The UK Buell Enthusiasts Group On line.

240 Rear tyre on a Buell XB

Since i've been running a 240 rear on my XB12S i've had a barrage of questions about the conversion. I thought it might be an idea to write a few lines on the subject to answer as many of the questions as posssible.

The first question has to be "Why?". Ha! - Its also the only question that gets my subjective opinion. I like the sandard XB in all its guises but coming from a background of modified Cars and Bikes i wanted something that would provoke some discussion, derision, debate and pondering. I think i have achieved all of this.   I also like the trend of Fat "Phat" tyres on bikes.

Getting a wheel tyre combo that would fit was also going to be a problem. I knew that there had been an XB9R with a widend standard wheel done a year before i started my project. i wasn't over keen on following this route as 1. I would be following and 2. Cutting and rejoining cast metal isn't such a great idea in my opinion. (I must say that these wheels are approved to the rigorous German TUV standards so what the hell do i know!) For my Project i decided to enlist the help of my mate from Builth Well, wales - Steve Taylor who is Taylormade wheels and probably the most experienced guy in the UK if not Europe on fitting supa wide wheel into the back of anything on 2 wheels.

Steve agreed it could be done and machined a billet aluminium centre piece and a couple of hubs. These were bolted to 18" split rims giving a total width of 8.5" wrapped in Metzeler 240 rubber..   Careful measurments were necessary to ensure the wheel sat central in the 'Standard' swing arm.

Now came the really tricky stuff. The front pulley had to be offset to line up with the rear. The original front pulley was bored, offset 13mm and welded. (Steve has perfected this using and adjustable Adrenalin MOTO pulley now).

I didn't want any belt guards on the custom bike so they weren't a problem. I'm sure if someone wanted to run guard they could be offset the necessary 13mm.

The tolerences with the belt were tight (A lot greater with his new pulley) but cleared all moving parts right up until i polished the rear pulley. The 2 mm that i removed means that on overun i often just clip the rear tyre with the belt. I'm going to change the pulleys for the new system this winter,

Well thats it. So what does it ride like? I took THE best handling bike in the world and did my very best to ***** it all up.

Is it as good as it was.....of course not. Forgeting the aditional reciprocating mass for a moment and the fact the the centre line of the bike moves out so far when you cranked over the 1st thing i noticed was that the bike had become a little twitchy. Because the wheel tyre combination is taller than before it had the effect of steepening the already steep rake causing this twitchy situation. To compesate i backed the rear preload off and raised the forks slightly through the yokes. This cured that problem.

I'm not Rossi, Haslam, Reynolds or Macenzie but i can still grind the pegs and there are no chiken strips on my rubber. So its still good just not as good! The bike is, in the words of a good mate "more a piece of art than a means of transportation" so for me its Job done.

Others out there have offered me there views on the conversion: some good, some bad and some indifferent.   There is now another UK 240 billet conversion out there belonging to a mate of mine. Done in powder coat black it sure looks the part.

If anyone is considering the same please feel free to PM me and i'll go through the whole process for you.

Thunderstorm Engine Updates for 2008

The air-cooled Buell 1203cc and 984cc range use an updated version of the Thunderstorm engine.
The timing cover is eliminated, as the engine is now crank timed from a new crank position sensor, which eliminates the need for manual timing, reducing maintenance costs. The ECM actively monitors and adjusts timing based on the riding environment. The new sensor makes thirty reads per revolution, compared to the previous two reads per revolution, for more precise control of fuel mapping and timing to conditions.

Additional updates to all 2008 Thunderstorm engines include:

The size of the crankpins is increased to 1.5 inches from 1.25 inches.
A higher-output oil pump supports oiling to the new crankpin area. The new oil pump is driven off the crank, a design based on the Buell XBRR production racing motorcycle.
A new eight-row oil cooler offers enhanced cooling and all oil line ends are now equipped with jiffy-tite fittings.
A new ECM with increased computing capacity.
DDFI 3 actively controls and monitors the TPS (throttle position sensor) IAC (idle air control) and timing. DDFI 3 automatically zeros the TPS and adjusts fuel metering for a smoother idle, eliminating service intervals and reducing the cost of ownership.
A new progressive throttle cam and cables provide smoother throttle input from stops and requires less rotation to full throttle.

Copied from the Autumn 2007 issue of American Thunder

UKBEG.COM is officially fully commisssioned.

I'm pleased to announce that the new UKBEG.COM website is now officially issue free, tested and functional.

There may just be the odd bear trap lying in wait to catch us out, but we're done with the commissioning phase of the website it is now fully functioning.

The temporary "fix" of offsite avatars is being switched off and we're reverting to the usual 125x125 pixel avatars settings you have been used to the last few years.

At the present time, just the Gallery module, which is a huge website in itself, is still undergoing tweaks but we think it is issue free. Policies regarding user uploading to the Gallery will be devleoped shortly and user permsiions will be set accordingly.

Now all that's needed is to build content into the various parts of the website and after a period of steady operation, look what the next level of development of the place will be. And we need you to take part in this by using all sections of the website.

I hope you enjoy the new UKBEG.COM. Europe's premier Buell related website.

Most issues here are now fixed, thanks for your patience.

Well, we've got a few miles under the tyres of the new UKBEG.COM website.

It has been a pretty tense time for the admin team. Whilst the bulk of the website was put together and de-bugged by myself before we went "live", as you all know, there were a few frustrating issues with the Forum Module.

Thanks to a huge effort and by showing fantastic tenacity, Ash single handedly pulled the site out of the smelly stuff and has the last of the major snags neatly ironed out.

I want to publicly thank Ash on behalf of the group and I wish to thank those members who were patient, supportive and understanding of the few issues that we had.

It's been an amazing task to put this in place with 99% of it being right first time. If anyone is interested in learning more about what has been happening behind the scenes the last couple of weeks, have a chat with me or Ash at a meeting sometime and we will give you the gory details.

I want you to please use all the new facilities here at your disposal and help UKBEG on the journey into it's second decade as Europe's leading on line Buell community. Thank you.

24 hours + and we're still here............

Well, we've been "live" here for 24 hours and a bit more. I'm pretty chuffed with how things are running. We had a glitch with Forum "Board Styles" that screwed things around a bit but we've recovered from that. Basically, I'd removed the option that users had of choosing a "style or theme" for their own view of the Forum area. But unknown to me the database transfer had added the capability back in again and that broke things like PM's and stuff. Ash has done a fantastic job putting out the fires as they've popped up and we still have a couple of issues to sort out, like Avatars etc... But we'll get there in the end, thanks for your patience, this has been a huge venture by the Admin Team on your behalf.

A warm welcome to the brand new UKBEG.COM website!

Well, now that you can read this, you'll see we've finally launched the website that is the future of The UK Buell Enthusiasts Group on the web.

There has been a fantastic amount of work gone into this endeavour and I hope you'll agree that the effort has paid off.

We in the Admin team really feel that this is the way forward for our little corner of the web. As well as giving the team new ways of managing our virtual clubhouse it gives the most important people here- THE MEMBERS features and scope to contribute in ways that a few days ago you had never thought about.

Please make the most of the new website, please contribute to the group in whatever way you can, technical, social, donations, whatever.... it is all welcome.

One last very special thanks to the small, very highly skilled core of volunteer members who have made this place possible and an extra, extra, special huge thanks to the database team who did work here that if paid for would have cost thousands of pounds to carry out. Thank you.

We have a new home.

The UK Buell Enthusiasts have a new website.

As you can see if you've visited us before, here at UKBEG.COM we have adopted a new way to run the website and an entirely new way to present our web site content.

In fact behind the scenes this new site presents substantial changes. The pages are no longer static HTML content but are database driven pages generated in a technology called PHP script a kind of programmming language for the internet.

For the Admin and Moderating teams the new website brings substantial benefits from an administration and control point of view and will reduce the workload involved in keeping the website upto date.

For our membership, the advantages of this format are huge. Not only do e have evrything we had before, Forum, Gallery, Events etc... But we also have ways for you to add your own input to the group.

You may have a "Journal" a kind of "Blog" to keep us upto date with what you are dioing in the world of Buells. There's a section where you can add download or website links and you can submit news articles for inclusion here on the web.

As time goes by we'll be adding more features, for example we are trialling an RSS news feed from Motorcycle News and we may bring other news feeds into the site. In turn we are offering the content of ths site as an RSS news feed for other sites to feature.

Please contribute in any way that you can, we run the site but without the membershp there would be no group. If there's anything that you think we can improve on or feature please let us know.

Thank you.

Admin and Moderator teams.