Well, now that we've got the excuses out of the way...
After a long personal debate I decided not to go for the muffler modification offered by Buell Sandton because it just didn't seem like a complete solution, and really too good to be true.
Somewhere in the middle of February I found a great HD/Buell shop in the US that has a big eBay presence. I proceeded to bid on a Buell Diamond Highlighted Sprocket from them, and ended up winning the auction. Only problem was that the cost of shipping almost equalled the value of the sprocket, which then persuaded me to look at buying something else from them just to make it worth my while.
So then I bought one of these...
Jardine RT-One in gorgeous Titanium.
It was a pretty difficult decision to make, since I've heard many hearsay stories on Buelletinboard regarding the build quality of these pipes, especially the fact that they are suppose to be repacked about every 5000-6000 kilometres (or was that miles?). Anyway long story short, in the ASB exhaust shootout they rated this pipe the best suited to the XB9 out of the whole lot, and together with the price which is about 1/3 of the rest it made perfect sense.
So purchase completed on eBay with excellent service from St Paul Harley Davidson / Buell my package was shipped and on its merry way to South Africa.
I'll rather not bore you with the eventual drama I had with customs, but in essence they nailed me for duties twice on the same stuff because the packages were separated and only the one contained an invoice. Needless to say I've filed for a refund and I am now hoping for the best, as I desperately need the money fro reasons stated below.
Last week sometime I dropped off the sprocket and muffler at Harley Davidson Cape Town where Stacey was able to squeeze me into the workshop today since I wanted this done before the Buffalo Rally this weekend, on the condition I leave the bike there last night so they can start working on it as early as possible.
This afternoon I went to fetch my bike, and fortunately for them they made me start it up before handing over the invoice, otherwise I might have completely lost it. What was suppose to cost R500 became a little more than double, when they opened up one of the oil lines to fit the pipe, found the oil to be as black as tar, and then also replaced the oil in the process.
Now I don't really have a problem with replacing the oil, and I would have probably let them do it anyway if they asked, but it would have been nice to be warned about it. Some of us need to work on budgets, and already being buggered this month I will now be firmly in the red upon returning from the Buffalo this weekend.
Enough bitching and moaning. By the time I arrived home I had forgotten all about the ridiculous amount of money I had just forked out, because the kind lady I rode to the shop only yesterday has turned into a barbaric bitch overnight.
Actually the bike drew such a crowd at the shop when I started it up, and all these other people were smiling just as much as I was smiling. My friend who gave me a lift to the shop was grinning so much you would think it was his bike.
Apparently when they first fitted the pipe and started her up in the workshop, all the staff dropped what they were doing to go and see what the hell was going on. Maybe I should note that Harley Davidson Cape Town don't really work on Buells, and even more so they only pipes I would imagine they have ever fitted would be the Buell Race Kit Exhaust which sounds like a baby compared to the Jardine.
What a surprise to be handed the stock muffler and finding out how heavy it really is in comparison. I didn't even need to put effort into carrying the Jardine box into the shop, but taking the stock exhaust back to the car made me break a sweat. The weight saving can only be a good thing.
The Jardine is very short and also narrow in comparison to the stock unit, and I'm still deciding whether this makes the bike look even smaller than it already is, or maybe makes it look a bit more butch. The clamp doesn't fit perfectly around the girth of the pipe, but it still sits perfectly solid underneath the bike although it appears as if it might be slightly lower than stock which could be a problem on speed bumps. I guess we'll have to see whether it still fits as snugly or if it's there at all by the next service.
Regardless of the fitment I am one extremely happy camper and I'm quite sure I'll be smiling inside my helmet all the way to Mossel Bay tomorrow.
Oh almost forgot. Although the new sprocket does absolutely bugger all from a performance perspective and only looks pretty it adds a nice touch to the bike and if I ever meet another Buell locally I'm sure they won't have one. Little bit more to clean, but there wasn't much to begin with so no complaints from me. I'll take some pics at some stage.
Ear plugs here we come!
