2009 Buell Ulysses XB12XT Ride Report

Recently I had the privilege of taking my CityX in for it's 32 000km service. Now I won't moan about the cost of that little adventure, nor the fact that my head/neck bearings are shot because I've got more exciting things to talk about.

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.

Madness!!! This is V-Max!

Not having been around, or at least not old enough to ride bikes, in the days when the original V-Max was launched, I missed most of what the fuss was all about. In the couple of years I have been riding I have unfortunately not had the pleasure to find out what the original V-Max was all about.

Thus when the very rare opportunity came to ride the brand new V-Max, I honestly didn't have a clue what to expect. I had heard about this ludicrously powerful "muscle" bike, yet to me it still looked like nothing more than an overpriced cruiser. And then by cruiser standards my experience has mostly been riding Harley Davidsons of all sorts, which foolishly led me to believe that the V-Max would be much like a V-Rod, the names are virtually the same after all...what a mistake.

When I first saw photos of the final release version of the bike, I didn't exactly think it was ugly, but it was a hell of a long way from drop dead gorgeous. Having met the bike in person now, my opinion has changed quite drastically. It's not that the bike has become better looking, but rather that the details you see up close and personal give you a real appreciation for the amount of thought put into producing this motorcycle.

Being a limited production bike, no cost was spared on specially machined aluminium covers, with even the exhaust header being covered in aluminium presumably to keep the bike looking as good as the day it left the factory, and hiding the discolouration of the actual header pipes over time (or it might just serve the purpose of heat shielding, as some Yamaha fans have pointed out to me). Maroon accents can be found all over the bike, breaking the typical Black & Chrome combination, but adding a very exclusive and classy touch to the overall package. Everything has an immense sense of quality, and of course at the higher than average purchase price this is exactly what one would expect.

Everything on the bike looks fairly normal, except for those massive air intakes either side of the tank, the massive exhausts coming out of both sides and then the rear end which I don't like all that much but suits the bike very well with it's Mad Max styling. Looking at the bike it reminds me of a game I played many years ago Full Throttle. It's almost like it comes straight out of a comic book, for once the bean counters at Yamaha were told to bugger off so the designers and engineers could have their fun.

Yamaha build quality has always been phenomenal, and you would be hard pushed to find anything out of place on this bike. There are no wires or cable ties anywhere in plain sight, which can't be said for most bikes these days. If I have to be nitpicking then the only problem I experience with build quality was that the padding on the left side of the seat leading up to the tank, felt just a little bit more than on the right which might be fixed with a slight adjustment or fitting change on this specific bike.

Getting on the bike for the first time, knowing it weighs just over 300kg, it is a pleasant surprise to find that it feels much lighter than expected. My only real gripe with the bike is that the seat is too wide, making it feel much taller than it really is, because you can't put your feet down as firmly as you would like to. Quite possibly this is only an issue for someone of my stature, because generally it feels like the bike was built for people much larger than myself, which is strange for something of Japanese origin. Still cruisers are usually quite easy to flat foot due to their being so low, and it especially helps since they are always heavier than other bikes. It's tricky putting ones feet down when stopping, partly because of the wide seat but more so the protrusion of the rubberised foot pegs, which is of course the norm for cruisers so it shouldn't be a problem for anyone used to these kinds of bikes.



Initially the bike is somewhat scary, not because of the power from the 1679cc V4 engine as you would expect, but because of a strange dip when almost at full steering lock. Navigating the parking lot to get to the world outside was somewhat daunting, especially when you remember the price of the bike underneath you, never mind the fact that it's not even yours and one of only a few in the country. Coming from a sportbike background the low speed handling probably feels normal to regular cruiser riders, but in my case I had to over think every move just to make sure I don't topple over.

Surprisingly the moment I got into second gear and on the move, the initial fears of toppling over dissipated completely. I had told myself that I wouldn't be lane splitting on my journey, cutting out potential damage as much as possible. That was until the first gap in traffic presented itself, and I took a quick look around the bike to check clearance, and then proceeded through the gap and continued doing so for the rest of the trip. The only real worry when splitting cars, are the exhausts sticking out from either side of the bike, but amazingly the bike handles traffic so well I could easily live with it on a day to day basis. The turning circle is quite wide, so you won't be making any quick lane changes between cars, but then again with this being a cruiser you generally wouldn't be in a hurry to get anywhere would you?



Breaking free from stagnant city traffic, I finally got to open up the throttle and experience the massive V4 engine between my legs. I was told you don't need anything other than top gear, which is 5th, because it feels like you are breaking away from the traffic lights in 1st on any other bike. Hearing that statement I figured it was the typical marketing push, but I was astounded to find it to be absolutely the truth, and the realisation was shortly followed by a massive grin on my face. And then I did it again, and again, and again to the point that my face started hurting.

Spanking the V-Max away from the lights the weight of the bike is actually quite comforting, because you know that although it feels like the nose is going to come up any second it simply won't, at least not without some serious man handling of the clutch. Of course with that much power, breaking traction is a concern, but ultimately anyone should be able to launch the V-Max at warp speed much more easily

Sadly the engine note isn't quite as exciting as I had dreamed, which I'm sure has more to do with the environmental regulations of late, rather than by Yamaha's own choosing. Of course fitting some aftermarket exhausts would resolve that problem, but at an exponential cost I'm sure. That being said, having a quiet sleeper bike is exactly what you need to scare the daylights out of unsuspecting superbikes at the lights, or even better non-biker boy racers.



The V-Max will go from 60 to it's limited 220 km/h in top gear without hesitating, and without even breaking a sweat. I have never overtaken other vehicles as easily as I have with this bike, and I think it would make for a fantastic tourer if it weren't for the limited tank range I'm guessing the 15l tank offers. Which brings me back to my only real issue with the bike, the seat. Riding around town sitting up against the tank is quite comfortable with reach to the bars quite relaxed, and the gear and brake levers easily accessible. However when you approach highway speeds and you want to employ the crazy acceleration on offer, you have no other option than to sit back against the stop in the seat, otherwise you will slide right off. The problem is that in that position the reach to the bars becomes somewhat taxing, and at the same time the angle of the gear shifter a little sharp, not that you need to change gears, but it means you can't really grow into the position over time, and train yourself to sit against the stop permanently. Ultimately if the stop was adjustable the seat would have been perfect, but that would be asking too much, especially since the stop pops up to reveal the fuel filler cap.



The wind is surprisingly not much of an issue. Granted I ride a Naked bike everyday, so I'm easy to please compared to most, but for a wide which doesn't even try to keep the wind out it does a surprisingly good job. Naturally under extreme acceleration one's head gets pushed around a bit, but generally the torso and arms are well covered as well as the upper leg area. If anything the wind is a problem from the knee down where your feet are completely open to the elements and you need to make some effort to keep them on the pegs. Still overall I went out on a moderately windy day and it honestly didn't bother me in the slightest. As heavy as the bike is it should be really comfortable in cross wind conditions, not something that can be said for most.

At cruising speeds of 160-180km/h the V-Max is most comfortable, not only from a wind protection and ergonomic perspective, but also because the engine simply settles there. Acceleration from that speed is almost exactly the same as anywhere else in the range, but aerodynamics count against you and anything over 200km/h becomes a chore. Braking is phenomenal, simply because you expect something this big not to stop at all, never mind as well as it does. The ABS is a nice to have feature, although I didn't specifically test it out, and I'm not sure I'd want to. Besides who needs brakes, this bike just wants to go, go, go.



Although I only rode about 60km, I did so on familiar roads and again you just don't expect the bike to handle so well. Sure it's not a superbike, but it storms into corners with confidence, instead of the wobbliness experienced with all the cruisers I've ever ridden. Although the turning circle is quite wide, you don't want a bike like this to turn on a dime either. I much prefer slower steering, over twitchy snappy handling with this kind of motorcycle. The tyres are normal by all standards with the usual 120 up front, and a 200 at the rear, which means replacing them shouldn't be too much trouble.



One would need to have a Get-out-of-jail-free card if you plan to ride the V-Max on a day to day basis, as it simply does not do slow, at least not on the highway. Whenever I looked down I found myself at 160+km/h, even though it didn't feel like that at all. At the same time it idles along at 60km/h without complaint, so it's all about your mental ability to control that right hand, but then again why buy this bike if you only want to cruise. The power is a little tricky in slow corners, as you need to be on the throttle to steer the bike, but putting in those small throttle inputs around those corners can be a mental battle of extreme proportions. Strangely, I expected engine braking to be very strong but it's not, possibly due to the slipper clutch and shaft drive combination, as I can't remember ever riding a shaft driven bike which had a slipper before. The clutch itself is very easy to operate, although the reach was a bit far, and thinking back now I never even checked to see if it was adjustable. Although the gearbox is a bit clunky and quite loud, it's soft to operate and very accurate never missing a shift or hitting a false neutral.



Looking back I don't have anything particular to comment about the suspension, which leads me to believe it's more than adequate. Normally after getting off a bike the complaint is generally that the suspension is either too hard, or too soft. In this case I honestly can't say that I found the suspension bothering me in either manner, and that tells me it's perfect. Should you find yourself unhappy with the suspension it is fully adjustable, which is something you rarely find on a cruiser.

On top of the tank is a small screen hidden under more machined aluminium, indicating the usual odometer, trip meter, time and temperature gauge as well as a half-circle fuel gauge and gear indicator. The gear indicator is a strange one, since I honestly don't see why you would need it with this bike, but mostly because it's location is impractical since you need to look down between your legs to view it. Maybe Yamaha just put it there to add another feature to the list, just in case someone felt it was lacking.



In front you will find the usual dashboard with analog rev counter, digital speedometer, the usual warning lights and a massive dragster style shift light.



Maybe I should stop referring to it as a cruiser, because as much as it looks like one, it's nothing like any cruiser I've ever ridden, except maybe for typical tractor gearbox. As I said at the beginning, I expected the V-Max to be something like a Harley Davidson V-Rod, which is not even remotely the case. The V-Max is a truly unique experience, and not having the money for one I find it difficult to justify paying R235 000 for a motorcycle, but I'm dead certain if I had that kind of money, it would already be on it's way into Yamaha's account.

The Key is a somewhat strange entity. It is so large and oddly shaped that I doubt any biker would be able to pocket it comfortably. Yamaha must have done this on purpose to get people to place it where everyone can see it, thus scoring some free marketing. I couldn't figure out if it's possible to attach it to anything, but then again it would be quite difficult to lose something that big.



Which actually brings me back to a thought I had before riding the V-Max. I wondered why anyone would pay this kind of money for a generic Japanese bike, when they could have a Harley with a true heritage. Well I found that the V-Max isn't generic at all, if anything the Harleys seems generic in comparison, but most of all it might not have a heritage, but it sure is the start of one.

Regarding generic, one thing I simply cannot get over are the indicators straight from the Yamaha sportsbike parts bin, which spoils the dark and handsome looks of the bike completely with their screaming orange covers. Personally I would have fitted smoked or clear indicators with orange bulbs, instead of orange covers. Other than the indicators I have personal issues with the seat, which would probably be perfect if you carry a little bit more than average weight.



The V-Max is so solid that it almost feels immortal. When you approach an obstacle you think to yourself that if things should go wrong, you'll just fly straight through it, and out the other side in one piece without a scratch.

If you have the money, I doubt you will find anything else in this class as entertaining. If only Yamaha built a smaller engine, smaller chassis and somewhat lighter version at half the price, then I would have one parked in my garage...but then again that would completely defeat the purpose of the V-Max.

Recession this way comes

And I'm happier for it, since it seems that fitting the Special Ops and K&N Lifetime filter couldn't have come at a better time.

I now average 20-30km more per tank (read frame), and this is without trying very hard. Short shifting at about 4500rpm like I always do, keeping a steady speed of 120-140 on the highway and overtaking at pretty much full throttle still gives me roughly 230km for 12 litres amounting to a little over 19km/l.

Not bad at all for a big American V-Twin of the old school air cooled variety. Previously I managed just about 200km and then the light would come on, so all in all not a bad deal.

Of course I haven't done the Race EEPROM just yet, as money has been a little tight of late and shipping the cable from the US won't be exactly free either. Needless to say I suspect the Race EEPROM might give me even better mileage going by what I've heard, and failing that I'm sure the custom Xopti tune will sort everything out, including the bit of a backfire every so often.

Backfire isn't the end of the world though, it's quite bad ass and I like it, but I believe it's a good indication of fuel being wasted on all the wrong reasons so it would be nice to get that sorted.

Hopefully there's enough money left after the festive season to organise the ECMSpy cable from Xopti and play around with the Lightning some more.

Special Operations

Well some time ago my Jardine exhaust blew up spectacularly on a low ride where I was unable to attend to the loosened rivets.

The Drummer pipes have always been rated as some of the best in the business, but since I was having trouble supplying a stock exhaust being half way around the world, and the outright pipe was too expensive at $700 and also didn't support the stock chin cowl mounts it was not to be.

Next up on my list of options was Michael Oldfield at Special Ops who does mostly the same kind of thing as Kevin (Drummer) by making modifications to the stock exhaust to allow better breathing, and of course a much better sound.

Mike is the only stock modifier who is also willing to sell a pipe outright, without the need to send in you stock pipe, so this helped greatly. However he didn't have any stock of XB9 pipes, so I was put on his waiting list.

In the meanwhile I went and made a Wanted post on Buelletinboard just in case someone was keen on sponsoring me a stock XB9 pipe, which Odie could work into a Special Ops wonder. Problem is that Buelletinboard doesn't have a pop-up on private messages by default, and thus I completely missed the messages from SpdKls who was willing to hook me up with a stock exhaust which he would drop off with Odie on the weekend.

What a surprise then, when Odie lets me know that he'll be done with my pipe on the weekend, ready to ship the following week. A shock to the budget but a welcome surprise nonetheless, and while I was at it I got a K&N Filter shipped to Odie so he could ship me one package with all the goodies.

Two weeks later and the goods finally arrived on local shores, with customs not screwing me over as expected.

As you can see it looks exactly the same as the stock exhaust, just some what shorter with the outlet at the back, instead of at the side. A much better paintjob than the stock part as well, lets hope it lasts.

I much prefer this option, as the chin cowl mountings are the same, and thus don't require silly additional brackets to be fitted, as is the case with many of the other options available. Also it helps that it looks stock, because that means nobody will notice, and thus will be caught by surprise.

The sound is fantastic. Many people will cringe at the thought that it sounds more like a pissed off Harley than ever, but I quite like it. At the moment there's a lot of decel popping, which is pretty bad ass, but I think will need to be sorted out later.

The bike definitely pulls stronger, but maybe not as smoothly. I find myself in the higher gears much faster than I remember, and it seems like the bike revs up faster and more easily especially the higher ranges.

XoptimizedrsX has offered to help me out with some fuelling maps, and I'll definitely be taking him up on that offer once I have the cash to hook myself up with an ECMSpy cable. Hopefully that will sort out the minor fuelling issue midway through the rev range, and will result in a smoother and even more potent bike.

Oddly enough I've only done one tank of petrol since the pipe and filter were installed, and it saw lots of pretty hard riding, and lots of needless revving, yet tank range was only 5km less than my result. So in theory if I ride "nicely" the bike might even be more economical with mods, than without.

Problem is, with such a bad ass sound you just want to spank it all the time!

I have a blog?

Pester me all you want for not writing anything for six months, but it's my Blog after all so be quiet :)

Well work and life in general just got away from since that Epic journey earlier in the year. The clock reads almost 26 000km, which I figure is a decent figure for less than two years of ownership, and only one really long trip.

The bike is almost run in now, and is getting more and more lively by the day. I've thought about trading it in on a bigger and badder Buell, but I just love this bike too much, and with the catalytic converters on the new bikes, mine is actually up on power it seems.

Clutch cable snapped at just over 24000km, which fortunately wasn't too much of a hassle since I was close to home. At the same time Buell Tygervalley confirmed that they would replace my front rotor under warranty, so the bike went in for the whole shebang. Front wheel bearings were also replaced at the time, which initially I wasn't too happy about, but looking back at the past two years and the number of speed bumps and potholes I molested at speed, I figure it's understandable.

I have also installed a Special Ops muffler, and K&N Air Filter since the last post but I think I'll make a seperate entry regarding that, as it's quite a story and a few people need to be commended.

Ultimately the Buell is stronger than ever, and miraculously has dodged many mishaps to it's person. Many have fallen in it's wake however...which is odd for a supposedly "slow" bike.

The Buell goes to Port St John

Alrighty so I have a moment to tell a few stories, in case anyone cares to listen.

Firstly a round up of the petrol statistics...

Total Litres Consumed by the Vibrator - 164.582 l

Total Cost of litres consumed - R 1 329.63 (not bad considering my guesstimate was R1200 for the trip)

Total Fuel Stops : 21 - Range between the Buell and R6 balanced at about 200km so we didn't want to take chances.

Km/l Average : 17.63 (not bad, considering this includes two tanks or "frames" which saw nothing less than 200km/h on the clock)

The bike would run up to about 160km/h with consistent fuel usage across the board, but the moment you crossed that line I only managed about 150km on the tank instead of the usual 200+. Bear in mind this is a 14.7 litre capacity with a slightly over zealous reserve light.

Ultimately I think it's not down to the bike being thirstier at higher revs, but rather a case of aerodynamics requiring much more power at those speeds. The R6 on the other hand tended to be more economical in the 180km/h region.


Day 1 (Thursday) - Fairly event free, and rather boring. As I said before my perception of touring has changed dramatically, and in future long trips like these should be covered with less than 500km a day and time to spare to make any stops possible. Ultimately an end destination shouldn't even be on the cards, but that could get a little hairy especially with regards to accommodation at the end of the day.

Our destination was Port Elizabeth on day one, and our progress was fairly slowing. We had been warned with regards to lots of road works, but hadn't really had any problems up to about Stormsrivier where we hit the first real Stop/Go. Those of you that rode with to the Buffalo last year will be pleased to find that the roads around Caledon are now complete and in fantastic condition.

The toll road through Stormsrivier is however under construction, and I'm guessing they are adding an extra lane on each side, which ultimately will remote the only bottleneck on that entire section of road. At the moment though the surface condition is shocking, and of course the Stop/Go's aren't much fun especially when you are suffering from numbum after doing 500km already.

So the final 200km stretch into PE we were just about gatvol, and ready to nail it, just to be pleasantly surprised by the worst road works of the day just outside PE. Fortunately being on bikes we slipped past to the front of every single Stop/Go which eased the pain somewhat.

We stayed in Blue Water Bay just past PE, in a B&B which is basically a massive house with I think 5 different apartment sections for guest, and a community breakfast area. Think we paid R190 per person which included breakfast and was quite reasonable. Smallish room, but completely separate bathroom with fancy bath and shower, and also a separate entrance where we parked our bikes right at the door. We were however rudely awakened the next morning at 6:00 by some Whamkilikili doef-doef stuff which sounded like some conference or something.

722km for the day if I remember correctly.

Day 2 (Friday) - First stop was Oakley in PE so Nico (R6) could take some specs in to be repaired. Oakley made good and said they could do it on the spot and have it ready in 15min, so we decided to wait and headed out at about 9:30 for Grahamstown.

Apparently we missed something, because everyone is always gaaning aan about Grahamstown, but we found nothing spectacular at all, and struggle to find petrol never mind anything else. We were warned that the road to King William's town was in a dire state, and filled with cops. We passed one Gatso just outside Grahamstown, but got away with a friendly wave, which in retrospect might have been a sign to pull over....oh well.

The roads towards the Transkei in my opinion are in better condition than anywhere else really, and there are some fantastic passes in between which are in perfect condition actually. Problem really is that the roads have recently been reconstructed and thus there are no lines. Pot Hole warning are everywhere, but we found them to be pretty much unfounded. Often you'll have pot holes to the shoulder, but those are hardly a problem for a bike which travels closer to the middle.

I can't remember exactly but I think it was just outside Peddie where I came around a corner at about 120 just to find a massive queue of cars waiting for the Stop/Go. Naturally a bit of hard braking was in order, but what made it hilarious was the oke with his red flag, because the faster I came closer the faster he waved as if it would make a difference. Slightly hairy situation, but nothing too serious. Fortunately I took the chance of having a peek past the cars, because they were standing for a good kilometre, and we opted to skip past all of them.

King William's town is actually quite a nice little place. Naturally nothing spectacular out here in the Wild East but they seem to be on the ball.

Next stop Mtatha (Umtata) where I was born.

Now I need to mention that the country is absolutely fantastic to ride through. The scenery is just amazing, and it stretches for miles on end, and absolutely everything is green. It's also an amazing cultural experience because naturally everything is Xhosa, and it's clearly apparent that many of these people have never seen bikes in their lives, or at least very rarely. Every stop in the completely black towns like Peddie and some of the other small villages was met with absolute wonder, and people asking questions about the bikes and where we were going, like we were celebrities or something. It was also apparent that nobody knows that a bike is legally required to have it's lights on at all hours, since we got flashed by every second car to tell us our lights were on.

And then things got hairy...

Now I might have been born in Umtata, but I didn't realise that the surrounding country was virtually in the mountains,and thus ridiculously high above sea level. Needless to say we literally got stuck in the clouds, which effectively brought our viewing distance down to less than 30m.

Cattle dodging had already been fun for most of the day, but entering roads you haven't seen before blindly was rather intimidating. Ultimately I'm guessing we did about 200km perfectly blindly, both outside Umtata and later approaching Port St John.

As dangerous as it was, it was a lot of funny. Amazing to see the massive landscapes completely disappear and losing 360 degree vision entirely. Makes you really feel small in the world.

And that's when it got really exciting...

You see Mtatha/Umtata has this ridiculous infatuation with speed bumps. Not normal large speed bumps, no rather a series of small very hard very upright speed bumps in a row with a cars length between them. A case of "this is a 60 zone, if you don't do 60 we'll make you do 60".

Not only does it completely cock up the flow of traffic, especially at peak hour when we passed through, but it's bloody dangerous. Traffic comes to a complete stand still in town, because of people negotiating the bumps out of town. And there's no robot in the main street, just a four way stop.

I figure we lost about an hour, just trying to navigate through and out of Mtatha.

And then we went back into the clouds...

About 10km outside of town I see a 80km/h sign, and fortunately slack down to about that speed, and then soon after follows a 60km/h which I don't really slack down for. And then...blindly I strike a massive speed bump, and I have zero chance of cutting speed because there are another 5 in close succession. Needless to say I figured I bent a rim or two, and possibly lost an exhaust but the bike help up well, and my luggage was still in place.

Oh somewhere along the line we realised my running light was dead, but later from the rest we heard it's been dead for a few weeks. So I was riding in front, since cars only saw my numberplate light, and my brake lights.

The final stretch to Port St John was in the clouds, and full on showers this time at a steady 80km/h following a Ford Focus through the mountains because we couldn't see anyway.

We arrived absolutely soaked, and not having stopped to put the rain cover on the luggage, figuring we only had so far to go, all the stuff in the bags was wet as well.

Friday night was good fun, considering the Gautengers bought a drum of Crayfish for something ridiculous like R350. Naturally all under the table, and I figure I had about 12+ straight off the braai. Envy...wa ha ha ha ha.

Saturday saw us doing about 10km of offroading up and down a mountain on roadbikes just for breakfast, but keeping it slow made it event less so all was good. The Gautengers decided their measly 900km was too much and they needed 2 days to ride back up, because it was too much for them coming down, so they set off on Saturday afternoon.

Of course this was after I had my fun on the ZX14 and Z1000.

The Z1000 is very nimble, and actually a little bit scary in my opinion. I also sensed a very strange vibration which made the Buell seem sedate, half way up the revs. The rear suspension was a little bit soft, so maybe that caused the vibration, but it seemed completely revs related.

The ZX14 was just over the top and way too much bike for me. This particular one has a Full Arata system on, Power Commander and I believe some cam work done as well. We all know I can't wheelie, and I managed to lift this bike second gear virtually off idle. Absolutely clinically insane!

It is however a very comfortable bike, I couldn't believe it. I figured it was just a bigger over the top brother of the ZX10, but it is in fact much more of a tourer than expected.

Saturday night saw us getting slaughtered at the resort's pub. They basically have a standing rule that when Pool is played the loser buys shots for all players. Being pretty good at Pool meant not leaving the table once, and getting a drink with every round. Fortunately I didn't feel as bad as it really was Sunday morning, and by the time they started putting Mampoer down, I figured someone needed to go Braai otherwise we would never eat, so off I went.

Sunday we aimed for East London, because the R6 had managed to stretch it's chain, even though it was find on Thursday night. Must have been those bloody speedbumps, or it just went weak at a point unexpectedly. It was a rather slow and relaxing ride, since the rest had a rather intimate discussion with the Mampoer the previous evening.

Yet as the time went by the speed increased, and that's when we passed a Gatso with a nice little blue man jumping into the road. I was already 100m passed the thing when I eventually stopped, as I was thinking of skieting if the R6 did as well, but he pulled over so I figured if this copper wanted my number he would have to take a walk. No problem, five minutes and R40 later we were back on the road, and the 141km/h in an 80 magically disappeared. It's days like these that I don't mind the corruption in this country.

We ended up staying at the Premier Regent hotel in EL, because I wasn't particularly keen in going to stay with my family, and Nico's buddy couldn't help us out. We were warned the Backpackers is a bit risky, and when we found out the hotel has rooms for R320 a night we figured it's a bargain.

Terms & Conditions and Fine Print apply as it always goes. Turns out the rooms have absolutely no view or hole to the outside world. No windows, only a ceiling fan. It wasn't that bad, but it definitely wasn't great either.

Monday morning saw us heading for De Rust. The plan was to head back out along the N2 as we had come, and then jump onto the R62 from there.

And heading back to Grahamstown is where the little "oopsie" happened. I'll write it down to getting into the momentum of overtaking. No lines on the road and I took a peek past a truck, and my brain said there is a massive gap to overtake with no oncoming cars. That was until I found myself next to this truck which became longer and longer the more I accelerated, and then all of a sudden a car from the front.

I figured it was the end of the road for me, because there was no run off whatsoever, not even a gravel section. Needless to say I'm still here, and what resulted was a pure miracle. I ended up line splitting about five cars head on, while also locking up the rear under braking in an attempt to get back behind the truck. And I knew I couldn't try to look behind me to see where the truck ended, because surely I would run right into it.

It was HECTIC very very hectic. And after coming out alive at the other end I immediately pulled over for a breather, because my concentration was shot.

Naturally I let Nico take the lead, and the pace was dropped considerably for the remainder of that section.

Coming past PE we picked up the pace again, not being too lus anymore and just wanting to relax a little.

Once we hit the R62 the ride became fun again, and we were slaughtering corners until we met the sign to Uniondale saying road closed. But the sign was sorted of in the middle of the road, and we saw numerous cars come out. Turns out the road was flooded, but there were single lane sections open, and the locals assured us we should be fine.

Fine on a bloody GS maybe!!!! We negotiated some dongas with our sportsbikes, which some okes with their duellies would be scared of. Best of all, some were at relative speed, because we couldn't see the surface changes at all, due to the sun shining directly in our eyes. The Uniondale road is almost identical to Meiringspoort only not as long, and not as hectic. It could be a great biking road when it's repaired, until then I would advise even cars to steer clear.

No such luck as to pick up the Spook in Uniondale, I guess she didn't smaak sitting on top of the luggage.

The final stretch round the back from Uniondale to De Rust sucks. The sections with corners were a nightmare due to the time of day and the sunlight completely blocking our vision with dark visor or shades on. The rest is perfectly straight for kilometres on end, pretty damn boring unless you plan on doing top end runs.

De Rust was the same old same old. Herrie's Pub is a little bit more expensive than I remember, but we figured after eating crap on the road for 5 days, we could afford to dish out on a rack of ribs. Needless to say it wasn't fantastic, but it did the job.

Tuesday morning I figured it was my duty to go show Nico Meiringspoort. The road is as good as always, but the trucks have mangled the surface just a little bit since my last visit. We only did one up and down, because we needed to get on the road.

Oudtshoorn here we come for breakfast at the Steers which Abu will remember we stopped at as well. We hit a Stop/Go just before the pass to Ladysmith where we ended up waiting for a good 20min. Not bad since it's the only Stop/Go where we actually stopped long enough to take our gear off. Made some friends with some locals, whom we passed back and forth all day as we stopped and such.

I initially wanted to shoot over Tradouw to the N2 like we did before, since I was heading for the Strand, but then I figured I would accompany the R6 all the way home.

By the time we hit Montagu we were tired, and the warp speed drive was engaged. The Buell unbelievably has still not been top ended. The R6 was very optimistic though, since it saw 240km/h on the clocks, and I'm dead sure the Buell can't maintain that.

Filled up at Robertson, and Scott's warning about the heat was really hitting home. The closer we came to Capie Town, the more fluids we needed to take at every stop. And with the riding going a little bit woes, the bikes were also suiping quite heavily.

A priest in Robertson lied to us, telling us Worcester is only 15km out. Bastid, it was a good 35km, but anyway. Hitting past Worcester we opted to the take the tunnel instead of the pass like we original planned. And then it finally happened. As I adjusted in my seat for a stretch, the right knee finally gave up. No more jumping around in the seat then, and just nurse yourself home Shaun.

The 70zone through the tunnel and down the mountain was blatantly ignored, as we simply couldn't care less.

Eventually hit home with exactly 2795km on the clock, and I'll sure as hell do it again but next time taking a lot more time and possibly taking a different bike.

I've added a few pics, saving bandwidth you know...

Long time, no see.

Well, it has been almost six months since I last put anything onto this blog, but I figure if I have any hope of ever doing more journalistic work whether bike related or otherwise, I better keep pumping articles out and use this as a bit of a portfolio, as recommended by a certain Penver.

Anyway the bike is still going strong, and although Buell have teased me with both the 1125R and the Ulysses XT I figure I'll be holding onto her for a while still, especially in light of proving to the world that Buells are in fact reliable.

Well today saw me going for my first rear tyre change at just over 17 000km. The stock Pirelli Scorpion Sync is really a fantastic compromise between grip and high mileage, and thus I made the choice to replace it with the same tyre, which proved to be quite a mission.

Buell Tygervalley was pretty much the only shop with stock, but already wanted R300 more than anyone else, and wanted to charge for an hour's labour of R350 on top of that.

So I phoned around and my old friends at Suzuki South sorted me out, but had to make a special order and thus I ended up waiting a few days. And there there was the joy of finding out that they don't have the tools to work on the bike since it uses imperial bits instead of the common metric ones found around these parts.

Oh well, who needs to get to work, when bike shops have all the time in the world on their side...

Long story short they managed to buy the imperial tools required, and we had quite a bit of fun taking the wheel and belt off and getting the tyre swopped. Being a mechanical n00b this was of course educational for me, so I don't really mind at all.

So hopefully this weekend we'll be doing some tyre scrubbing, and since I've decided to keep the bike after all, I'll be pushing some money towards mods so I have something to write about.

Oh...the Jardine was a phenomenal cock up, but I'll get to that later when I have the pictures at hand.

Uly Powa!

So last week my bike needed to go in, for what I thought would be a warranty claim regarding a sticky fifth gear. Well this story isn't about that, but let's just say it was a dodgy repair by a certain dealer after the bike had fallen over.

Naturally I took the bike to the new official Buell dealer in Tygervalley, and I must say although they charged me, and rightfully so as it wasn't their fault, for the work on the gearbox, I was treated like a king, and I was given an Ulysses XB12X for the day.

Now when I first test rode my XB9 almost exactly a year ago, I tried to just take a seat on the Uly and found it much too high to be comfortable. Stupid me also never bothered riding any of the other 12's because it was a personal ultimatum of make or break on the XB9.

Anyway, I got on the bike, which is the Yellow variety of 2007, and was pleasantly surprised that although the bike was very high, the suspension was quite soft and I was able to tip toe both feet, and put one down flat without error. Throughout the day I didn't once feel intimidated by the height as I had expected to be, and even U-turns which normally freak me out on my own bike were a pleasure.

The first obstruction of the day occurred when I realised that I don't have my Tail Bag on the Uly, and thus had nowhere to put my stuff. Fortunately I've kept my eyes open regarding all that is Buell, and I was aware of the often commented massive space under the seat. Problem is that I needed to get the seat off first, which appeared an impossible task.

Like an idiot I was using the keyhole release in the same location as my own bike, this turned out to be a helmet hook, and quite a laugh for the staff that came to help me. Turned out the keyhole is in fact at the back of the bike, but before you can lift the seat you need to flip up the stock backrest. Now this thing is really clever, once you know how it works, otherwise it's bloody impossible. Basically the backrest flips in three directions, forwards onto the rear part of the one piece seat when not carrying a passenger, upright for use as a backrest when carrying a passenger, or backwards which I presume is for fitting luggage and more than likely the official panniers and top box. The trick is that you need to insert the key, or any other workable object into a little hole at it's side, to unlock the mechanism. Once someone shows you, or you read the manual you realise how nice this actually works.

Well that sorted out, and after checking that there's nothing else too different to my own bike, I got access to the ample space beneath the seat. Ample meaning there is in fact any kind of space beneath the seat, unlike my Lightning, and it's bigger than anything I've seen anywhere else. Sure there must be other bikes out there with more space, but I haven't experienced them yet. Nice to know that it's perfectly secure, enclosed on all sides with no chance of anything disappearing from a hard ride as is the case on most bikes. I would venture a guess that it can hold as much as my Buell Tail Bag, but in a flatter format. More than enough space for your wallet, phone, keys and possibly a windbreaker as well.

So I'm on the bike, ready to go. Pushing it backwards with my short legs was a bit of a hassle, but nothing major. I've learnt to push my bike from the front gripping the bars, so I'm sure I could get it out of anything if the need arises. It does feel a lot heavier to the push, probably because it's so tall.

First thing I noticed was a superbly soft and easy to operate clutch, not once through the day did I feel fatigue setting in on my left hand. The second thing was not so pleasant, it appears the throttle cable had a bit of slack it in. No biggie, but a little distracting when you are trying to get to know a new bike.

And then it happened...

The incredible torque straight off idle hit me right in the chest, and I almost launched myself over the pavement. Where the hell did that come from? I stopped, thinking maybe I did something wrong, possibly dropped the clutch too quickly. Tried pulling off again as I normally would...and BAM torque punch to the face. Jeez I've read about the monster torque on the 12's, but this was ridiculous.

Eventually I got away in one piece, with a massive smile on my face. This was going to be a very good day after all. The exhaust note isn't very exciting, and I can't remember my stock pipe ever sounding so boring, but it might just be bad memories I've chosen to repress.

Once you get use to the over the top torque from anywhere in the rev range, it sinks in that the delivery is in fact rather linear, and not very exciting. One gear feels exactly like the next, with no rise in power as you travel up the tacho, and your speed is the only indication that you are in fact accelerating. Of course engine braking is a whole new ball game, and shifting down to the wrong gear is like hitting a brick wall. In this respect my XB9 feels a lot quicker, even though I'm guessing the two bikes will be equally fast in real world terms. With a little bit of work, like a new muffler and the RACE goodies from Buell I'm sure it would be a little more fun to open her up, but in the stock arrangement you just putter about in any gear with no need to push on.

Oh don't get me wrong, it's not that it's a chore to ride or anything like that, simply that in direct comparison I feel the 984cc engine is a little more peaky, which might not be the best all round option, but certainly accounts for an adrenaline rush.

Handling is phenomenally different. I expected it to feel almost exactly the same as my CityX, considering it's mostly the same frame with a few minor changes, the same but longer swingarm, and most importantly exactly the same tyres. What I failed to recall is what a phenomenal difference handlebars and riding position can make to what is essentially almost the same bike. Suspension also plays a major role in the handling matter, and with the longer travel suspension it makes quite the difference.

I found that the bike is very fast steering, and makes my Lightning feel slow in comparison. Quite strange really, since you expect a bigger heavier bike to do quite the opposite. The bike dropped into corners, almost before I was even ready for them. It appears that you can do anything via small inputs to the handlebars, and hardly need to change riding stance, as the bike is done with the corner long before you even get a chance to get your ass off the seat.

Sadly I never checked the tyre pressures before departing, so I can't make any scientific comparisons on that matter. Also not being a regular duellie I wasn't exactly brave enough to take it offroad, and the best it got was a little bit of wet grass which was interesting enough to get me on and off pretty quickly.

Initially I struggled to find a comfortable riding position, mostly because of the strange contours in the seat, which try to force you into one place. One of the great things about my Lightning is that I can change my riding and seating position completely depending on my mood, which is not the case with the Uly. Also I've become quite accustomed to riding feet up, so the large pegs on the Uly were a little strange getting use to. However I write all of this off due to myself being full of nonsense, and not the fault of the bike. After the day's ride I was very comfortable, and asked myself over and over again why I never took the liberty of testing one when I had the chance.

I didn't have a enough riding time to fill her up, so I can't say anything about fuel consumption, however from what I've read they are incredibly frugal and offer quite a long range due to the larger frame.

Passenger comfort should be some of the best around. I took a very tall and heavy friend around the parking lot and I felt very much in control, and he claims it is quite comfortable. That seat is like a living room couch, you could fit the whole family on the bloody thing. Rear preload adjustment is made very easy with a large knob, so changing suspension for different weight requirements takes some minor calculation and less than a minute of tuning.

Touring should be an absolute pleasure, but can become costly. The official Buell panniers and top box amount to just over 10% of the bike's purchase cost. Granted, this is the case with most manufacturers, so comes with the territory. I have only read good things about those boxes, and they appear quite sturdy and sexy on the bike. There is an official taller screen available as well, which replaces the top part of the two piece windscreen, and appears to be a clip on solution.

Mechanically the bike is identical to my own, with the only noticeable difference being a softer clutch and what felt like a smoother transmission. I did notice that I felt a little more heat under my seat, not uncomfortably so, but still noticeable. I doubt that the engine difference is the cause of the additional heat, and the only other difference is that most of the electronics are positioned directly under your crotch, whereas the battery is in that space on my bike, and the electronics towards the pillion part of the seat, which on the Uly is the open boot space. Another interesting thing is that the Diagnostics/ECU/DDFI/Whatever connector is accessible from the outside the bike, without taking off the seat, which is strange really since the seat is so easy to remove.

Now I better stop rambling, before I start talking nonsense.

Overall I was left very impressed with this bike, and looking back I thought maybe I should have rather bought one of these. It will make an excellent commuter, firstly because it's so comfortable, secondly because that monstrous torque will let you putter along in top gear all day, and lastly because it's probably lighter on juice.

However, the moment I got back onto my Lightning I remembered why I loved it so much the first time I demo'd one. The riding position is extreme, not like a superbike but rather in the unique Buell way of things. And I immediately realised what made the Uly so different, the high seat and bars make you feel like you are sitting inside the bike, where the Lightning makes it feel like you are on top of the world, but not like a fully faired superbike.

Instead you are naked and most importantly free.

And this...

...is the reason I bought a Buell.

Not one single bike appears to be exactly the same. Although some of them might look exactly the same they all have their little niggles.

And then you get absolutely over the top transformations like this Ulybolt owned by Steve_Mackay, a member of the Buelletinboard Forum.

The base is a Lightning STT (previous thought to be a Long) as can been seen from the timing cover with the Lightning logo. The panniers are only available in the Ulysses range, and probably the primary reason for doing all the modification.

I think it looks fantastic, not to mention completely unique.

More info from the owner over HERE, including some photos of the entire conversion process.

Rather late than never.

Well it has been months since I last posted on this blog.

A lot has happened since, and none of it has really been documented so we'll just call this a fresh start then.

The bike has 10 000km on the clock now, and the only problem in sight is a very sticky 5th geahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifr which is quite difficult to get in and out of.

The good news however is that there is a new Official Buell dealer opening it's doors in Cape Town soon, and hopefully they'll cover the problem under a warranty claim.

Buell land is an exceptionally exciting place since the announcement of the Buell 1125R recently, but I'll leave commentary on that bike until I've ridden one.

One thing is for sure I won't be upgrading, since the trade-in value offered to me has been nothing less than spectacular. Besides I bought this bike for comfort, and a step outside the superbike game.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find a local Buell forum in the form of the Buell Riders Association. Things are a little quiet at this point in time, especially from Cape Town, but I'm sure it will pick up over time.

Here's a little something from an alternative adventure.

Bloody Hell!

Long time no post, mostly because of to many things detracting my attention from the bike.

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!

Oops!

So yesterday afternoon I was out and about on the bike, with the girlfriend on the back. We went to watch the Parlotones at Kirstenbosh, and afterwards popped in for a quick drink with friends.

In the old biking tradition I opted to take a shortcut down the sidewalk on my way out of the parking area, rather than struggling to reverse the bike out. Needless to say after a loud scratching noise I remembered that there is indeed an exhaust mounted underneath this bike.

Still feel like such an idiot, but fortunately it's just a little scrape and over time I'm sure there will be lots more where this one came from.

Always remember the first...

After a long drama to get the registration papers sorted out she's finally been taken on a decent breakfast run.

Sunday saw myself and a number of other souls heading out towards Simonstown for a nice breakfast. We departed from Caltex at the Waterfront just after nine, and it was great getting back into the group riding dynamics after being off a bike for so long.

The initial ride saw us struggling through town traffic, which is never much joy during the festive season. Over De Waal Drive towards Bishop's Court and then up to Kirstenbosch heading towards Hout Bay, then taking a sharp left going down towards Constantia.

I was following a lady on a Honda RVF400 to whom this stretch of road is like her backyard, and even with a pillion (yes on a Buell) although maybe not riding as extreme as the RVF I was keeping up pretty nicely without much effort at all. She really is an easy bike to ride, and corner entry speeds often catch you off guard purely because you think you are going much slower.

The moment we turned off towards Constantia I no longer knew the road and toned it down quite a bit. Of course my bike had just over 700km on the morning so she was still being run in. Surprisingly after some initial teething troubles the bike is great with a passenger. The effects of the pillion are much more noticeable than on other bikes, especially with regards to braking as the weight transfer to the front really puts strain on the brakes. Fortunately engine braking is such a pleasure with that barbarian bark from the exhaust that knocking down few gears is never a problem, and always offers a smile.

Somewhere during this part of the ride the leader of our group became a rather relaxed Scotsman on a Kawasaki ZX9. Travelling through town at a relatively sedate pace offered me the opportunity to do lots of roll-ons from low revs. Bearing in mind that she is still being run in, she doesn't fancy pulling from anything below 2500rpm and with a passenger I would generally try and keep her above 3000rpm. That might not sound too friendly for a V-Twin, which is suppose to have so much low down torque, but coming from a Japanese Inline 4 it suits my riding style perfectly.

We headed up and over Ou Kaapse Weg, where the wind immediately became noticeable. The interesting thing about the wind is that it remains completely constant on the Lightning. Fact of the matter is that you will always have wind from the front due to the low screen, and when you make peace with this fact it's really not much of a problem. Lateral winds on the other hand have virtually no impact on your ride however, most likely due to the low centre of gravity. I will more than likely still opt for the Zero Gravity Extended Flyscreen, even if just to test, but I could easily see myself doing long rides comfortably cruising at 150km/h.

Coming down on the other side of Ou Kaapse Weg we realised that we had lost the rest of the group. Turns out someone had gotten lost and the rest were waiting for them to catch up. It gave me a good twenty minutes to reflect on the ride up to that point.

I had been playing around with the suspension quite a bit and in the process managed to induce a headshake at 140km/h. Now I'm no expert in this regard, and I only jump between the different factory settings for weight classes, but it seemed like I had finally sorted it out for riding with my girlfriend at least. At least I thought this at the time, but going home later on I changed my mind again.

Eventually the rest of our group caught up, and it was in fact the Harley Davidson 883 Sportster that held things up. Not because it was slow, but because it deviated from the course. Interesting to note the extreme differences between the Sportster and the XB9 which share so many common parts. Amazing how different applications of components, can have completely different results.

Moving along into Simonstown we found a nice place at the docks to have some breakfast.



The Buell has a spectacular presence, and even amongst these superbikes it hardly holds back in the personality department.

I had my doubts that I might miss my GSX-R600 amongst this company, but I can honestly say that I felt a proud Buell owner throughout the entire morning and did not once wish I was riding one of the other bikes in our group.

And judging by the onlookers that walked past it's most definitely a crowd pleaser.

Breakfast done, the plan was to spend the rest of the day in Scarborough with the owners of the Kawasaki ZX-10 and Honda RVF400.

On the short run over there I realised that the bike has just passed it's running in period and being all warm up the moment had finally come to push her well over the 5000rpm limit that had been imposed on me for the past few weeks.

What a shocker to find that there is something resembling a powerband between 5500 and 7000. I suspected that revving the bike that high would offer nothing more than a smile on my dial, and in fact a loss of power. I was pleasantly surprised to find quite the opposite, and never thought that I would ever bother trying to dodge the rev-limiter on this one.

Every time I get on this bike I find something else that I just love about it, and the few minor distractions to that rule seem to completely disappear in the background. The jump from a high-revving Japanese 600 isn't nearly as difficult as was expected, and it offers much of the same character without all the discomfort.

After spending the day in Scarborough the ride back home was very quick, due to my girlfriend not feeling too well. The bike was perfectly happy travelling most of the way at 150km/h odd, and didn't once complain. I did realise that the suspension still needs some work though, as a number of bumps felt very soft all of a sudden.

After quite a hard ride it was also nice to find that the fuel economy wasn't adversely affected by the nature of the ride, and if anything I should at most lose about 20km on a tank under hard riding conditions.

As every day before this one, I still feel absolutely spectacular about my decision to buy a Buell. I think the only other bike I'll ever buy, will be another Buell.

At long last...

She has finally arrived.

Very late, and very dirty.

The moment I took her for a ride all the issues surrounding the delivery immediately disappeared. Only problem now is that I'm still waiting for all the paperwork to arrive, and thus the bike is unregistered and not exactly road legal.

Eventually opted not to have the exhaust modification done, when Buell Johannesburg informed me that although they have sorted the 12's out quite nicely they are still playing a little with the 9's. That being said the stock exhaust is a lot beefier and louder than I remember it, maybe it's been helped along a little for 2007.

Also my headlight grill seemed to have gone missing in action somewhere during the trek down to Cape Town, or it was never fitted in the first place. For a long moment I thought they had sent me a 12 and I was just going to keep quiet about it.

Initially I wasn't too crazy for the "cut" stickers on the tank, but in due time they have grown on me and now it looks quite funky. Also the aluminium airbox trim I ordered with the bike makes it look stunning.

I love the fact that the bike looks completely different in daytime, having a nice charcoal or graphite look to it, and then at night it goes completely black. Very radical look, and definitely the most badass naked around for miles!

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!