Bike Impressions: Buell XB9R & Victory Vision I taught an Experienced Rider course last week. The most piss poor rider in the class was this girl on a Buell XB9R. She was so bad that the other instructor & myself were going to remove her from the class. She asked to stay just for the experience. We let her on the aggreement the minute she threatens the safety of another rider, she's gone. By sheer dumb luck, she managed to pass the course. 21 is failing & she scored 20. We told her to practice in parking lots, alot. Back to the Buell. This rider was having so much with slow speed maneuvers that she suspected something was wrong with her machine. I rode it around for about 5 minutes. After 2 minutes on this bike, I can honestly say I have no freaking clue how ANYONE could own such a lousy bike. I can only think of one good thing to say about it. The Good: The belt drive with auto tensioner. It makes for ZERO drive chain lash. I'd still want a chain drive on any of my bikes. Maybe if I had a cruiser I'd go for a belt. The Bad: Gearing is WAAAY off. You would think a 1000cc bike would have torque for days but it is way, way, way to easy to stall this POS. The Ergos are terrible. This is absolutely the most uncomfortable bike I've ever thrown a leg over. The Ducati 916 is better. Bars are too low, pegs to hi, seat sucks, etc. The heat. The temp coming off the engine will BBQ your legs. Handling is down right dangerous. Everytime I went to make a turn, it felt like the front end was going to tuck under. It gets lousy mileage. The owner said she gets about 31-32. It's a 5 Speed. Are they serious? The ZTL front brake is too touchy. It likes to grab but doesn't really stop you any better. All in all, if you or anyone you know is considering a Buell, save your cash. I'd be willing to be a large sum of cash that the new XB1125R is not going to be any better save for more power. I saw the new Victory Vision at a local restaurant 2 days ago. I think the styling is one step below a space ship & I certainly don't like the way it looks. The fit & finish were particularly notable & it definitely appears to be a solid machine. The rear bags are integrated perfectly. You really can't tell where they stop & the bike begins. I don't know if they are removeable & I forgot to ask the owner. The owner told me he gets about 40MPG & has no problem doing high mileage days. He traded a HD bagger for this bike & said the Victory is a better machine. You really can't take his word for that since most people aren't really going to say they bought a crappy product (I will) or admit they made a mistake. Just to see it in person, it's worth a trip to the Victory dealer for a look. KC-10 FE out... lane:
I gotta admit, I'm pretty intrigued by the new XB1125R. The current issue of Motorcyclist has a good write-up on it. From the sound of it, it's worlds different than previous Buell offerings.
er, that is what I read about the Ulysses..."best American built bike"... but I don't see many or hear much about it now.... I wonder if they'll still be making a Ulysses or a Victory "Pacific Coast", er, I mean "Vision" in 2032? (no, the bags are not removable from the article I read... but I haven't gotten close enough to the bike for fear of turning to stone if I looked at a real one) :wink:
i'm hearing that rotax will be supplying engines for Buell. i think that would be a good start on getting a bit more bang for the buck your paying!
I'll take you up on that bet, I'm starting to see the sportbike industry take chances and that excites me. I think the 1125R is by far the best bike Buell has ever built and could end up being a small breakthrough bike for the American company, it won't dominate the liter bike category but it just might make a small dent and will diffently do better than the quirky XB9R.
OK, I phrased that wrong. Yes, the 1125R will undoubtably be better than the entire current Buell line up. It will not, however, be of the slightest concern to the Big 4 or Ducati. People will buy the 1125R to be "different". Then they will realize that the bike they bought to be "different" doesn't live up to the hype. Look at it this way, the Big 4 & Duc are in the business of winning races & then selling pretty much the same bikes to the public. Honda/Yamaha/Suzuki/Kawasaki probably has a larger R&D budget than Buell has budget. That being the case, that raises questions. 1) Why doesn't Honda use ZTL brakes? 2) Why doesn't Yamaha use belt drive? 3) Why doesn't Suzuki put fuel in the frame? 4) Why doesn't Kawasaki put the muffler under the engine? The answer to all 4 questions are because they simply aren't the huge advantage they are hyped to be. The single only thing that might catch on would be the muffler under the engine since the trend is kinda shifting to that direction. Don't see this as me being negative, this is me evaluating a product based on it's published merits. I'm all for competition. If it weren't for competition, all cars would have wooden wheels with steam engines & we would have never seen the invention of the 69 CB750K. KC-10 FE out... lane:
How about you ride the damn thing before you go spouting out your rear... I have, on track no less. It's not bad. It had its niggles, but every bike does. The Japanese build a great product, and I'll be a Honda man for life, but not everyone likes the same thing. Erik Buell wants to be different. He's succeeded many times, just now his products are appealing to different people. You can't say his ideas are no good because a group of four manufacturers that fiercely compete for a stronghold on the same market don't accept them(overnight anyway). In my opinion, he started with a good goal and he and his team have done a great job carrying out their design intent. I look forward to their continued improvement.
i got to test drive a buell xb12r lightning a year ago. i loved it. i had so much fun. vibrations were horrible and power wasn't up to par with a jap 1200, but it is a sportster engine. however, i have to say it was a fun bike that handled unbelievably well on some gnarled up roads near my house. it's not for everyone.
I had a 20min session on the 1125R at a Buell-sponsored track day in September. There were guys running in the advanced group passing two $100,000 XBRR factory racebikes on the back straight, with the bone-stock 1125R. Kudos to Mr. Buell, you gotta have balls to one-up yourself like that! :clap2:
Hey douchebag... I did ride it. Maybe I didn't ride it for long, but I did ride it & it sucked large. To each their own. KC-10 FE out... lane:
