I post my '03 XB9S notes for our new brother, Jason. I do hope the information is not too out of date by now. I have over 13,000 miles on my XB9S, “Ole Yaller,” so I thought I would share my thoughts with those who have just purchased one, or are about to buy one, so that they can enjoy their unit to the max, and perhaps avoid a few pitfalls that I have already encountered. These motorcycles will be seen as true classics as time goes by, and they probably provide the most fun for the dollar of any bike on the road today. 1. The dealer situation. The Buell dealership situation is in flux. At first most Harley Davidson dealers carried Buell. Many of them were not too enthusiastic about the brand, so Harley is reducing the number of dealers, to increase the importance of Buell at the dealers that actually carry them, and provide better support to Buell customers. The other dealers can no longer repair or sell Buells, and many of these have sold off their ‘03 Buell stock at low prices. The result: there are some excellent Buell dealers out there, but relatively few of them, very few. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the new XB line of Buells are well made, reliable, need little service, and parts are very readily available. Virtually all required service can be done by a motivated owner with an ordinary set of tools, bike stands and the shop manual. The ideal situation: buy your ‘03 leftover from a Buell Dealer who actively supports the brand if you can find one. 2. Bad Web If you have got this far, you probably realize the one of the best resources for the Buell owner is the Bad Weather Biker web site itself. The knowledge Vault has excellent discussions of every aspect of the Buell motorcycle. The Brag Organization is a great owners group that sponsors fun events around the country for Buell owners, and there is the Buell Customer Support line which is improving all the time. The number is 414-343-4056. Expect the best. The questions most asked by new owners are: A. The first thing to do. I always recommend buying the shop manual and parts list if you plan on working on the bike yourself. This is a bike that lends itself much more than Japanese or Italian sport bikes to home repairs, due to its inherent simplicity, and design. Parts are normally readily available, and not too expensive either. One of our member sponsors, Daves, ( Dave Stueve at Appleton HD), regularly monitors this board. He is very Buell knowledgeable, very helpful, and a great source for original and after market parts. Trojan Horse, ( Matt) and American Sport Bikes, (Al Leighton), both also sponsors, are great with after market parts too, many imported from Europe where Buells sell better than in the USA. 1. The belt. If you bought the bike new, it probably has the original belt. These often had a relatively short life, and have been replaced by an upgraded model that seems to be much better. If the bike has more than 3000 miles on it, it may already have the new belt. The '03 belt is now in it's third version, part number # G0500.02ABR. The belt parts number is permanently marked on the outside of the belt. If you don't have one of these, you might want to fit one the next time you change tires, cost about $136 from Daves. Lots of hard riders, such as Glitch, one of our leaders, has tons of miles on his, no problems. With the latest '03 belt, the conversion to the '04 belt doesn't seem to be as necessary, but many brothers have done it for peace of mind.The conversion requires new sprockets, belt guards, belt, and a few other parts. Daves or Al can give you an estimate of what it would all cost. Another option is a chain conversion, which has been much discussed on this site: see the knowledge vault. B. When you do change tires. Take a look at Dunlop Qualifiers, Michelin Pilot Powers, Pirelli Diablo, or Metzler M-3's: many members report better steering and longer life with these than the original equipment Dunlop 207’s. I am now replacing my first Michelin Pilot Power rear tire, and I was very happy. I got 4200 miles out of the rear, including one track day, and they still work great, just running out of tread in the middle. ( I subsequently converted to Dunlop Qualifiers for better handling). Several brothers have learned the hard way to always replace tires in pairs: the front may look ok, long after the rear is obviously worn out, but its profile will have changed, compromising handling. 3. Steering bearings: The steering bearings on the Buell tend to require tightening from time to time. The symptom is a clunk when you put on the brakes, that is often mistaken for a problem with the brakes. Takes about ten minutes to adjust as per the shop manual. The top triple tree is a bit delicate on these bikes, and have been broken more than once by over-tightening: the pinch bolt only needs about 18 ft/lb. Now a days a torque wrench is pretty much a standard item in the home garage. The front forks must be off the ground to do this properly. A rear wheel stand, and a scissors jack under the muffler jacking points is a simple way to do this. 4. Wheel bearings. Long story short: if the seals are orange, you are good to go, if they are black, they should be replaced by any Buell dealer at no charge to you. 5. The lubricants. The oils that seems to be preferred by many of the members are : Mobil 1 15w 50 in the motor, Mobil 1 75w90 gear oil in the gear box. These are available at Walmart very inexpensively, especially in the 5 qt. jugs and the Walmart Super Tech ST4967 oil filter was exactly the same as the factory part, (manufactured by Champion), last time I bought some for two bucks apiece. I change every 4000 miles, probably a bit excessive, but it can't hurt, and doesn't take very long to do. Factory recommends 5000 miles between changes. Certainly every year if your mileage is less than 5K. You can’t go wrong if you simply change the oil and filter every time you replace your tires. NOTE: There seems to be some anectdotal evidence that Mobil One Gear oil may cause premature failure of the stator insulation. I now use Formula+ from Harley. 6. Suspension settings. Because of its somewhat radical frame geometry, the suspension settings on a Buell DO count! You can assume that they are not set just right for you, so go to the owners manual, ( shop manual not required for this one:-), and follow the directions. Shawn Higbee has some settings for aggressive riders which work great too, and I use them. See Knowledge Vault. 7. Dipstick. The dipstick is located on the top of the left side of the swing arm: no kidding:-). Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to read. I put some yellow shrink wrap on mine to aid visibility. Using a little wooden coffee stirrer and comparing it to the dipstick markings works even better. 8. Frame Pucks: The Buell OEM frame pucks will keep you from denting your frame if you accidentally drop the model. They can be painted to match the plastic or the frame. These are really a must have item, because it is not to heard to dent the frame if you drop the bike, and it is very difficult to repair, and expensive to replace. That should get you up and running for a while, while you plan how you want to personalize your mount: it IS legal to run a bone stock Buell, it's just that no one has ever tried it:-). First 1000 mile service. I take a preventive maintenance point of view to this service, which takes place shortly after the bike is broken in, and the new owner has pretty much got the hang of things. So in addition to the factory recommendations, which are basically change the oil and filter, check and normally adjust the primary chain, and reset the Throttle position sensor, I recommend the following be done at this time. a. Fit the factory “race kit”. In spite of its name, this is more of a “make it a bit more fun to ride on the street “ kit. Improves mid range, makes it sound like a motorcycle instead of a lawn mower. Easy to fit, works fine. Requires a TPS reset, and removing the belt tensioner, so this is as good a time as any to do it. There are several other aftermarket mufflers, D+D, Drummer and Jardine to name just a few, that are louder and have found favor with many of the Bad Webbers. b. Replace the belt. Why worry about the belt breaking when a new better one only cost $140, and you already have the tensioner off. c. While you are replacing the belt, you have done most of the work to remove the rear wheel, you might as well replace the original Dunlop 207s, which only have about 1000 mi left on them, with some better tires like those mentioned above which will greatly improve the handling, and last twice as long. d. check the steering bearings. The have probably started to loosen a bit, even if you haven’t noticed it. After doing this additional work you will have a bike that: 1. Sounds cooler 2. Runs faster 3. Steers much better 4. No belt worries 5. Mostly likely will not need anything but gas for 4000 miles:-). Just my .02˘ | ||
| Cixyx_pilot |
Enjoy your new bike ,welcome to Buell and Badweb. | ||
| Firefightergarcia |
Ride it all day long till your ass is sore... Then ride it some more. |
