Posted on 04/27/2010 11:50:48 AM PDT by BraveMan
Has that been a pretty good bike? I'm leaning toward a Concours as an uprgade from my Nighthawk S. My sweeheart would like to ride with me sometimes. :-)
Google “Buell Reliability”.
Second entry: http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/79/881/Motorcycle-Article/2004-Buell-XB12R-Firebolt.aspx
Dated 2004: “My relationship with Buells began several years ago when testing the 1999 M2 Cyclone with the same 1203cc displacement as the new Firebolt. I was rooting for the concept of an American-made sportbike, and after spending several hours with Erik Buell, a former pro road racer, I fully bought in to his innovative way of thinking. But, alas, an exhaust header stud pulled out of the Cyclone’s rear cylinder near the end of 1600 miles of abuse, souring me on the idea of a Harley-powered sportbike.
Four years later, I wasn’t sure how I was going to get along with the new Buell. The company claims its reliability problems are a thing of the past thanks to intensive R&D efforts.”
Dated 2007: “About two years ago I had a phone call from the UK’s Buell importer. In various Motoring bike test reports, not just of Buells but often of other machines where a Buell might be considered an alternative, I’d refer to the company’s poor reliability record. It was justified: Buell regularly came bottom in the reliability tables compiled by Ride magazine, which asked 10,000 readers a range of questions about their bikes, and in my experience and that of colleagues in the monthly motorcycle press, Buells went wrong more often than other machines.”
“Fate duly succumbed: my Ulysses was the most unreliable long-term test bike we’d ever run at the Telegraph. It took the dubious honour of being the first press bike to let me down at the side of the road - the Oxford services on the M40, only a few miles from Buell’s UK headquarters as it happened - since a Triumph Daytona 1000 died on me in 1992. The problem was the voltage regulator, which failed and prevented the alternator from charging the battery, which, thanks to the heavy electrical demands of modern fuel-injection systems, survived on its own for only another 15 minutes.”
More like most people had terrible experiences with Buell, Buell kept saying “No, really, we’ve fixed it” when they really hadn’t. The Buell Blast didn’t help any, either.
These moves extinguished that hope.
Forget HD, and the union they rode in on. They're a one-trick pony.
"Harley Davidson: Expensive motorcycles for people who like expensive motorcycles, vibration, annoying/deafening their neighbors or lots of all three!"
Heh, let me know if you want to sell the S. I can always use another one to sit next to my 86 R/W/B S.
I thought the Harley company was employee owned. If so when do stock professionals care what they do.
They should also look to the resurrected Triumph as an example of what to do; Triumph is wildly successful these days and is mentioned as a true competitor to the top names such as Honda and Kawasaki.
Harley is a distant also-ran in terms of rep and desirability among younger riders, partially due to their GM-esque image and older demographics (where every year the median age of a Harley buyer gets one year older...)
Harley desperately needs to pull their head out of 1947 and get with the program if they want to survive - in hard economic times, nobody will shell out to buy a ‘lifestyle’, but if you have solid competitive motorcycles as a product people will buy it.
Mine was a 2000 and it never gave me a bit of trouble, sort of like a BMW K bike for hald the price. It got to be a bit heavy for commuting so I traded it in on a Ducati Monster (which scared the crap out of me...)
The New Concours looks like a great bike, much improved, and the old one was bombproof.
bttt
Sportsters are selling because they are the only ones that are reasonably priced.
“We don’t actually MAKE the product, we just assemble and PAINT the product.” Made in China.
This is a good reminder for when I’m running a company. It’s good to reward the employees when times are good, but you don’t want to get locked into long-term featherbed arrangements that you’ve still got to pay for when things tighten up.
I convince myself its worth it because I ride it to work and save a lot of gas.
I'll be looking for something used. My Nighthawk S is 26 years old. Moving up to something 10 years old will be a big leap! :-)
Thanks for the info. Looks like I'm headed in the right direction with a Concours.
I guess I was one of the fortunate ones.
They have an Owner’s group which is very clued in on fixes, mods, etc...
But... the “lifestyle” was outlaw... I’ve always wondered what self-respecting outlaw would go in and sign on the dotted line for one of those shiny behemoths. An outlaw bike has 179,000 miles on it and is put together with beer cans, used parts, chewing gum, and duct tape.
Harley is an old mans bike now. The hooligans want to “gofast”.
Runs great, just a bit too weak to handle 40 MPH headwinds and climbing Elk Mountain (Laramie, WY) with my 235 lbs. and some stuff onboard. Forget about a passenger if there are hills involved.
It's a BLAST in curvy canyons though! Nice peaky power-band like a turbo above about 8,250 RPM. :-)
Oh, it should also be noted that many of the problems Harleys (and Buells) had/have are due to the fact that traditional Harley engines generate a lot of vibration for no good engineering purpose. This vibration leads to both equipment damage and (this gets overlooked by a lot of riders) physical long-term damage to the rider - and I have yet to see a Harley mounting system that successfully prevents of the vibration from being transmitted to the frame.
V-Twins don’t have to shake like paint mixers. (Case in point, my Honda Pacific Coast, an 800cc V-Twin that’s so smooth many people can’t tell when it’s running.) In fact, Harley got Porsche to design them one - the Revolution engine - but they don’t use that engine in most of their bikes; instead they keep trying to get yet more mileage out of that same old V-Twin that has its roots back in the Silent Gray Fellow bike of the nineteen-teens.
Not to dissuade you, but you might also wish to consider the ST1100, which greatly outsold the older Concours and was considered a better bike by most.
The new Concours seems to be pretty good.
My '03 Twin Cam 88 is as dry as a powder house...:o)
There’s always a few that were built properly. I actually had a Timex watch from a few years back that had a 90% failure rate after 6 months; mine got abused but lasted four years before it died.
Doesn’t mean that the model wasn’t crap, though.
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