Of course they're all the way on the other side, as usual.... http://www.buell.com/en_us/tools/find-a-bike/index.asp
I've been browsing websites of local dealerships and the only one I could find is an xb12. I just found this website a couple minutes ago and you can search anywhere. It says there's 3 on the other side of PA, and a couple even closer in Ohio, although can you buy a bike in ohio if you live in PA??
Either way, I'm REALLY tempted to bug my wife about it tomorrow, and possibly drive out next Saturday to take a look. I was gonna wait until late summer/fall to try to buy a bike, but if they're still offering the $5k off, who can turn down a $4k new bike when I was gonna spend $2-3k on a used beat up bike anyway??
Can anyone think of any good reasons to talk me out of it, aside from the usual Buell bashing???
how is the availability of parts? only real downside I see. and are they gonna b able to give you the factory warranty?
From what I've heard, Harley will honor the warranties and provide parts for Buells still. My 2 concerns would be how long will they supply parts for and what the resale value of the bike will be down the line. Probably the better the parts support, the better the resale value.
-Jessie
I heard as far as parts and service and warranty go all of that is going to be taken care of by HD dealerships. I believe i also read that they said they were only going to have a certain number of parts and once they are all gone they are gone so depending on how commonly you are going to need replacement parts they might run out failry quickly unless you are able to take a similar part from a different bike and modify it to work on your bike but you can bet that a HD dealership won't do that so you will be forced to do your own labor. But for $4k for a brand new bike that is a deal that is to good to pass up even if you only get 30k miles out of it and then end up parting it out and by the time you part it out their will almost certainly be a demand for the parts since no new parts will exist for the bike anymore. Definitely seems like a better investment then spendind $2-3k for a used bike that you have no clue of how it was really maintained in my opinion.
Yeah, I think those things will be ok, but I'm sure it will still be a hassle for a couple reasons. First, even if the dealerships offer the warranties, Harley dealerships hate buells, so I'll definitely get a hassle any time I bring it back. It'll be the same exact thing I got when I'd take my Triumph back to the BMW dealership for a problem. It was like they were my best friend when I was buying it, then as soon as I was out the door they were embarrassed to see me in public, and didn't want to admit that they'd ever dealt with someone who'd own a Triumph. I'm not sure how long they're going to be making parts. I'm cheap and usually look for used stuff on ebay anyway. I keep an eye out for deals and buy things in advance just in case sometimes. Someday when I see a cheap motor on ebay or craigslist I could just buy the whole thing and save it for parts. I wonder how many things transfer over from sportsters, I might be able to get away with using gaskets or maybe a seal or two, who knows, I know the whole engine has been reworked, I don't know to what point. I plan to ride this bike a lot nicer than when I had the Triumph, so hopefully it won't be as stressed out as my last bike was anyway. The triumph was a 18k a year commuter, this one will just be for joy rides now that I live within 2 miles of anywhere I'd ever need to be.
I'd be ready for problems though. After owning that Triumph I SWORE I'd never buy anything again that wasn't Japanese, but I obviously went soft on that one again. I've always loved gsxr750s, which is what I had planned on buying, but staring at Buells for so long has even started to make those look pretty bland and boring, plus I can always find a good deal one on of those down the road some day, you're never going to find a *great* deal on a Buell again. I don't think the resale is going to do anything but go up. I'm not worried about it though. How bad can resale be on a $9000 motorcycle that you only paid $4000 for? I bet I could ride the thing for 10 years, put 30k miles on it, and still sell it for almost what I paid for it assuming it's in ok condition, I obviously am not buying it for the resale though. I've still got a 92 gs500 in the basement, what makes you think I'd ever let this thing go??
Any way, I haven't gotten to the "can I buy a new motorcycle??" question yet as it's still early in the day, but I was looking at them online when my wife came in earlier, and she said "you could probably get one of those for a really good deal now" without me even provoking her, so it seems like I'll be set. I'm gonna call the 2 dealerships in Ohio in a couple hours and see if they still have them, or if the website is just out of date, which would kill me. There's supposedly one an hour and a half a way, which I'll call first, but it also said there was a dealership with 5 of them about 2.5 hours away, so hopefully they'd have at least one, and hopefully they'll take a deposit over the phone.
Quote from: bassmechanicsz on February 08, 2010, 06:16:47 AMDefinitely seems like a better investment then spendind $2-3k for a used bike that you have no clue of how it was really maintained in my opinion.
That's definitely a big part of it. I never thought I'd really buy a new bike again, as it was a hassle last time, but who wants to spend $3k on a used beat up sport bike when your dreambike is only $1000 more new. I planned on buying a lightly crashed and beat up sportbike to turn into a street fighter, so chances of getting a bike with a problem or two were pretty good to begin with.
Looks like I might be out of luck, I tried calling the 2 closer shops in Ohio and they both said the price was about $6999. If I remember right Buell offered dealerships the rebate option of $5000 if they offered to support the bikes for so many years, and only $2000 if they pushed them out the door and said "don't come back". It sounds like both of them are taking the second option so far, or the first option and just pocketing the extra $3k, who knows. The first dealership said the XB9SX and the XB12S were both $6999, which makes me think they're just charging more for the fun of it since the 12 is usually $1500 more.
I may try calling some of the dealerships on the other side of PA a little later if I feel up to it, otherwise I probably just got myself excited for nothing.
If I wanted an XB12 I think $7,000 is a deal and half. Harley will provide parts, that's true. As for resale, when you buy at such a steep discount your depreciation is almost nil. If you want one, go for it!
Yeah, $7000 for a 12 isn't bad, but I only wanted the 9, which is $9k to begin with, so reducing that to $6.6-7k isn't enough to make me jump on it. In general I'm just gonna be looking to buy a used bike, it just happened that the giant price drop was too good to pass up($4k new vs $2-3k used). Unless I have any luck with one of the 3 dealers I need to call next week(all closed for snow) I'm just gonna get back to used bikes, and most likely I'm still gonna try to find an xb9s/xb12s, which seem to be pretty obtainable for around $3k in good condition. I'd also be happy to find an xb9r, it'd probably just get converted to an S though, I love that short stubby look. Even better if I can find a lightly crashed xbr for <$2000, then I'd just be replacing those rashed parts with the S stuff anyway.
For a brief moment I thought about getting one of the 12s for the $7k, but small steps like that is how I ended up with that Triumph, which was unintentional. I planned on buying a used SV650 for around $4k, at the same time they redesigned them in 2003 and I thought "hey I could just get one of the new ones for $5700, that's not much more. Then all of a sudden I saw that speed four and picked that up for $6500. All small steps, until they tell you they'll only finance for a minimum of $5000, and then you spend the rest of the money you saved on new riding gear and stuff for the bike, and you went from paying $4k in cash for a bike and being done with it, to owing someone $6k and being forced to pay $1000 a year for full coverage because you don't have the title in your name. That was an expensive lesson to learn when you're only 20.
that's way too much for a buell xbanything.
the guys on tampasportbikes were circulating pictures of xb12's with $3299 on the sale price. or 3699. can't remember, but it was a lot closer to what my opinion of the bike is worth.
7 g's for a tractor motored bike, no AC, no HEAT, no comfy reclining seat ? shaZam! man, i can buy 3-4 crap box cars with air for 6 g's and party like a rock star on the extra grand.
:)
Quote from: ohgood on February 11, 2010, 05:11:22 PM
that's way too much for a buell xbanything.
:)
Now now, for all the defending we do of a crappy air cooled beginners bike because we realize that there are more important things to making a motorcycle fun then a power/weight ratio, that's not the kind of attitude I expect from you!
haha, no I get it, and I guess it's a fair statement because I love Buells, but I obviously was not willing to pay any more than the $4k I was hoping to find. Well I'd say I would've gone up to $5k for a new bike without a problem, but any more than that and I'd be hesitant. I'm cheap in general though, and I really wouldn't care to pay more than $5k for a new bike either. I just don't like shiny things that much.
The newer Buells are much more reliable than the old ones, which is saying a lot for me to be willing to buy one after I swore I'd never buy another motorcycle that wasn't Japanese after I owned that Triumph.
It's the one bike that's actually meant for what I do. I have no interest in being on the highway or touring. I live in the city, and when I get out of the city I'd be on nice curvy back roads but still in traffic. A nice weekend road trip to do nothing but carve mountains really isn't in my plans. Clearly the Buell is down on power from other 1000cc bikes, but it's a naked street/city bike, and it's pretty ideal for that and with a wheelbase that's 2.5 inches shorter than other bikes it would be awesome for riding in town, plus I'm pretty into it being a V-twin. I don't like harleys, and I'll complain about how obnoxious they are, but for some reason that noise coming out of a buell just sounds awesome to me. I think more than anything just because I want to pull up next to guys on harleys, and have them think I'm gonna be another sleezy bald guy in a leather vest, and then realize that I'm not.
The naked bike market in this country is in pretty sad shape. I think the Z1000 looks awesome, but it weights almost 450lbs dry. The buell is a liter bike so it's actually made up of nice parts instead of all the budget junk you get on an sv650 or gsr or any of the other moderately powered anked bikes, plus as much as people pick on it for being down on power, we hear just as many people complain about modern bikes having too much power, and being too advanced to be easy for someone to work on, so I think you get a nice full size bike with decent parts, a manageable amount of power, something that's not gonna make me look like I wished I grew up to be a racer, plus I'm only 5'8 and the actual size of that bike is tiny, and having the GS has kinda spoiled me on the how nice it is to work on an old air cooled engine. If I wanted more power I could get the xb12, but I think the 9 is all I'd want.
I had always wanted a gsxr750, but to be honest after staring at too many pictures of an xb9s, most other bikes are starting to look unappealing. Sportbike wise I don't really think they compare, but I just want a nice light street bike. I'd even take an xb9r if I could find one, but I'm pretty sure I'd end up stripping it down and just turning it into an xbs anyway.