Good afternoon y'all. I'm stuck at work and browsing craigslist, and saw a buell xb12 for sale. I decided I like the look of the seat and tail of that bike, and was wondering if anybody here has tried putting something like that on a GS? If so, what's the level of difficulty and modification required? Thanks, looking forward to the help.

Just by looking, I would say if you had better than average welding/fab skills it could be done. Remember the GS frame is thin steel.

That is one issue. The other issue I was thinking about is how the shock is oriented on the bike. With the Buell it's almost horizontal and doesn't really attach to the seat subframe area, whereas on the GS it's almost vertical. I'm not sure if that's a reconcilable issue.

shock mounts to main frame

cut
make mounting tabs
weld
do all the other stuff to get it to work
do a whole lot more stuff to make it look good
do a whole lot more to make it look like it was built that way from the factory

The shock wouldn't really be a problem. I don't think you'd have any luck getting it to fit though. If you look at how long the Buell xb frame is, not to mention the angle, I don't think it'd really line up at all. You'd have to make some custom brackets and I think it'd be really hard to keep it clean looking. Either way, if you want some measurements or anything let me know and I can get you some.

Someone on here did mount a Buell X1 tail to their bike. It looked pretty good. He had to weld big pieces to his frame to bolt it to.

Gotcha. I guess I'll keep an eye on CL, see if anybody parts out a bike with that style tail, then try and see if I can make it work. Thanks for the advice.

Wow... each to his own i guess.
Saw one in person last week and I felt it was stupid and budget looking.. especially the tail and seating.

Quote from: ryott52 on May 14, 2011, 09:45:50 AM
Good afternoon y'all. I'm stuck at work and browsing craigslist, and saw a buell xb12 for sale. I decided I like the look of the seat and tail of that bike, and was wondering if anybody here has tried putting something like that on a GS? If so, what's the level of difficulty and modification required? Thanks, looking forward to the help.

Yep.It's been done by quite a few people.Search for Buell seat or Buell tail.

Quote from: tb0lt on May 15, 2011, 07:45:16 AM
Wow... each to his own i guess.
Saw one in person last week and I felt it was stupid and budget looking.. especially the tail and seating.

Those are tough words coming out of someone on a GS500 forum haha

I have a Buell Tail on my GS.  My signature has a link to a huge 20 page thread about the build.  If you want to see the end results start on the last page and work backwards.

EDIT: My tail is from a 2001 Buell Lightning and is slightly different than the xb12 you referenced.

That tail would look killer if it was fitted to ears on the main big frame spars. But then the rest would have been hard to fit I think.
Cool.
Buddha.

Quote from: tt_four on May 15, 2011, 04:47:03 PM

Quote from: tb0lt on May 15, 2011, 07:45:16 AM
Wow... each to his own i guess.
Saw one in person last week and I felt it was stupid and budget looking.. especially the tail and seating.

Those are tough words coming out of someone on a GS500 forum haha

I know
Even as a budget bike owner, I felt the Buell looked too much like an econo bike. Sorta like how a Corolla owner feels when looking at a Dodge Neon or Chevy Cavalier.

Quote from: tb0lt on May 17, 2011, 12:07:30 PM

Quote from: tt_four on May 15, 2011, 04:47:03 PM

Quote from: tb0lt on May 15, 2011, 07:45:16 AM
Wow... each to his own i guess.
Saw one in person last week and I felt it was stupid and budget looking.. especially the tail and seating.

Those are tough words coming out of someone on a GS500 forum haha

I know
Even as a budget bike owner, I felt the Buell looked too much like an econo bike. Sorta like how a Corolla owner feels when looking at a Dodge Neon or Chevy Cavalier.

Hey,I own a Chevy Crapalier.LOL