Lets make some noise!

So my friends at TopBike were kind enough to supply me with the new magazine just before the weekend, and inside I found a lovely little article about the Buell Ullyses.

They opted to have what I initially thought of as a backyard mechanic job, exhaust modication done on their longterm bike. When I was in Johannesburg to test ride the XB9SX they told me about this mod their dynotuning guru Malcolm does to the stock pipe, to make it virtually identical to the Buell Race Exhaust which is no longer being manufactured due to treehugger regulations.

Of course being the prat that I am, I wasn't too bothered listening to the story, as I generally believe in buying from supposedly reputable sources, and already had my eye on the Micron Serpent full exhaust replacement for my new bike.

Well I quickly changed my tune after reading the praises for Malcolm's work in Topbike, and having a very long ogle at the Power & Torque curve changes. Malcolm completely gets rid of the low down flatspot and adds quite a few horses which I can't remember off the top of my head now.

I had a long talk on the phone with this Malcolm fellow from Buell Johannesburg. Basically he makes a Buell Race pipe from the standard pipe, by cutting it open and modifying or replacing internals. Naturally he won't give away all his secrets, but he promises me that the outputs are virtually identical to that of the Race kit, and that even though they need to cut open the pipe they clean it up and repaint it so nicely that you would never notice.

At the top of my priority list with regards to the modification is fuel economy. I was quite suprised to find that it makes virtually no difference in the real world, especially with the air filter swopped out as well. The stock ECU and oxygen sensor makes the system completely dynamic, and thus compensates for the modification. The Ullyses which is a 12 has an average fuel economy of 5.76l/100km which means the 9 should be on par or possibly even better.

Naturally the biggest reason to do any exhaust modification has nothing to do with power, and it's got everything to do with making a noise. Well no dissapointments there then, since the barbarian noise coming from this baby will make the earth move beneath the cages long before they even need to see me. You see, it's all in the name of safety!

All of this for a mere R 2 500 including the new air filter(which won't need to be replaced), compared to the Micron Serpent system which would work out to almost R 10 000 inclusive of labour, and doesn't really offer all that much more.

So essentially Buella will be dynotuned and modified straight out of the box, and costing me almost R 90 000 after the modification, fitting of swingarm sliders and fork protectors and not to even mention the mandatory registration fee.

Do you see me complaining? NOT AT ALL!

Decisions...Decisions

So after a very long winded internal debate I decided to change my mind on the colour.

I've opted to rather get the Kick Ash (doesn't that just sound so much better?) over the Hero Blue. The logic behind this change of mind is that aftermarket flyscreens are either available in black only, or the Blue can't be colormatched properly.

At the back of my mind I've also had the idea of swapping the tank for the Cherry Bomb colour from the XB12 at some stage, and then the Blue detailing on the Cheese-grater/Tea-strainer would be a bit off.

Sadly the instrument panel is still blue, but then again that matches the blue spring in the suspension and it breaks the all black colour a bit.

Now we just need a couple of polished aluminium extras, and then we've got a real Terminator on our hands.

Welcome!

So last week after postponing for much too long I finally got to ride a Buell Lightning XB9SX CityX.

Fortunately I was escorted by a fellow Bueller who showed me around the unknown territory of Johannesburg(South Africa) which greatly improved my ride, as I didn't need to worry about where I was going, but only needed to focus on my riding.

Sadly me only managed to cover about 120km, of which about 80km was in horrendous traffic. Initially I wasn't all that keen on lane-splitting with a bike I didn't know, but I meshed so well with the CityX that in retrospect I've very happy that I did do so much traffic riding.

The bike is an absolute dream to ride, and within a few minutes I felt more comfortable with it than I did on my GSX-R600 after almost a year of riding it. Yes it vibrates the crap out of you, but I actually enjoyed that because it tells you there's real power between you legs, unlike the Japanese Four that just make a whole lot of noise and doesn't have much to show for it.

The demo bike I had ridden was a '05 with factory Race Pipe, which makes a ridiculous(in a good way) amount of noise, and inspires a lot of confidence because you know cars will hear you, long before they need to see you.

I managed to lock up the rear in the middle of traffic, because like an idiot I downshifted it like a japanese superbike and just dropped the clutch, very quickly being reminded of the huge amount of torque that I'm playing with. Even in those circumstances the bike was a breeze to control, and I felt well with in my own abilities.

At higher speeds the rear tyre did feel a little bouncy, but afterwards I was told this was because the suspension wasn't specifically setup for me. The wind problem wasn't hardly what I expected it to be after reading some reviews, and I found it's perfectly fine to sit bolt-upright, and that crouching behind the flyscreen was in fact counter productive.

The only thing that I didn't like was the 1st to 2nd gear throw was a bit too long, especially for someone like me who broke three toes not too long ago, and was constantly reminded of that fact. I have been told however, that the 2007 models have had a significant clutch and gearbox upgrade which should sort out this little problem.

Needless to say I am now a Buell convert, and I've already placed my order. The bike is unlike anything that I've ever ridden before, and I look forward to spending many miles riding it. Hopefully my bike will be here before end of October, or at worst beginning of November and then I'll be able to post some more comments here.

So expect this Blog to turn into a Buell Journal, with ride for ride updates as I go along.

And after much deliberation I've decided to go for Hero Blue!