Shocking!

I beat this girl mercilessly. She's averaged more WFO throttle angle than most have. Well, hopefully anywayhttps://www.buellxb.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.png

Attachment 2200
I don't mean abuse, I mean whipped in the spirit that Mr. Buell intended with every stroke of his genius and every tap on his calculator. Well maintained and ridden hard will always be better than languishing in the dusty corner of a freezing garage, sucking 2 milliamps off a tender while the tires rot into the concrete.

I'm telling this story because it needs to be told. A warning to others that get their heart rate up by taking risks. It's hard to explain why my risks are OK and yours are not, in fact theres a whole psychiatry thing about that, but I digress.

Chuckwalla Raceway:
Attachment 2201
Very nice place, recently re-furbed and fast as Hell. See that wild 180+ curve in the upper right? Going clockwise thats turn 13 "The Bowl". 10/11/12 are all accelerating and the run to the super-speedway style heavily cambered sweeper #13 is downhill so you can see everything and smash the gas as far as you dare. The G force will compress your suspension to the max and the inevitable visions of shooting off the high side of that berm and not landing until you hit the Moon and bounce back to Earth are the only thing slowing you down.

Thats OK, been doing it for 2 days now. Faster and faster. It's late afternoon on the second day of daring yourself to just add another degree of twist to the grip, and this time it's all yours. That magical time where most are off track or going home early, no one around to distract or disturb the perfect line, just the wildly loud roar of the wind, that beautiful pop on an upshift, and setting up exactly where you want to be. Smooth, fast, hang on old guy, this ones gonna be great!

The flag stand waves the black flag and points. ****. I'm doing well over 110mph and no one else is near me. Quick check. ****. Boots are shiny with oil. Nightmare. Can't check up. Smooth is survival now, you're probably riding on an oily back tire. Still dragging your knee.

Leg out, hand up, whatever it takes to not get run over by the next racer. Theres only a few corners left to pit entry, so off the line and cruise. Dang thats a lot of smoke out the back.

This motorcycle. Number 24 of all ever built, has been nothing less than a stellar companion and willing partner for anything I could ask. From 10 hour days of touring and now a track bitch, she has been needy, but never demanding. Now I fear the worst.

(Won't let me upload pics...)
Not catastrophic, she still runs well, but odd oddities and the rear shock is dripping with oil. Looks like it blew out a seal and dumped its oil on the rear header and tire. Thankful I know the OE shock is a decent piece and can be had for about $150. I'll be swinging for the next track day EZ PZ.

No. Now it's $550. Used? For OE? WTH? I know theres not a lot of these out there but... what happened?

Well, being a guy, I know I can literally justify any purchase, and soon I'm on the NCCR website writing the recipe for a bespoke Wilburs rear shock. Oh Hell yes I did! https://www.buellxb.com/forum/images/smilies/angel.pngKnowing it would take some time for Zee Germans to send it to Sweden, where it's manipulated to spec, to be sent to the good ol' USA to be installed and tuned by a Redneck Hippie like me, I got one ordered quick.

That was 2 months ago and the next track day weekend is looming. On my birthday.

I can't possibly say enough good things about the folks at NCCR. A family business who have drank more of the Buell-aid than I ever could. Knowledgable and friendly, ready to do whatever it takes for their clients, not because of the paycheck, but because they care. Thats seriously rare these days.

So the shock gets to CA about 2 miles away from me and gets stalled out. UPS keeps moving the delivery date forward a day, everyday. After a week of this BS, i get an late Thursday email from UPS. "Your package is being held in a secure facility, pending instructions". Ok, WHAT instructions? I assume they can't find a street address but no answers come from the website, the FAQ's the Virtual useless BS. I won't bore the details... but 5 DAYS later I get to talk to a human. "It's missing its invoice for import".

I send NCCR a e-mail and my phone immediately rings. It's Pär. Taking care of **** ASAP. NCCR gets the invoice FROM UPS and sends back TO UPS, and now UPS says its on the way. Again.

One day, two days, on the third day I get another email from UPS. "Pay $101.31 via check or MO". Why you ask? I didn't know either. Shipping paid, Taxes paid, oh! Its "impound fee's" at $20/DAY because they couldn't find the invoice they had in their own system or see any of the THREE copies attached to the package.

Another 2 days of phone calls and I get the secretary of the guy that can remove the silly (and criminal) charges. I send the e-mail to him while on the phone and hang up. I immediately get the auto-reply "I'm out of the office for a week... blah blah" ****ing furious I blanket email every single UPS email address I can find and a day later get ONE reply "COD has been removed"

Great! Sigh. Except my UPS driver didn't get the note. His computer still says due. More phone calls. The lady on day 2 says "when he driver gets there, have him call me for a code". Which means sitting at home all day and then stopping him from doing his job to wait on hold for you like I did??
How about you GIVE ME "the code" to put on the door? "No sir, I can't do that" Like I'm going to perform a hostile UPS takeover with that valuable info. Sheesh.

Done. Finally get this jewelry for my girl.
2 bolts right? The ass is already strung from the rafters I can't WAIT to get it on and test/tune tomorrow!

Highs and lows. Dang I was so stoked to be able to replace the bad OE shock and get her together well in time to prep for the next track day.

But the universe shouted NO! I have the intake off to swap plugs and a misc check out and look.
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/attach...191763&thumb=1

closer
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/attach...191793&thumb=1

closer...
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/attach...191842&thumb=1

Why the Hell is there a piece of the inner clutch cover missing?!?
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/attach...185238&thumb=1

Well, I'll tell ya.

I am a lucky, lucky, lucky, SOB.

I need to see behind the clutch basket...
To get the clutch basket off, you need to take off the outer clutch cover, take out the clutch, get the inner clutch housing off, so you need to take the rear head pipe off, so you need to split the bike in half.
Granted, its not as bad as it sounds BUT, could also be easier, looking at YOU Erikhttps://www.buellxb.com/forum/images/smilies/grumpy.png
Spent 1/2 my Saturday in a damn sweaty shop.
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/attach...192548&thumb=1
Heres what happened:
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/attach...192231&thumb=1
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/attach...192254&thumb=1
One of the 3 bolts holding the cush springs to the clutch basket sheared off at redline in 4th gear and smashed a hole in the cover at 11 billionty mph. It did NOT touch the actual engine case, then dropped past all these literally 10,000rpm spinning gears,
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/attach...192763&thumb=1
to harmlessly land here,
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/attach...192800&thumb=1
and NOT jam the crank, locking the rear, and sending me high siding to the MOON.
It also broke the cover (happily), because if it didn't, theres no way I would have known until....https://www.buellxb.com/forum/images/smilies/hororr.png

So here it sits.
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/attach...192992&thumb=1
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/attach...193015&thumb=1
https://www.buellxb.com/forum/attach...193040&thumb=1

Just replace the bolt and buy a new cover right? Well, I have an old EBR clutch basket to steal the OE hardware from, the gaskets OK, so all I need is a $480+tax+shipping+3 weeks= rent/borrow/steal a bike for track day, from EBR (if they even have it). OR a ton of internetting provided the answer I wanted. The latest version (2010) of the 1125 had the same slipper clutch and oil cooled water pump seal so.... $99 incl ship on e-bay later and I should be in business by Friday!

Unless UPS loses it.

I am a lucky, lucky, lucky guy. (Pats golden horseshoe, facing East, rubbing Buddas belly, with a rabbit foot in my pocket, crossed fingers...)

WOW! How many miles now ? Great job covering the issues you had ,thanks for sharing. Hope that never happens to mine.

Sorry it won't let me add pics. I think I need to put host links instead.

Wow, ya glad you brought that up! I think I'm at 12k miles? I might as well do a valve adjust. I'm waiting for parts and the bikes in half already...

Honestly the first catastrophic failure I've had, which is pretty remarkable for #000024 off the line of a brand new manufacturer in 2014. Still LOVE this thing, though. I consider it a VERY strange anomaly (certainly not an engineering fault), and a thankfully inexpensive repair.