[ninjabandit]

Thanks for the Info on the tires. My stock tires are just about gonnneee...I've got about 3,000.oo miles of nice conoring, tiny chicken strips, This is all true on the low rev torque thing. I pulled my first second gear wheelie, and was so surprized, I just wound her out and dropped into 2nd, an she rose up like a smooth cobra snake, lofted and then settled right back down. Mind you it was not on purpose. The 51.5 inch wheel base takes a bit of adjustment but when you get it... you get IT!! Twisties and high speed sweepers the like!
Any way Im new to the forum and glad to see another Buell out there.
Liz

Originally Posted by Shea

If you are looking at a new Buell, here are a few things to consider. I have about 700 miles on the bike now and this is what I found. Hope it's useful for anyone who is considering one.

Be careful with reviews. This is a bike that many do not ride properly in reviews because they try to rev it out too hard instead of letting the torque take over for acceleration. You can easily bring the front end up at 3000RPMs. Also, the power drops at about 6500RPMs, but hitting the rev limiter puts you at about 6800-7000RPMs and that causes a BIG drop in power. So, proper shifting is key to running this bike well. Lastly, many of the reviews are already biased to the other popular bikes. They commonly compare them to Aprillia, Ducati, Triumph etc and the test riders, alot of the time, go in already with a poor attitude of the Buell.

Mods-These bikes do, in fact, consist of a self adjusting ECM. It adjusts for altitudes and does so by changing how lean the bike runs. Certain very small mods will also cause the bike's ECM to make adjustments to accomedate the mod, but beware. I installed a muffler that was designed to run with the stock ECM. It runs much better now than when I first installed the muffler, because I had to give it a couple hundred miles to adjust, but it has not totally adjusted. I sacrificed some horsepower for the mod. It sounds great and it still has alot of umph, but I will be taking it back to the dealer and having it dyno tuned to get the horsepower back. Be prepared to get a race ECM, muffler and you might as well get the air filter too. The full race kit including all these cost about $600 and then you have to have your TPS reset at the dealer.

Second, if you test ride one, be aware that the suspensions are not adjusted correctly from factory. They are designed for the softest ride possible for a 140lbs rider. For aggressive riding, adjustments will need to be made. Fortuantely, they are easy to do and the owner's manuel tells you how to do it and even gives adjustments for your weight. Once that's done, the bike (as long as the tires are inflated to their apprpiate pressure) handles wonderfully. With stock adjustments, the bike is a bear to handle.

That said, I cannot even describe the fun and coolness factor of these bikes. It's a blast to ride and everywhere you go, especially with a muffler, people are rubber necking to see what kind of bike you are riding. The sound is nothing like you have ever heard from a performance V-Twin.

I have heard of some complaints with the factory XB12 tires, the Dunlops. I hear everyone puting on the tires that the XB9 comes stock with, the Pirelli Diablos. Not sure how much more traction you get, but I hear it's just a much better feeling and the tire wear is a little slower.

Lastly, the stock plugs are junk. They are basic NGKs and replacing them with Pro Series plugs really smooths out the rev. The Pro Series have less than half the ohms that the NGKs produce at full spark.