Was trying not to have a street bike after owning many fast ones. Always kept and eye open for a good deal on the wierd but cool Buell Ulysses cuz I think they are weird and wonderful. Buddy bought a Multistrada to replace his Buell and made me an absolutely smoking deal. I almost feel bad, like I stole it. Buddy Ed bought the Buell after reading all the love for them. Kinda hated it. EFI sucked and he had some issues. farted around with it and after 300 miles decided he wanted a Multistrada. Bought a nice one. Then decided he would have a local ADV forum dude who knew Buells come over to remap the EFI in an attempt to make it run better for sale. I see it is for sale and ask Ed about it. He sends me an Email talking me out of it or so he thought. Then I see the CL ad and good price. Contact Ed again about it. Funny thing is I guess the remap did wonders for the bike and now he is not sure the Multistrada is better!!! He offers the Buell to me at an amazing price and we met yesterday for a 100 rip on the two bikes. I fell in love with the Buell and bought it. Here is what I like about it after 2 rides and about 150 miles. Motor: Vibrates to much at idle. Has some special Buell isolated mounting and it is very smooth underway. Remapped EFI is very good. Bike has gobs of bottom, nice mid and no top. Everything happens between 2500-4500 RPM. Short shift and grunt it around. Has a remapped EBR ECM and some special gutted stock muffler. Is semi loud but a very pleasing Harley like rumble that is fun to listen to. Passing cars at speed with zero shifting is EZ. After getting used to it I really like the motor. Its slightly rough and snotty in town and at slow speeds but after about 30 MPH it is blissful and fun. Likes to cruise about 70 and blips to 100 with a flick of the wrist. Oh, bike shifts very smooth and EZ, was not expecting this from a "harley" motor. The Multistrada in comparison, is much smoother down low but its "low" is 2500 RPM higher. IT makes slightly less bottom, good mid and way more top end. what I did not like about the Duc is it has a weird vibration about cruising speed. IT is smoother than the Uly for the most part but where you hang out most the day rev wise the Uly is smoother, feels better and has a lovable vib to it. Seem they would be close in a race but hard to tell. The Duc for sure is more modern and spunky feeling. The Uly is more visceral and bad ass feeling. Frame / handling: Both bike have brand new michelin radial pilots on them. The Buell is crazy neutral. Super planted, ignores road irregularities, handles amazing (does not drop in or stand up just goes exactly where you ask it to). I love the handling. Suspension: The Uly has amazing suspension. Showa inverted forks and shock. Forks have external preload, rebound and compression. Shock had a cool knob to twist for the preload and reb/comp. Fully adjustable top notch components. These great suspenders and the amazing frame and geometry speak to me. Unaffected by nasty back roads it eats up chop and and stays on line. For the failing mountain back roads I rode it is excellent. The Duc to me had inferior suspension feel but I did not adjust either of them so who knows. Brakes: This to me is a semi low point on this bike but know from the rave reviews on the brakes can be addressed. Front has a shimmy (warped rotor?) but works well and has lots of power. Rear works fine but has crap feel like pushing on a hunk of wood. Both are fine as is but could be improved which I will look into. Ergonomics: This is the Uly so as such has a very upright and comfortable sitting arrangement. Almost dirt bike like and fits me perfect. Seat is very big and wide and nice. Duc's seat was no where as good to me. Cool stuff: - Buddy Ed hooked me up. Gave me software and a cable to remap and do anything I want to the EFI and ignition timing. WOW, how cool. Also included 2 ECM's so i can map and swap them out as I like. How cool is that!!! - Rear rack thing is cool. Three position, forward for a tail bag fit over the passenger seat, upright for passenger backrest or backwards for larger cargo. How freaking nice, well designed and useful. - Belt drive. Super smooth and quiet, no adjustment, virtually lasts forever. - Underseat storage and power outlets. LArge area under the EZ to release seat is very nice and the addition of a power port is awesome. I can charge my phone or whatever while going down the road. also has a power port on the dash. Very nice. - Fuel in the frame, oil in the swingarm. Forward thinking and seems to work well. - Hydro lifters, no valve adjustment ever. This and the air cooling and belt drive mean change the oil and ride. Spin on oil filter means super EZ changes. - Factory cylinder fan and oil cooler. Nice additions and attention to details. - Came with really nice side bags which I ripped off first thing as I don't plan any long trips but cool to have. Should be fun. Hope to hammer out some miles here shortly. 6 foot 6 Ed... before i removed the bags...
I have a 1996 S1 Lightning . maaaaan is that hing fun to ride !. wheelies , stoppies and traffic tickets. it's like a 500 lb dirt bike. it wont hang with Jap bikes on top end but, it sure makes them look silly light to light. good luck with it Kelly.
88 hp and 85 ft/lbs torque on pump gas and 91 HP and 88 ft/lbs torque on race gas on our dynojet dyno
Uh-oh.. Kelly went Hog! It's a shame they dumped Buell like a red headed stepchild. Those were really neat. Defiantly different and unapologetic about it. Enjoy!
My wife had a "Blast". Sold it for what we bought it for after a year or two. OEM parts seemed very reasonable. A family from Bend bought it, and the dad road it home. Man that thing had some vibes.
i always thought the buells were cool, but couldnt get comfortable on one. they seem to put out good power
You did good Kelly! It is amazing how Eric Buell refined that engine. I had one of those and just sold it last year. I did several long trips on it and had no complaints about the bike at all. It was reliable and had tons of personality. Mine loved Amsoil in the engine and the factory Harley primary case oil worked the best in mine. If I used anything but the factory HD oil in the primary case, it shifted like poop. If you put Dunlop 606's on it it will handle great on gravel and wet roads. You made some good observations and are very right about the suspension. It is the plushest bike I have ever ridden on the street. The best roads I ever had it on are right up in your neck of the woods too! Enjoy your new ride and don't worry, you will learn to love the burn on your inner right thigh. So glad you changed the color!!
Wife and kid were gone all day yesterday so I grabbed the Uly and did a monster 462 mile ride. Was awesome. Bike was super fun and did not miss a beat. My big loop included mainly back roads, all pavement, mostly chopping fixed old MT road pavement and twisties. Some short highway gants to connect areas. Many Lakes, rivers and oceans were enjoyed. Amazing day. Ran into some fellow bikers who let me in on a little 26 mile rip that was seriously epic. very twisty trip of pavement in the woods with zero cars and amazing views. I love the bike. One of my favorites ever. Pros: - Handling is amazing and so neutral / settled. Got so used to it I started ignoring road irregularities. - Suspension, super impressive control and comfort and so crazy adjustable. I went from racer to goldwing. Ended up somewhere in the middle. - Ergonomics, 462 miles and mostly comfortable the whole way. Nice upright seating so no arm strain, great seat, good feel. - Motor, so smooth and full of torque. Grunt around effortlessly in the 2500-4500 range all day long. Its the turbo diesel truck of motorcycle motors, hills do not even phase it at all, big huge power. This bike has an opened up air box, fancy high flow filter, gutted exhaust, remapped EBR ECM. Its fast in a brutal pull kinda way. - 52.3 MPG... WOW. Should be good for about 230 between stops. - The grip heaters ruled in the colder coastal woods. Was a hot day but in places it was cold and did not dress for it so clicked them on for about 5 miles, was really nice. - Love the flip up rear tail thing, the under seat storage and power ports. Was charging my phone under the seat while riding. Nice. Cons: - Brakes, while strong need work. Front is crazy strong nut has a pulse when pulled. Rear works kind crappy and feels like stepping on a block of wood. I think poads with fix those. Both work fine but feel bad. - Heat off right side of motor. Kinda irritating in the hot part of the day. - Turning radius. Does not turn sharp and makes U turns difficult - Motor is semi difficult in slower (under 30) stuff. jerky throttle and big power and just OK running off idle. Might be able to dial some of this out with the EFI programmer stuff. Idle hunts and bike runs just OK in town. All this is a minor issue for me, bike runs fantastic for 98% of the riding I do, might try to dial it out. - Bike is tall and tail bag makes it even harder to get on and off of. Just a fantastic day. Somehow I timed everything right and had nearly zero traffic on a very busy day. I took very obscure roads and hit them where i could rail twistys for many miles with zero cars in sight. Perfect. Loop eneded up being longer than anticipated and I rolled in at dark, big smile and great day. 462 miles... My partner for the day... Hard to see but Mt Jefferson peaking over the hill in the back. Not much for cars but many bycycles on this road Lots of beautiful rivers and lakes to view on my path Met some guys at a cafe, the told me about this gem of a road. 26 miles of perfect twisty woods pavement with zero cars. WOW. lots of ridges with amazing views... Check out this old bridge looking like something out of Mad Max Snapping pics and there goes by new friends who told me about this road the lakes are low, get your own water Cali Pure fun Many cool old train trestles everywhere And then the coast What a great day to spend with a new friend.
Did another 185 miles Sunday. Quick morning rip through the forest to the beach and back with a buddy on his 650 v-strom. I freaking love this bike. Suspension and handling are insane. I took some tools with me to play with it some. Got the suspension working even better. Perfect bike for me and my choppy back road riding. Ignores road irregularities like nothing else I have ridden. Add that to the rock stable handling and you can charge into bumpy back road corners with zero issues. The big ground clearance and semi high mounted pegs means nothing touches down in corners with big dips in them. I can pick lines all over a corner as I choose. rock stead bike that will choose lines everywhere and could care less about road conditions. Love it. Brakes are getting better with every ride. The front one is crazy strong. That mixed with new Michelin Pilot Radials means this thing can stop QUICK. Turning radius is kinda stupid and needs planned around and the heat coming off the right side of the motor is borderline ridiculous. Motor has great feel and is very fun. As I get used tot he bike I realise wheelies are just the twist away if done right. Super fun bike.
Nice bike you got there Kelly. The all red makes it so much nicer looking. I love my buell also. It's for sale now though as I just don't ride it enough anymore to justify keeping it. I fully agree about the handling. Very neutral and never did anything funny. Although I did take my motorcycle endorsement test on it and that slow turning radius sure made the cone slalom a bit tricky. haha. All in all a great bike and I never had any troubles with it other than one broken belt that luckily happened within a mile of home. I got really good at stoppies with that awesome front brake. Something must be off with yours because mine is buttery smooth but strong like mule. My rear is like yours, dead feeling and pretty much only good for activating the brake light. The only thing that seemed to be a problem was the speedo pickup near the countershaft. They seem to go out frequently for no reason. Not sure if they got it figured out eventually or not, but I had several go out. You probably already know about this place, but if not they have a pretty good supply of buell parts and goodies. http://americansportbike.com/
