Winter Maintenance
January 11th, 2009
Happy new year everyone. Not been out on the bike much over the past month so have had nothing so say. Ive been doing a bit of maintenance instead to keep my biking interests burning. Over the Xmas break I removed the rear wheel and gave things a clear up. Buells suffer if you forget to remove the rear axle every so often and give it a clean and lube with some copper slip. Its ever so easy to do and was an education coz it helps you bond with your bike…
I treated myself to an Inforad M1 over Xmas too. This is a GPS enabled safety camera detector. Its not illegal and helps warn you of pending trouble spots ahead. You can also use it as a data logging device to plot a trip for downloading on to your computer. Due to the constraints of the Buell I had trouble finding a place to put the unit. Eventually I had to put it under the false tank cover. It fits nicely in the place where the XB12 series of Buells have their exhaust servo. The power has to be switched to save draining the battery so for now I have tapped into the battery charging lead. I have a plug on order that will let me take power off of the ECM spy plug under the seat. The LED which is the part of the system that alerts you has fitted nicely into the gap between the fly screen and instrument panel.
I popped out for a blast this afternoon on the bike for the first time in ages. The roads were wet but ice free and as I was in a bad mood caused by hunger pains from a diet that the missus has put me on I wrung the living life out of the Buell on some of the local back roads. Its amazing how fast this little bike can go when you really want it to. I managed to get the front wheel up over a hump in the road at a very interesting speed. Had to back off the throttle to get it to come down again 
Naughty, must not do that again….
When I got home the bike was covered in white salt. It had even splatted up the back of my leather jacket so once things had cooled down I gave the bike a spray down with the pressure washer. Its looking ok now and i’ll re-apply some ACF-50 shortly.
I’m still loving the Buell and love the fact that I can buy bits to put on it. Thanks go out to Trojan Horse for supplying lots of parts to play with. 2009 might be the year that I buy my first tuned exhaust. There are loads to choose from. I like the double exit Remus Revolution and Blaster V that Trojan sell. I’ll keep you posted on that front.
Anyway, happy new year. Here’s to 2009!
