Buell Tygervalley, as always were nice enough to provide a demo bike for the day, which turned into the night and the next day...but anyway. I got a brand spanking new 2009 Ulysses XB12XT with only about 200km on the clocks, in a gorgeous Racing Red. The colour is a little bit flat next to the flashy Translucent colours of my own bike and others in the Buell stable, but by the end of the day I decided it suited the bike, and it's purposes well.
Now the XT is mostly the same as the regular Ulysses in the looks department, with the main visual change being the colour coded front tyre hugger instead of the offroad mudguard on the regular bike. The XT is pretty much a more road going version of it's adventure inclined sibling, with road-biased suspension and a much lower seat height. It also comes standard with the Top Box and Panniers, which is optional on the regular Ulysses, and further alludes towards long distance touring with the addition of an extended windscreen, also optional on the adventure version.
So basically where the Ulysses was dubbed an Adventure bike, instead of a full blown offroad bike, with the idea that it's owners are the types who would like to take the odd gravel road off the beaten track, but spend most of their time on road, the XT is for those who prefer to stay in the saddle a little bit longer and preferably all the way on tarmac. The tyres are Pirelli Diablo Stradas, full road touring tyres, a change from the Pirelli Scorpion Syncs which are geared towards easy offroading.
Getting on the bike I noticed the bike was a hell of a lot lower than the Ulysses I had ridden before, and I could flat foot this one comfortably, whereas before I needed to put one cheek off the seat just to feel secure. It doesn't feel much lower than my own bike, which it is supposed to be, but I write this off to the fact that the seat is much wider and the footpegs also much larger, pushing your legs out further. Getting on is a wee bit more tricky since I got the bike with the panniers and top box fitted, and thus you have to hurdle yourself over it, instead of just throwing a leg up.
A couple of kilometres from the dealership I thought I was getting feverish, just to eventualy figure out that the bloody thing has heated grips as standard fitment, something I've never actually used before, and it was turned up to it's maximum setting of Level 2. At the time it was quite warm and I didn't see the point, but the next morning it was very much appreciated when I hit some colder weather. I won't exactly fork out two grand to have them fitted to my bike, but as a standard feature it is most welcome and I would definitely make use of it.
Immediately the bike feels quite familiar, with the same lounge in front of the TV seating arrangement as found on it's bigger, or rather taller brother. I might be lying about this one, but I think the handlebars are slightly different from the normal Ulysses, but it could just be the extended screen throwing my scale out. Either way the riding position is the same, very commanding, perched high up in the sky, back straight yet relaxed...I will conquer the roads of the world, and go on forever fare. Instantly you realise that as massive as this thing is, it is ridiculously easy to manoeuvre, panniers and all. One would expect the thing to topple over at the first hint of a sharp turn, yet you simply point and shoot, without even needing to throw your weight into it, riding on handlebar input alone.
Throughout the day I didn't once feel like I needed to get off the seat to take a corner, I simply sat bolt upright and maybe put some pressure on the foot pegs and that was it. The bike turns on it's own ear, with the only fear being the potential of scratching the panniers along the ground. Having never ridden a bike with hard cases before, I was quite weary when entering traffic, until much later when I realised the panniers are only slightly wider than the handlebars, meaning that if they were going to make it the rest would surely follow without drama. Those cases will make a long distance journey absolutely effortless, and Buell even sell custom made luggage which fits them perfectly, so you don't need to take them off when you reach your destination. That being said for day to day use the Topbox is more than sufficient, and with it's wide bed I'm sure you could fit an overly large notebook computer inside a bag, and possibly even a smallish briefcase.
Having a highly modified exhaust on my own Buell, anything else is quite underwhelming, and the case is no different here. The 1203cc Thunderstorm engine putters along quietly and is expectantly vibey shaking everything along with enthusiasm. Being a stock standard setup you don't expect much from it, but I think the catalytic converters fitted since 2008 have really murdered the poor thing, because even at higher revs it's quite boring, where my own free breathing stock exhaust used to leave it's VW Beetle idle behind when it hit 3500rpm to overpower the senses with an evil rumble putting a big smile on your face. Sadly the noise the XT makes is nothing more inspiring than just that, noise, and the linear power delivery of the bigger bore engine doesn't help to unlock any powerful emotions about the engine note. Torque is there in abundance, as is the case with all Buells and most V-Twins, and here it is delivered from start to finish in a curve so flat it is almost boring. I blame the treehuggers for the silly catalytic converter, and I'm sure my 984cc pushes more horses than the bike in question. Generally I find the XB9 motor somewhat more entertaining than the 12, simply because you feel the power come in as you go up the rev range, but I'm sure an aftermarket muffler would greatly improve the aural appreciation.
Fortunately the bike corners so well that a massive grin is ever present, even with the uninspiring engine characteristics. Actually that flat power delivery will gets you in trouble quite easily, because travelling speed just sneaks up on you, and next thing you know you are doing double the speed limit in residential areas. The bike is so easy to handle, that you never really feel in danger, and the abundance of torque means that you can just power out of corners in any gear.
Strangely the Ulysses range is not fitted with the new 8-pot calipers originally fitted to the 1125R, like all the other XB12's of 2009. Well I soon realised why not, because it simply doesn't need them. Maybe my brakes aren't quite what they used to be, but being fitted with the same 6-pot single rotor braking system the Ulysses felt a lot stronger when pressure was applied to the lever, than I remember my XB9 being when still running the stock pads.
To test the XT's touring capabilities I decided to take a pillion, as that would typically be the kind of arrangement I would buy this bike for, doing more long distance trips two-up. Normally when someone gets on the back the entire ride changes, more throttle is needed to get away from the lights, handling is slow and troublesome, and braking is normally accompanied by massive pressure from behind. Not the case with the Ulysses in the slightest. In this regard the engine is perfect, as the torque makes extra weight pretty much irrelevant. The massive seat is so accommodating that I had to look in my mirror more than once to make sure I actually had a passenger on the back. Braking is drastically improved by means of the passenger having a grab rail to hold onto behind them, or if the panniers are fitted holding onto their handholds, meaning the weight is completely removed from the rider. I did a number of hard braking tests, and my passenger hardly even noticed, and I was oblivious to their presence. Speaking of the panniers, they make getting on a little bit tricky for the passenger, as well as the rider needing to carry the weight, but it's one of those things where I'm sure one will find a method over time, making things much easier.
Handling I can honestly say is unaffected by adding a passenger to the mix. Where I would normally take special precautions when taking corners with passengers, often spoiling the ride for me, in this case I could effectively just ignore their existence and carry on as usual, and this without any complaints from behind. I did however manage to bottom the suspension out, for the first time in my life, going over a harsh bump in the road. This was easily rectified at the next stop by simply turning the easily adjustable rear preload a couple of notches up, compensating for the additional weight of the passenger. Normally this would be quite the drama with the seat needing to come off, and tools needing to be taken out, normally resulting in an injury.
The bike is so easy to ride with a passenger, and so comfortable for a passenger that even my mother, who has never been on a bike in her life, decided that I needed to take her for a ride. Even that proved to be easy to manage, with a passenger sitting bolt upright in corners instead of leaning with the bike.
So the perfect bike then? Well not quite. Firstly a problem that I hope applies only to this particular bike, and not the entire range, but it runs ridiculously hot. And by ridiculous I mean that I needed to get off it at one point simply because I couldn't handle it any longer. My own Buell which is mostly the same as this one runs the fan for a minute maximum after you switch it off, this one however ran for ten minutes at one point until I had to manually override it before it would shut up. Now it might be a case of the electronics sitting right underneath me, where on my own bike they sit more to the back, but even so I feel the heat was mostly trapped in the frame, leading me to believe it comes straight from the engine. Now my own bike has gotten a bit hot at times, but never to the point that it would actually burn me, and only on the hottest days of summer. In this case we are well into winter already, and the only thing I can think is that the bike is still brand new and might have been treated a little bit roughly, probably well outside normal run-in boundaries. Since noticing the problem I have done some reading on the matter of Buells running hot, and it seems this can be sorted out by adjusting the fuel management system. Now I know the new Buells are running DDFI3 where my own bike is still using DDFI2, so maybe it's just an initial glitch in the system, or maybe it just needs a little bit more time to adjust since it is a dynamic system. Still regardless of the cause, the problem is bad enough that I wouldn't be able to live with this particular bike.
The other issue is a minor build/design quality issue related to the windscreen. The see-through section of the windscreen is quite long as you can see in the pictures, and mounted very low on a the coloured fairing with four Allen bolts. Initially I thought one of these were simply loose when I noted a bit of "flapping" on the left side. I tightened the screw hoping it was a simple matter of adjustment, but then when riding again I realised that the flex was actually in the lower fairing. Logic tells me that the windscreen is simply too long, and mounted to low putting too much leverage on the lower fairing, and without some "give" it would simply snap clean off. It's not a deal breaker by any means, but I don't recall the same thing happening on the normal Ulysses which has the smaller screen fitted.
On the topic of wind, I found my head buffeting quite a bit more on this bike than on my own, and I was very much aware of the wind hitting my upper body and helmet. My Lightning has zero protection from the belly button upwards, but when you've gotten use to it you don't really notice except at extreme speeds. Now in this case the wind feels concentrated because of the additional protection, and thus you are made much more aware of it where it does hit you. Strangely I would like to try this bike with the shorter windscreen, which might alleviate this "problem" and also resolve the flex issue I mentioned above.
At the end of the day I can see myself riding thousands and thousands of kilometres on end with a passenger, and a regular car boot capacity of luggage, for days on end and loving every single moment of it.
So why wouldn't I buy one? Well mostly because I feel the bike is much too similar to my own Lightning, after all the frame is the same only longer, the engine is much the same and I prefer the power-biased nature of my 984cc. Ultimately I could even swap the handlebars on my bike for those of the XT, and have most of the comfort benefits, and only loose out on the hard luggage options, yet at a vastly reduced price compared to upgrading.
All of that said, if I didn't have a Lightning already and had to start fresh I would definitely opt for the Ulysses XT over my Lightning, it simply offers so much more on so many levels.
Here's hoping that Buell bring out something much the same, but 1125 powered in the coming year, then I might just find myself in a pickle.
