Hello all! Just wanted to stop in and tell you I'm glad to be here. Just by way of introduction, I've ridden off and on since 1973, even roadraced for a few corners in the seventies. My first ride was a 69 Kawasaki 500 triple (horror upon horror!), then in no particuar order - a Moto Guzzi 850 Le Mans (crashed it bigtime - still got scars), a 750 Suzuki four with pipe and smoothbore mikunis - (handled good for what it was), a 750 Honda powered Rickman, a 2002 ZRX1200 Kawasaki Eddie Lawson Edition, (big torquey lime green good lookin retro), a XR650L Honda motard (slow everywhere but in the twisties)...
The real fun began about a year ago. I had wanted a tuber Buell for about 5 years - don't ask me why, I couldn't even tell you. I have no idea where that desire started. I was never a HD guy in any way shape or form - no way. I had saved a few dollars and went shopping for a tuber. Test rode a M2, nice looking bike, ran ok but wouldn't idle. I kept looking... Then I found myself test riding a 2003 XB9 with Buell race kit installed. Slow, noisy, weird looking, strange handling - I bought it!
After the newness wore off, I now discovered that I had a bike that felt like it had a hinge in the middle of a rubber frame. I really started thinking seriously about selling this stupid Frankinstein handling mess - UNTIL I put on a set of Diablo's and set it up according to the book - wow! I'm in love! That lasted about 6 months until I misjudged a left-hander and crashed the best handling bike on the planet. (one broken finger & a totalled bike).
Oh well, now what? I even thought about getting another 1200 Kawasaki, but then I saw Bueldog in the newspaper - love at first sight! Long story short(er) - I'm now riding a red 2004 XB12r named Bueldog - its actually spelled out on license plate. He only had 4500 miles on him, and he had Heli bars installed, and a cool black Buell firebolt storage bag that mounts to the rear seat. I've since installed a Drummer muffler (please speak louder - I'm deaf now!). I've put over 6,000 more miles on the Dog and have had no real issues except for the crankshaft nut coming loose and sounding like a rod knock. No problem I just re-torqued it to the new spec.
Bueldog is a certainly a shaking, loud, obnoxious, weird creature - love it! I hope I didn't bore you too bad, but as you know, once you get the Buell bug, it digs deep under the skin. I'm not interested in going 186 miles per hour any more or being another one of ten-millon other Japanese plastic cookie-cutter wanna-be racers on the streets. Bueldog draws more attention than the scores of Duc you-know-whats at the local motorcycle hangout. I'm ok with that. Sometimes I may begin to think that I want to ride something different - then I happen to catch Bueldog's reflection in a store window, and thats the end of that foolish thought. Anyway, just wanted to say hello and let you know that Bueldog and I are flying the banner high and proud on this side of the Pond.