Fuel pumps are easy to find you just have to rebuild the module yourself…yes the drop in assemblies are no longer available however the pump itself is very much everywhere online and auto parts stores if you know how to cross reference part numbers and bring the old one with you… as for your electrical problems, you need to go through every connector and reapply dielectric grease… the reason they get issues overtime is the grease dries up and if you don’t disconnect the battery , electrolysis can build up in the connectors… (This also occurs overtime as the wire harnesses are poorly insulated against that air cooled, blast, furnace we call an engine 😂) personally I’ve never seen one catch fire so you might want to check your grounds… switch everything over to LEDs …Other than that, just ride it

@navscycles

3 ай бұрын

Good to know. I gotta go through it one time for sure. I know I asked dealers for parts and they no longer have them. I know people who have barn fulls or buell parts here in Wisconsin

@christophertaylor9206

3 ай бұрын

I used an early 90's mustang fuel pump for my XB12X. ran perfect

"1000 in the past couple years" Bro I put on 1000 miles a month

@navscycles

2 ай бұрын

We get 4 good month if we are lucky. And in those 4 months I got a lot of toys to use.

Hi - I have a 2005 xb9sx, bought it new like your dad so I’m the original owner (has it really been 19 years?!). Love it. Funny you talk about spark plugs - this was something I ran into as well. As far as parts go, I think (for now), I’m not finding it too difficult to source (interestingly, some of the better sources are in Europe). One thing I would say is - DO NOT go to a Harley dealer for help. I’ve always found them to be very reluctant when dealing with Buells and when they do take it in for work, I don’t think they really care how it turns out (my experience from two different Harley dealers in two different US states .. I’m sure others may have had different experiences). Anyway, do your own work, get to know your bike - its now becoming, in my opinion, a classic, rare bike. I’m glad to see Erik Buell and team start making new bikes again - I’ll probably pick up one of his new bikes when available.

@navscycles

3 ай бұрын

Yah my Harley deals take Buells. But I also live in Wisconsin where they are made. Ebs new bikes are super cool. Out of my price range tho

@psylentsage

2 ай бұрын

His new bikes are crazy pricey for what u can get on the market. I’m looking at getting an XB12 firebolt rn but the part issues is making me nervous about purchasing it.

@TheBevo67

2 ай бұрын

@@psylentsage Buy the XB12 and don’t look back… regret and “might have been” will kick you in the ass.

My right ear loved this video.

Parts are still being made for the Buell XB just not by HD or the new ownership Buell brand, Twin Motorcycles and some other aftermarket places have new parts for the XBs. Id recommend upgrading the regulator rectifier, getting the 3 bearing upgrade and fixing conector 77 if you get a pre 08 model and get an 08 later if you can.

@navscycles

Ай бұрын

They stopped making them in 09. Which this bike is. But yah Harley stopped making parts. Lots of people here in Wisconsin are holding nos

Excellent review of this "vintage" bike. I bought it in 2008 but it has a total of 16 thousand miles on it. In my case, her engine must be suffering a lot because in Brazil gasoline is mixed with ethanol at 25%. I have already carried out preventive maintenance, on the electrical and mechanical parts. I took the bike out of the drawer this year and put about 2,500 miles on it in the last month. So much fun to ride!

I remember my dad’s Firebolt! Classic gold and black, I’d love to get one like his one day

@navscycles

Ай бұрын

Yah I love that color way as well. Cool bikes.

Great video, as I am thinking pf buying one. Excellent info, thanks for sharing. Cheers

@navscycles

4 ай бұрын

Thank you for watching. I’m glad I could help at little bit with my experience.

i have no idea what you are talking about when you say it is very hard to turn around in corners......i have had 3 buells.....2005 firebolt, 2007 lightning scg, and a blast i bought for my ex wife to learn on. all 3 were absolute razorblades in the corners....and i am a harley cruiser guy who doesnt like to push it in corners. these 3 bikes would cut through a 25mph corner at 55 effortlessly. it was so easy it was almost boring.

@joshuanewsome98

4 ай бұрын

Prolly ain't got no gas in it!!!

Thanks for the video. I think these are pretty rare and cool bikes - they are quite cheap even low mileage ones. I'll check out the rest of your channel, looks like you have a nice collection of rides. I found it funny how you say "rode it a lot" and say that he put on 1,500 miles in a couple of years! To me that's a garage queen. You're probably going to spend more time fixing it than riding it if you let it sit around. I'm not trying to brag but I can barely afford this hobby and ride about 6,000 miles a year and to me that was about average. 😅 I guess everyone has their own riding habits, but a colleague put 80,000 miles on his Yamaha over about 10 years touring the world while remote working, so that put things into perspective.

@navscycles

5 ай бұрын

yah they are pretty cool bikes! For the price a good buy imo. I live in Wisconsin so we only have about 4-5 good months to ride if we are lucky. That and I have about 5-10 different bikes I put miles on so I ride closer to 3-5k a year, which is not a lot but its only my second year riding, this season I hope I can do 10k. Then on top of that I am a huge car person and have a couple sports cars that I drive consistently in the summer In time it will get the miles that it deserves.

@shawnblackwell5907

4 ай бұрын

Have you ever tried to reach out to Mr Buel?, that's his original spelling, just for legal reasons,he didn't use his correct spelling. He now operates under an electric motorcycle company called Fuel, look him up and see if he can help you solve a lot of the issues with the bike and even show and tell you what you need to do, good luck and great video. Btw,a gentleman bought a lot of these and reconfigured them, they were featured in some movies, look these things up and maybe they'll be able to help you with redesigns and trouble shooting them,also, I heard that the relationship between these two wasn't as nice as people would 🤔

@navscycles

4 ай бұрын

@@shawnblackwell5907 I have never reached out to EB but I know someone who knows him since we live in Wisconsin. Luckily I do not have another major wrong with the bike right now, and I assume EB is very busy.

I had a 2001 Buell M2 Cyclone. It seemed more like a prototype bike but now I have an itch for an XB. A really bad itch!

Nice review dude

@navscycles

5 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Having just bought an xb12x Ulysses on a whim 😂. It is too big for me,but. I love it!

Beautiful bike😍

Run rec gas on all small engines. My wife's sportster says premium only but not all premiums are equal. Looking at Ulysses, SS, or Stt. Wanting the longer swing arm and taller seat height.

@navscycles

Ай бұрын

I always run premium from good gas stations on all my Motorcycles. Also the other ones are cool. I haven’t had any experience with them yet.

@irocss85

22 күн бұрын

​@@navscyclesi was gonna say the same thing he did. Recreational gas has no ethanol in it. THAT is the reason today's fields are not good for sitting long term. Octane rating has nothing to do with it. High octane rating is for high compression performance motors. I'm pretty sure these have 10.5:1 compression and that is not high. Supersport online 4s have between 11.5 to 12.5 compression. THOSE need high octane fuels. Since you ride infrequently I think YOU need to use Rec fuel. Lol.

I’ll help you out. Buy non-ethanol fuel if you can. I only run non-ethanol in my Honda. If you fill the tank up all the way before winter with non-ethanol, you don’t have to run stabil, which doesn’t help anything. Ethanol is awful, pump 91 with ethanol is ok if you are using a lot of fuel during the riding season.

@navscycles

5 ай бұрын

I always use 91 non-e, which in Wisconsin is the best we can get at most stations, select stations have 93 but rare.

This video is almost a hit piece on buells. You let any bike sit with modern gas it will go to pot period.

I ride Honda 1000RR’s, I can’t stand not having fairings. How is that bike in the wind?

@navscycles

5 ай бұрын

Honestly the wind is not bad the little windshield it has does a much better job than you would think.

@soloproductions5666

4 ай бұрын

Im 160 that wind tosses my ass on my xb9r

@psylentsage

2 ай бұрын

⁠@@soloproductions5666to be fair wind tosses you no matter what even my 800lb connie get slapped into other lanes if I’m not careful during a lane change lol

So it's very hard to turn around corners huh?

@navscycles

2 ай бұрын

Not hard to turn more like challenging to lay it down without experience, imo

@Headroom1001

2 ай бұрын

@@navscycles I agree they handle somewhat nervous because of the 21" rake. A steering damper will reduce that twitchy behaviour but it corners like no other bike. About the fuell pump, mine has run 28K Mi now during the 14 years I own it and I never had any issues. Oh and I'm still running with the second set of spark plugs (NGK iridium). I'm sorry to hear you've had so many problems for it is a beautiful bike.

@navscycles

2 ай бұрын

@@Headroom1001 Yah I agree they need a damper, I have it on my list of things I want to do. Like I said fuel pump is probably because it sat.

seriously 1k miles in a couple years? I put 2k miles on my Triumph Speed twin in 5 weeks... You have barely ridden that bike.

@navscycles

Ай бұрын

I own a handful of motorcycles. I’ve started to put more miles on it already this year. Close to 500 already which for Wisconsin and my schedule is actually pretty good.

Big Gun ! :) Thanks for the review

Under 4,000 mi at bikes not even broken in

@navscycles

5 ай бұрын

No it’s definitely not. For sure needs more miles

Your cc number is incorrect. It's a 1203cc. I have the same bike, same color just a year older.

@navscycles

9 күн бұрын

yah I confused it with another bike I think I realize that now

Parts e bay .... All day

1280 cc ??? NOT.

@jaden9128

2 ай бұрын

It is lol

@firearminstructor135

Ай бұрын

Correct.... 1203cc

"Harley project" isn't accurate. It was it's own company that Harley bought into. HD never outright owned Buell.

@navscycles

14 күн бұрын

Buell was an engineer at Harley and he worked on the bikes when he still worked there and then branched off. You can get technical but it’s made very closely with Harley.

@Zach2Wheels

14 күн бұрын

@@navscycles he worked at HD, while building his own bikes on the side. His first bikes weren't even using HD engines. Harley had no idea who Erik was when he worked there. He created Buell independent of HD. Later they bought a majority of Buell (51-53%). They never out right owned them. HD shut them down because of the engine switch during the 1125 era. Which is the engine still being used in the current 1190's. They (Buell) didn't want to use HD engines anymore. HD lost 100 million dollars killing Buell. Clearly didn't work. It's not a big deal, most people are confused about the history and what happened. As it's a convoluted and confusing history. But it was never a Harley Project. Harleys involvement is on par with all of its purchases of other motorcycle companies, controlling competition. Literally had nothing to do with Buell until it got attention. Also they did nothing to help Buell, even when they owned majority.

@navscycles

13 күн бұрын

That’s good to know. I always thought the first bike he build was with Harley since it says Harley on it but I think it came a little later. It’s currently parked in the workshop with one of my bikes.

@Zach2Wheels

13 күн бұрын

@@navscycles awesome sause!! I honestly couldn't say he never built an early bike out of HD parts. Primarily he used a company that ended up shutting down. But he did switch sometime after his parts supplier shut down. I have an xb12ss (2006), 1190Rx "Hammerhead" (2023), 1190Rs (2013), and I ordered the Fuell Fllow. It's an electric motorcycle* he helped design, won't be here till December or later in 2025 (or never, will see 🤣).

@navscycles

11 күн бұрын

@@Zach2Wheels That's awesome. Lately Ive found myself itching for a 1125r but ill see.

Couldn’t even make it through the whole video. Wtf are you even talking about? Buells are some of the best handling bikes ever made, no idea how you had an issue unless that poor firebolt is beat up from sitting. May need new wheel bearings or steering head bearing. These bikes are smooth cornering. As far as the plugs…yeah, if you start this bike and ride it for 5 mins, you’re gonna go thru spark plugs. These bikes have to be let to get to operating temp at least before you put em away. Buells are absolutely fantastic bikes.

@navscycles

19 күн бұрын

I state in the video the starting problem with the plugs in from sitting. The bike handles great but from my experience on the bike, and everyone Ive let ride my bike and even some other owners I've talked to agree that the bike is very raw and could use a damper. Not sure if you perhaps had a difference experience but thats my experience with it.

How much do you want for your garbage bike, I give you $1000

@shawcobra

4 ай бұрын

But own a hammerhead....?

@nenadmomcilovic9133

4 ай бұрын

Lol

UR CHEAP

You have no actual Buell knowledge. Most everything you stated is false.

@navscycles

Ай бұрын

How can MY experience and my opinions be wrong ? I’d honestly love to hear what I got so false. I’m always learning but honestly I rewatched the video and there weren’t any “facts” in the video really to get wrong.

@joshsteig8951

Ай бұрын

Plenty of parts available Buell produced through 2010 model year Your fuel pump failed because of crappy old ethanol Your plugs fouled because you started the bike and never road it.

@navscycles

Ай бұрын

Buell and Harley don’t supply parts. That’s the point I was making it’s all aftermarket. I literally in the video word for word said my fuel pump went bad most likely because the bike sat and because America has bad gas. No offense man but i literally made those points, seems like you wrote that comment without even watching the whole video.