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Back on two, in Tucson!

Started by Watcher, September 07, 2016, 10:42:57 PM

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Watcher

I've always had middleweight bikes.  My first road-worthy was a 1982 Suzuki GS650.  Then I had 2 GS500s in succession and a Honda CB500F.  Ended up selling that when I moved down here from Chicago.
I needed something to ride ASAP, so I started looking on Craigslist ahead of time.  Unfortunately, no GS500s, and all the CB500s were all overpriced.  Of what was left there's a lot of HDs, a bunch of dual sports, a TON of sportbikes, and a bunch of fixer-upper type things.
Then something else entirely caught my eye, and I found one for a good deal!

My 2006 Buell XB12Ss Lightning Long!





Its twice the size of anything I've ever owned, and oh MAN is it fast!  It's big and rumbly and insane!  It's completely unnecessary for ANY road conditions, but it's awesome none the less!
Truth be told, if Buell made these in a 750cc or less I would have preferred that, but I don't regret my purchase at all so far.  Besides, 12 is my lucky number, and nothing embodies 'Murica like a big loud muscular engine!

I couldn't think of any more fitting learn in than going up to the peak of Mount Lemmon for lunch.








It performed very well climbing up 6500+ ft to the top at an elevation of about 9000 ft, it was very nimble and quick through the twisties, and I'm sure it'll be even better once I set up the suspension properly and give it a much needed brake job.

Around town it's a little odd.  It's a 5-speed and it's geared very tall, first gear tops out at 55mph.  So, low speed maneuvers are a challenge since the friction zone is used until about 20mph and the thing just wants to go faster so willingly.  Around town it's all second gear.  You don't need to be in 1st for turns, and at 40mph through town the RPMs are only about 4000ish out of 7000.  Third brings the revs down a little but is wholly unnecessary. Fifth is only really usable at 75+, and it's not even necessary then, it's WAY different than I'm used to with my 500s where 4th gear is average cruising around town and 6th is NECESSARY above 70 if you don't want the engine screaming...
I was able to top out my Honda at about 103mph in 6th, nearly red-line, and me tucked down as close as I could.  In my Buell I hit that in 4th and it didn't show any signs of struggling.  I don't care to know what the top speed is, it's more than enough for me!

Maybe I shouldn't have gotten this.  All signs point to me not wanting, needing, or using all of the power this monster is capable of.  But it's epic and I don't want to get rid of it just because I'll only ever be using 25% of it!

I will probably pick up a dual-purpose for some of the trails available around here, and I might end up daily-riding that bike instead of my Buell for more ease of use around town.  But none the less I think the Buell will be in my stable for a long time.
"The point of a journey is not to arrive..."

-Neil Peart

ShowBizWolf

ooooOOOOOooooo congrats to you Watcher!!! Love the last pic  :D

I really enjoy those wheels... and that front rotor is neat lookin' !!!  :star:
Superbike bars, '04 GSXR headlight & cowl, DRZ signals, 1/2" fork brace, 'Busa fender, stainless exhaust & brake lines, belly pan, LED dash & brake bulbs, 140/80 rear hoop, F tail lens, SV650 shock, Bandit400 hugger, aluminum heel guards & pegs, fork preload adjusters, .75 SonicSprings, heated grips

Watcher

#2
Figured I'd use this thread as sort of a dump for photos I take riding around in Arizona!  Maybe give you all a chance to see another part of the world a little, maybe make you all jealous so you move out here and can be my riding buddies!

9/11 memorial ride with a local Veterans Legion.










Salt River Canyon with some guys I met.








Pics from the night run up Mt. Lemmon.







And I'll try to get more actual scenery, too.
"The point of a journey is not to arrive..."

-Neil Peart

qcbaker

Great pics, man. Looks like you had the only sporty bike in a pack of cruisers, trikes, and can-ams lol.

Watcher

Quote from: qcbaker on September 15, 2016, 10:21:41 AM
Great pics, man. Looks like you had the only sporty bike in a pack of cruisers, trikes, and can-ams lol.

That's true!  There were more than a few "Hardly-Davidsons" but non-cruisers were a rarity.  The exceptions were 2 Can-Ams, my Buell, a Yamaha Super Tenere, and a Yamaha FJR1300.

Only people ATGATT were myself and the two Yamahas.
"The point of a journey is not to arrive..."

-Neil Peart

qcbaker

Quote from: Watcher on September 15, 2016, 02:45:56 PM
Quote from: qcbaker on September 15, 2016, 10:21:41 AM
Great pics, man. Looks like you had the only sporty bike in a pack of cruisers, trikes, and can-ams lol.

That's true!  There were more than a few "Hardly-Davidsons" but non-cruisers were a rarity.  The exceptions were 2 Can-Ams, my Buell, a Yamaha Super Tenere, and a Yamaha FJR1300.

Only people ATGATT were myself and the two Yamahas.

Cruiser riders not wearing enough gear? I'm shocked. SHOCKED, I tell you.  :icon_rolleyes:

Seems like a fun ride though, regardless of what machine you're on.

Side note: the Firebolt and YZF (cant tell if R6 or R1) next to your bike in the one pic are sweet bikes as well. Friends' bikes, I'm assuming?

Watcher

Yeah.  I joined a Buell forum and another member hit me up because he recognized some scenery, turned out he was a local so we met up for a ride.

His Firebolt is pretty sweet, he's done every performance mod you can think of.  ECM, power-commander, race tuned exhaust, opened K&N filter...  Despite being the same displacement as my Lightning it simply strolls past it!

The white bike is an R6, not sure the year.  Was pretty nice.  Yoshi pipe, some CF accents, looked sharp as hell.  Personally I never did like the sound of 4-bangers, and in this case the sound of his little Jap wirring away between these two big VTwins made it sound kind of pathetic, lol.  But its a good machine none the less.
"The point of a journey is not to arrive..."

-Neil Peart

qcbaker

Quote from: Watcher on September 16, 2016, 11:46:48 AM
Yeah.  I joined a Buell forum and another member hit me up because he recognized some scenery, turned out he was a local so we met up for a ride.

His Firebolt is pretty sweet, he's done every performance mod you can think of.  ECM, power-commander, race tuned exhaust, opened K&N filter...  Despite being the same displacement as my Lightning it simply strolls past it!

That's cool that you met up and rode and everything. And yeah, equal displacement doesn't always mean equal speed. The Lightning versus the Firebolt is kinda like the YZF600R vs the R6. Both 600 cc's but the R6 will run circles around the 600R.

Quote
The white bike is an R6, not sure the year.  Was pretty nice.  Yoshi pipe, some CF accents, looked sharp as hell.  Personally I never did like the sound of 4-bangers, and in this case the sound of his little Jap wirring away between these two big VTwins made it sound kind of pathetic, lol.  But its a good machine none the less.

I love the aesthetics of the R6/1, it's front end is vaguely insect-like to me and I just always thought that looked pretty cool. It probably sounded pathetic vs the growl of the big Vs, but I bet it kept up pretty well. The R6 is no joke when it comes to speed/handling lol.

Keep the pics/stories coming man, seeing other people having fun is a great way to get other people psyched up to get out and ride!

Going for a ride with my buddy (who also has a GSF) this weekend, if we go anywhere cool I'll try to take some pics. And I'll try to get a pic with my dad's bike too, like I said in the pic challenge thread, if for no other reason than to show it off, since its such a cool old bike.

Watcher

#8
Quote from: qcbaker on September 16, 2016, 12:23:17 PM
Quote from: Watcher on September 16, 2016, 11:46:48 AM
His Firebolt is pretty sweet, he's done every performance mod you can think of.  ECM, power-commander, race tuned exhaust, opened K&N filter...  Despite being the same displacement as my Lightning it simply strolls past it!

And yeah, equal displacement doesn't always mean equal speed. The Lightning versus the Firebolt is kinda like the YZF600R vs the R6. Both 600 cc's but the R6 will run circles around the 600R.

Well, the differences between the Lightning and Firebolt out of the factory are just body style and riding position.  Same engine and ECM.
But just how the XB12 engine is a HD Sportster engine that Erik somehow squeezed a ton more power out of, this guy was able to make it just that much MORE powerful with an ECM and Power-Commander.


Quote from: qcbaker on September 16, 2016, 12:23:17 PM
It probably sounded pathetic vs the growl of the big Vs, but I bet it kept up pretty well. The R6 is no joke when it comes to speed/handling lol.

Haha, not really!

Well, given that the guy on the R6 had much less experience compared to us on the Buells, maybe it wasn't as bad as it seemed.  It could be the way he was riding, but I feel like he WAS trying to keep up.

Like, we'd all 3 of us get ready to overtake traffic, Firebolt in front, R6 in the middle, and myself in the back, and since we were in a hooligan sort of mood we'd pass traffic with the throttles pinned and Firebolt would more or less dictate top speed and when we would merge back into traffic (by the way, NOT advisable at all.  "Do as I say, not as I do" sort of thing here). 
Firebolt would press out and roll on and be GONE!  R6 would do the same and he'd pull away from me pretty fast like.  Then I'd follow along and catch the R6 before he even started changing back into our lane.  I'd have to grab some brakes to keep from running into him.

The R6 has technically more peak horsepower than the Buell's do.  Maybe not a lot, but it's there.  But the Buells have about twice the torque.
The R6 is only capable of it's HP figures because of the high RPM it can spin.  The Buell only spins until about 7k, but it pulls hard from about 3k to red-line.  Well, it even pulls hard at idle, you don't even need to throttle it when pulling away from a stop if you want to be sensible in town, but it is truly a monster from 3k and up.
The R6 I'm sure only feels really fast above 8k.
So in the end they may have a very similar top speed, but the Buell will out-accelerate it without breaking a sweat.


Still, I gotta say, if I was into sport-bikes an R6 would be my choice.  No CBR, Ninja, or GSXR for me!
Hell, I still toss around the idea of getting a little 250/300 to screw around on and I'd take an R3 in a heartbeat!
"The point of a journey is not to arrive..."

-Neil Peart

qcbaker

Quote from: Watcher on September 17, 2016, 04:15:18 PM

Well, the differences between the Lightning and Firebolt out of the factory are just body style and riding position.  Same engine and ECM.
But just how the XB12 engine is a HD Sportster engine that Erik somehow squeezed a ton more power out of, this guy was able to make it just that much MORE powerful with an ECM and Power-Commander.

Didn't know that. I guess its more analagous to the R1 vs FZ10 then.

Quote
Haha, not really!

Well, given that the guy on the R6 had much less experience compared to us on the Buells, maybe it wasn't as bad as it seemed.  It could be the way he was riding, but I feel like he WAS trying to keep up.

Like, we'd all 3 of us get ready to overtake traffic, Firebolt in front, R6 in the middle, and myself in the back, and since we were in a hooligan sort of mood we'd pass traffic with the throttles pinned and Firebolt would more or less dictate top speed and when we would merge back into traffic (by the way, NOT advisable at all.  "Do as I say, not as I do" sort of thing here). 
Firebolt would press out and roll on and be GONE!  R6 would do the same and he'd pull away from me pretty fast like.  Then I'd follow along and catch the R6 before he even started changing back into our lane.  I'd have to grab some brakes to keep from running into him.

My bet then would definitely be the experience thing. The way you ride has a much bigger impact on how fast you can ride safely than the bike you're riding. Thats why a really good rider on a 250/300 will embarrass a mediocre literbike rider on the track. Seems like you're just a more experienced rider than the R6 guy.  :thumb:

Quote
The R6 has technically more peak horsepower than the Buell's do.  Maybe not a lot, but it's there.  But the Buells have about twice the torque.
The R6 is only capable of it's HP figures because of the high RPM it can spin.  The Buell only spins until about 7k, but it pulls hard from about 3k to red-line.  Well, it even pulls hard at idle, you don't even need to throttle it when pulling away from a stop if you want to be sensible in town, but it is truly a monster from 3k and up.
The R6 I'm sure only feels really fast above 8k.
So in the end they may have a very similar top speed, but the Buell will out-accelerate it without breaking a sweat.

Well, the XB12 having more torque or accelerating faster isn't all that surprising given that it has basically double the engine displacement of the R6 lol. It'd be interesting to see lap time comparisons for the bikes though.

Quote
Still, I gotta say, if I was into sport-bikes an R6 would be my choice.  No CBR, Ninja, or GSXR for me!
Hell, I still toss around the idea of getting a little 250/300 to screw around on and I'd take an R3 in a heartbeat!

Yeah, the R3 would be a fun little bike to have, especially on like a twisty backroad.

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