Buell – The ExhaustNotes Blog

Buell Fever Part 8: Slippery Business

By Joe Gresh

The stereotypical image of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle leaking oil has become a cultural icon. Dirty, unshaven and drunk riders astride seeping, smoking, rattling, home-built murdercycles were made popular in biker movies from the 1970’s and the image persists today.

How real is that image? I can’t say because my Buell was manufactured in 1995 but I hear new Harleys mostly don’t leak…much, if at all. My 30 year-old Buell leaked oil. Before we dive into the engine oil leak we have to get a few other leaks out of the way. .

You’ll remember all the trouble I had with the original Mikuni carburetor, the float needle leaked through various repair attempts and I thought I had the problem licked. The Buell ran good and got 50 miles to a gallon of gas. I took it out for a few rides and no carburetor leaks. Then I walked into the shed one day, straddled the Buell, hoisted it up straight and gas poured out the air cleaner. Like a lot of gas.

That was the final straw for the original Mikuni carburetor. I replaced the entire unit with a Chinese clone carb from Amazon and the bike has never run better and it doesn’t leak out of the carburetor or the air cleaner. Thanks, Global Trade!

But here’s my question: why did the old carburetor overflow at all? I had the fuel petcock off, where did the gas running out of the carb come from, you may well ask? Turns out the petcock was not completely shutting off as a steady drip of gasoline wormed its way past the 4-hole rubber seal in the petcock. Thus, the fuel shut-off was never really shut-off.

This isn’t the actual petcock gasket but you get the idea.

I took the petcock apart and flipped the 4-hole rubber seal around. That cured the fuel leaking to the carburetor in the off position but it created a bigger problem in that gas leaked out of the body of the petcock in all positions.

Finding a replacement rubber, 4-hole o-ring was uneventful as none were to be found. Instead, I bought a new petcock on Amazon and the new valve fixed the bypassing problem. But there was another gas leak.

The Buell has a roto-cast plastic gas tank under that pretty, race-bike inspired, but heavy, fiberglass bodywork. An aluminum gas cap flange screws onto the tank with a rubber gasket. This joint weeped gas when riding the bike. Not a lot, but annoying and enough to leave streaks of fuel mungus down the side of the gas tank.

Not so many parts to the Buell tank but the few that are there may leak.

Dismantling the flange, I discovered a check valve under the tank vent that needed to be removed before the flange would come off.

I got rid of this check valve. I expect the bike to burst into flames any minute.

The valve must have something to do with emissions control as it only let air into the tank. I’m sure this added to the float needle issue as the tank was under slight pressure just sitting in the warm New Mexico sun.

Fixing the flange leak was as easy as cleaning off the gasket. Blasting it with a little Permatex high-tack and reassembling the mess. I omitted the check valve to equalize the pressure between the tank and the Earth’s atmosphere. Of course now when the bike falls over it will leak gas like every other old motorcycle I own.

You can’t see it well in this photo but the rear cylinder is an oily mess.

With the gas leaks sorted I turned my attention to the oil leaks. The rear rocker cover was dribbling oil down the cylinder where turbulent air whisked it onto the battery and all points south. It wasn’t a huge leak but let’s just say the back of the Buell is not likely to rust anytime soon.

Luckily Erik built the S2 so that the rocker covers are removable without dropping the engine. I did have to cut an Allen wrench short to clear the frame tube, but it was an easy job all things considered.

It’s a snug fit but as long as you’re willing to chop your tools it’s do-able.

With the new rocker cover gaskets, I took the bike out for a spin and the rear cylinder puked oil as badly as ever. I figured the oil must be leaking from under the rocker box. I’m nothing if not persistent so I took the rocker covers back off and then the rocker boxes. (This year Sportster engine has 3-piece rocker assemblies)

The gaskets crumbled upon removal of the rocker boxes.

The paper gasket is under the rear rocker box was brittle and broken. I replaced both front and rear gaskets with a metal version of the paper gasket. I knew for sure I had the leak fixed.

On the test run the reassembled rear rocker leaked as bad as ever. Back to the shed and everything came apart again for the third time. I was pretty much out of ideas.

Studying the situation over the course of several days I observed the rear umbrella valve (a nickel-sized, round flapper-type deal in the rocker cover) was much harder than the front umbrella valve. Like hard plastic instead of soft rubber. I swapped both umbrella valves with new ones. Then assembled the mess thinking no way it could be those little valves.

This little valve caused the rear cylinder rocker cover leak.

I test rode the Buell 200 miles and no oil leaked out the rear cylinder. The battery area and aft sections were dry. Look, I’m not complaining. I can’t pin this on Harley’s image. 30-year old motorcycles are going to leak oil. Seals harden, gaskets dry up and split, 0-rings lose their O-ness and umbrella valves aren’t going to bounce. Besides, I enjoy working on the Buell. It’s a weird, wonderful machine that fits no known stereotype.

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Why Are All My Friends Buying Harleys?

By Joe Berk

Don’t get excited; I don’t have that many friends. But lately two of them (Baja John and Uncle Joe Gresh) both bought Harleys. I guess I started thinking about it when I went to the gym yesterday morning. There was an early Harley V-Rod parked in front. It looked brand new. It’s too bad that bike didn’t make it with the beer bellies and tattoos bunch. Harley is on the skids now, struggling through a huge sales downturn and significant layoffs. I guess they don’t know what to do. I do (small bikes and even smaller prices; it ain’t rocket science, Milwaukee). Eh, what do I know?

The V-Rod had me thinking about Baja John. He bought a V-Rod last year. I haven’t seen it yet, so I called John and asked him to send a photo. It’s the one you see at the top of this blog. I need to get out there to Arizona and visit with John again. Maybe on the next pig hunt. Maybe sooner.

And then there’s Gresh and his Buell. I knew more about that motorcycle, as Sue and I hosted Gresh out here in La La Land when he came out to pick it up. It’s a beautiful motorcycle, and it’s been fun watching Joe resurrect it. He’s having fun. It’s too bad Buell didn’t work out for Harley, either. I thought those bikes might have been the answer. Joe’s adventures have had me thinking maybe I need to find an older Buell to play with. It would be fun. But there aren’t too many Harley dealers around here anymore; they’ve been dropping like left wing loonies (sorry for the redundancy) at a MAGA rally. Seriously. Harley dealers are falling fast. It’s a shame, really.

The upshot of the above, of course, is that if you are in the market for a Harley, this is probably a good time to buy. I’ve owned two Harleys; one was a turd and the other was awesome. They sure were beautiful, though. Even the ’79 Electra-Glide (the turd) that treated me worse than Kamala Harris at a Toastmasters meeting was drop dead gorgeous.

I think if I was going to buy another motorcycle, it would be a Moto Guzzi. The work I’ve been doing for Motorcycle Classics magazine with Cycle Garden in Indio cemented what I already felt: Guzzis are the world’s most beautiful motorcycles. I like the Ambassadors and El Dorados from the 1970s, and I also like the Griso. I’m keeping my eyes peeled. And there’s another plus on the Guzzis: They sure are easy to maintain.

How easy? Hey, buy a recent issue of Motorcycle Classics, turn to the “How To” section, and you’ll see. The upcoming issue has a feature on how to de-rust a gas tank, and it’s pretty interesting. I think you’ll like it.

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Buell Fever Part 7: Lean On Me

By Joe Gresh

Tidying up where we left off in Part 6, the new front brake pads arrived and everything wheel-wise went together. Bleeding the front caliper was uneventful and the brake stopped the wheel which is all you can ask in today’s crazy world.

It was time to tackle the Buell’s kickstand issue. If you’re keeping count, that’s three motorcycles I have had to modify the kickstand on.

Kickstand things are precarious and resulted in a crash.

The Buell’s kick stand was an odd duck. It had the typical Harley locking style but where Harley used heavy, hard-wearing steel the Buell used soft, easy to consume aluminum.

The material change is important because with only 13,000 miles my Buell kickstand locking groove was completely worn out. The notch the kickstand flopped into was gone and with the poor angles involved the bike was ready to fall over any minute. And it did.

The notch area, eaten away in the pursuit of light weight.

I was going to take a stab at welding a notch in place but I couldn’t get the TIG torch in the narrow kickstand mounting boss. This was a job better left to the pros at Roy’s Welding. I took the aluminum side plate down to Roy’s and dropped it off.

Access is limited, so I gave up and took the kickstand plate to a welder.

A few days later I called Roy’s to see how things were going and I guess they couldn’t get their torch in between the kickstand mount either. Back I went to retrieve the still-boogered kickstand mount. I searched online for a few days but a left-side mounting plate was not available when I needed it.

Left with no option I tried some of Harbor Freight’s ersatz aluminum welding rod. This material is kind of an aluminum solder. To weld with it you use an Oxy-acetylene torch and it kind of works.

A nice flood of ersatz aluminum filled the void.

You’ll need to clean the aluminum well and then using the torch to heat the work you sort of rub the rod into the metal. Take care not to overheat the work. It’s an easy process that you can stop anytime by removing the heat source.

I welded (if you can call it that) the original pivot holes closed then filled the worn spot inside the kickstand mount. It worked ok and I managed to get the filler pretty level inside the mount.

The original pivot holes stopped the stand at a 90-degree angle. This was fine and dandy when the stand had a notch to fall into. My new plan was to make the kickstand more like every other kickstand in the world instead of Harley style.

The relocated pivot hole allowed more stand arc.

I re-redrilled the holes and a position that allowed the stand to swing forward and over center the return spring. This set up is pretty normal even in later Buells. I ground the stand a bit thinner to make room for a steel washer in the hope of protecting the soft aluminum filler material.

To allow movement for the old stand design the hole in the kickstand was oval shaped. This made for quite a bit of lean when deployed. My new design didn’t need the oval hole so I drilled it out and fitted a steel bushing. Now things were snug.

Steel bushing to fill the wongo-wongo, pivoting angle.

With the relocated pivot holes the end of the kickstand hit the swing arm in the up position. I used a piece of Starboard (plastic used in boat building) to make a new stop for the stand.

New stops keep the kickstand from hitting the swing arm.

It all worked. The Buell stand is still in an odd, dirt-bike like location but it operates normally and the bike doesn’t fall over. So that’s a good thing.

No more rolling off the stand and hitting the ground for me.

More Gresh Buellishness!

Buell 1: More Cowbell
Buell 2: The Reckoning
Buell 3: An Own Goal
Buell 4: Striking Oil
Buell 5: Carb Blues
Buell 6: Oingo-Boingo

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Buell Fever Part 6: Oingo-Boingo

By Joe Gresh

I have two motorcycles with upside down forks. Both of these motorcycles have leaking fork seals. Coincidence? I think not. I have no love for USD forks and one of the reasons I wanted a Buell Cyclone was the conventional forks those bikes came with.

I don’t care for upside down forks. They seem to leak more than conventional forks.

Alas, I ended up with a Thunderstorm, which is mostly the same as a Cyclone except for the forks. Mine were leaking, which is not unexpected for a 30-year-old motorcycle.

I try to lay out the parts in the order they are removed. Until I kick the cardboard and the bits scatter. This is the fork cap-retainer-plastic spacer-metal washer top of the tube parts.

New fork seals were kind of hard to find. I tried contacting the OEM manufacturer, White Power (that name didn’t age well), but I got no response. Through the wonder of the internet, I found a company in England that had the seals.

Always tape over ridges so the seal doesn’t get cut or damaged when sliding it into the tube.

The seal installer in action. Sliding the fork tube presses in the fork bushing, a spacer and the seal in one motion.

After pressing the two halves are removed. Next is the seal retaining clip (which is all that holds the forks together).

The seals were reasonably priced at $14 per set, but the shipping was expensive. I bought three sets since the shipping was the same. Now I have enough Buell S2 fork seals for the rest of my life. On a side note: a week after the seals were delivered FedEx sent me a $20 invoice for “fees.” I haven’t paid the fee yet; I’m not sure, it may be a scam. The fees may be re-named tariffs.

Without this relief cut the seal installer would smash the seal lip.

Buell seal installer. PVC tube machined to fit seal lip then cut in half.

The Buell has a large front disc. To remove the wheel, you have to remove the brake caliper. To remove the brake caliper, you have to remove the brake pads and then retract all six of the caliper pistons back inside their respective bores.

The old Performance Machine brake caliper pistons were pretty crusty, and I didn’t want to push all that mess across the bore seals into the caliper. Removing the brake disc from the wheel allowed enough wiggle room to get things apart.

The WP forks were super tight in the triple clamps. I used a wedge to expand the fork tube bores and still it was a struggle to slide the forks out. Once out, disassembly was fairly straightforward (although oily) experience.

These triple clamps really grip the fork tubes. You almost don’t need pinch bolts.

You’ll need to make a seal installer to press the new seals into the forks. I made mine from PVC tubing in the hope of avoiding scratching the sliders. The new seals fit well, and the hardest part was compressing the fork spring while holding the damper rod up with a bent wire and using a third hand fitting the damper rod spring keepers. My Buell shop manual describes this process as a two-man job. And it really is.

It took a couple days to figure out how to one-man a two-man job. I ended up employing an oxy-acetylene welding cart as a prop to hold the fork. The T-handle on the cart was in a convenient location and height to loop the damper-rod holding wire over and I still had two hands free to compress the spring and slip in the keepers.

After the seals are in place the fork spring retainer goes on. Note the wire holding the damper rod and the welding cart holding the fork. This setup leaves both hands free to compress the fork spring and fit the retainers.

More Buell specialty tools. Wire to hold damper rod, wedges to spread triple clamps.

The Buell manual called for 7-1/2 weight fork oil. I should have ordered fork oil online, but I didn’t, so I called around and the local Honda shop had some. It’s a 20-mile drive to the Honda shop. The Honda fork oil bottles are confusingly labeled. What looks like 7 weight ended up being 5 weight, but I wanted to get the front end put back together. So I poured a pint of 5 weight into each fork leg. Stay tuned for a follow up report if I can feel any difference between 5 and 7 weight fork oil.

While the forks were off, I re-greased the steering head bearings. They still had a little grease remaining but thinly applied. I walked out the old stuff and smooshed in fresh grease. That left just the front caliper to clean up.

Re -greased steering head bearings. I don’t like the design of the cup under the bottom bearing. It seems like it would hold water. I might bend a drain channel into the low side.

The caliper came apart easily, but the pistons did not. I used to have a big pair of reverse pliers (the jaws expand rather than close when the handles are squeezed). I would use these pliers to grab inside the hollow pistons and pull them out of the caliper. I would, that is, if I could find them. I spent a few hours looking for the pliers and finally gave up.

A snap ring Oliver was pressed into service and I managed to get all six pistons out. Performance Machine uses chromed steel pistons and the bit of piston that was exposed to the elements had corroded. Finding new pistons would be an impossible task and a new caliper would cost $600, so I polished the corroded pistons on the buffing wheel.

Except for the chromed pistons, the PM caliper is a nice looking unit. Note the piston diameter change to apply evenly distributed wear.

Performance Machine caliper back together and waiting on brake pads

I’ve had good luck piston polishing. Yes, they re-corrode, but the section of piston covered with brake fluid doesn’t corrode. I look at it as an ongoing maintenance item rather than a bad part. You’ll have to wait for new brake pads to arrive to see if the caliper leaks in Buell Fever Part 7.

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Buell Fever Part 5: Carburetor Blues

By Joe Gresh

After years and years of tinkering with engines, my whole life really, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am not very good at fixing carburetors. The Buell’s multiple personality disorder carburetor has really illuminated my carb inadequacies.

Considering it sat for who knows how long the Buell carburetor was fairly clean inside. I blasted it out with spray carb cleaner and installed a few new parts just because it was apart. The bike started up easy and seemed to run ok. And then the oil tank blew all over the place. I got sidetracked cleaning up oil and it was a few days before I got around to starting the Buell again.

The aftermarket needles have slightly longer springs. I’m not sure this matters.

After a few moments of running, the bike started getting richer and richer. Black smoke poured out the muffler along with popping and farting sounds. I shut the engine off and fuel began leaking out the carburetor intake mouth. This was unfortunate because I installed a new needle and float earlier.

Off the carb came for the second time. I re-checked the float level, installed another new needle and bench tested the carb. No leaks. Plugging the carb back into the motorcycle and reconnecting all the bits, I turned on the fuel valve from the remote tank and gas poured out the carb. It was like there was no needle at all.

The seat didn’t look too bad to me but I could not get the thing to stop leaking.

Third time: I pulled the carb and put the old float and needle back into the carb, maybe the aftermarket stuff is junk, right? I re-installed the carb. No leaks. Good. Started the engine. Bike ran rich and the longer it ran the richer it got. Lots of backfiring and flames. Fuel started running out the carb.

At this point I gave up and ordered a new carb from Amazon. It was on sale for $38. I pulled the carb again and it sat on the bench for two days. You have to understand, there is no simpler carb than the one on this Buell. Despite appearances my pride can be hurt. If I can’t fix the Buell carb, then I can’t fix any carb. I decided to take one last shot.

For some reason, the float bowl o-ring enlarged from my ham-fisted ministrations. Stuffing the ring into the bowl groove became a Sisyphean task: push one side in and the other side popped out. I didn’t want to wait for an internet gasket, so I drove down to our friendly neighborhood Harley shop, Liberty Cycles on Highway 70.

Liberty is a real old school Harley shop. Independent, scruffy, populated by guys that might beat you up for mistaking the year Panheads were first manufactured. 99% of the bikes in the shop were big twins. Sportster riders are suspect. I asked Father Time, a grizzled, white-bearded mechanic for a bowl of-ring.

Father Time dug around in various drawers and came up with the o-ring, handed it to me and said “Just take it.” Maybe these guys aren’t so scary.

Harley needle-seat burnishing tool. A center punch on a Ryobi cordless.

On the bench, the needle seat looked okay to me but I wanted a more polished look. Using a center punch on a drill motor I burnished the seat to make it smoother. Back go all the pieces after checking float level. No leaks. Start the bike and it runs good for a few moments then starts loading up on fuel again. It’s maddening but at least fuel is not leaking out of the carb. Progress.

After a steel-to-brass burnishing session the seat looked smoother. Most importantly the carb stopped flooding.

The enrichener plunger was dingy but not terribly dingy. It was enough to cause problems.

After cleaning the plunger sealed off the enrichener circuit, greatly reducing black smoke.

Fourth time pulling the carb. I removed the enrichment plunger; it looked a little dingy. Maybe the plunger is not seating? I used 800-grit wet-or-dry sandpaper to remove any deposits and cleaned the enrichener bore. Reassembled again and installed on the Buell. Bike starts up and runs well for a few minutes. Install the air cleaner, fire up the bike and after a minute or so the bike starts running rich, black smoke pours out the muffler.

Arrow points to the float bowl vent. This is the only vent as there is no bowl overflow tube.

Fifth time pulling the carb, thank goodness it’s easy to do on the Buell. I examine everything. My repair manual shows a float bowl overflow tube in the bowl. My float bowl has no overflow hose. My bowl has no tube. This is why fuel runs out of the carb throat when it floods. A normal carb would piss the fuel into the ground. Which got me thinking: How does the float chamber vent to atmospheric pressure?

The air cleaner back plate blocked the bowl vent. I didn’t grasp this until much later in the process.

Facing the intake side of the carb there is a hole at the 10-o’clock position. This is how the float chamber vents and this is the hole that is covered up when the air cleaner is installed. It sounds easy and logical reading this now, but it took hours of confused staring at the Buell to figure out what was happening.

Drilling a vent hole in the air cleaner back plate allows for atmospheric pressure in the float bowl.

I drilled a hole in the air cleaner where the vent exits the carb. Reassembled the entire mess yet again and started the bike. It ran better but was missing on one cylinder. With a single carb if you have one cylinder missing it pretty much has to be ignition, so I removed the spark plugs. They were covered in fluffy black soot. Chunks of soot nearly bridged the electrode gap on the front cylinder sparkplug.

A quick session with a wire wheel and douching the plugs with carb cleaner had them looking like new. I reinstalled the plugs and the bike started up easily, ran smooth, both cylinders ticking off nicely. It idled well, as well as any Harley idles. Maybe I have finally fixed the thing.

To recap, the carb had three issues:

1. 1. The first was the needle seat. It must have had some microscopic flaws that prevented the rubber needle tip from sealing. The leaking needle caused a rich condition.
  2. The next issue was the enrichener plunger. It was not seating completely. This allowed extra fuel into the intake, causing a rich condition.
  3. The final issue, extra confusing because sometimes I had the air cleaner installed and sometimes I had it removed, was the blocked float bowl vent. Without a vent to atmospheric pressure the float chamber is under a vacuum. I’m not sure but I think the bike runs rich as extra fuel is sucked in. The vent on the fuel tank becomes the atmospheric pressure inlet.

The Buell seems to be running fine now but after pulling the carb so many times, I’m a bit gun shy. I’ll call it fixed with reservations.

I haven’t received the Amazon carb yet but if the thing has a bowl overflow and the parts interchange I’ll be swapping the bowl. The Buell leans left on the kickstand, the carb towards the (downhill) intake manifold. Without a float bowl overflow, a sticking needle could run gas into the engine. Not good.

A smarter man could have figured out the Buell carb in less steps. He would have analyzed the symptoms and made a logical plan to address them. I am not that man. I threw everything at that damn carburetor until something stuck. I had to grind through obvious processes until the correct answers were all the answers that remained.

In the trades we call this Buell Hand. It comes from adjusting the idle mixture screw between the hot exhaust headers.

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Buell Fever Part 4: I’ve Struck Oil!

By Joe Gresh

Part of the reason I bought a Buell was because my life has become too predictable. Except for the Husqvarna, you stand a good chance of getting where you’re going on my old bikes. And the Buell is not disappointing. Lots of fun stuff is happening as I work on getting the bike back on the road.

It’s such a joy to tinker on a single-carb motorcycle. There are no racks and synchronizing to deal with, you only have to do a thing once instead of four times, but watch out for those aftermarket parts. The kit I bought was okay, but the emulsion tube was not drilled properly. And then I managed to pinch the bowl o-ring. It was cheaper to buy another kit than a single bowl gasket, so I did that. Unfortunately, that kit’s bowl o-ring was too small. No matter how I stretched it, it kept popping out of the bowl groove. I ended up reinstalling the pinched o-ring. It was a futile effort to keep my mechanical standards up.

It wouldn’t be a Harley without baling wire. The choke tube is plastic and was fragile after all these years. The choke knob was falling out of its slot. I broke the tube finger tightening the thing. Wire to the rescue!

The accelerator pump plumbing was clogged. I fished a small bit of wire through the passage to clear it.

The carb kit emulsion tube (right side) was not drilled correctly. I try to use all the old stuff if possible. So this was no great loss.

This brass nozzle sprays fuel from the accelerator pump. Supposedly the tube is removable for cleaning but it seems well stuck and I started to chew it up a bit so I stopped.

I’m a big fan of lithium batteries, so I bought a Vevor brand close in size to the original lead-acid battery. The Vevor was a bit small and the factory battery location is not far from the rear cylinder exhaust header. To help with the heat I wrapped the sides and front with foam, then wrapped gorilla tape around the mess to hold the foam insulation.

It looks a little rough but an insulated battery is a happy battery.

A neat feature on the Vevor is the dual posts (four total). There are positive and negative posts on both sides of the battery; if your cables are in the wrong place, just flip the battery around. I added a spacer on the hook side of the battery strap to keep it tight and a small tube spacer in the bolt side (less threading to do on the hold down bolt), which makes installation 12 seconds faster. When you ride a Buell every second counts. The battery seems secure; hopefully, it will stay put. With the Vevor battery (supposedly 400 cranking amps) in place and the carb back on, I needed to hear the Buell run. The oil tank level was between the high and low marks. The oil looked clean, like it had just been changed.

I removed the spark plugs, put the coke machine key in the ignition, and spun the engine over to clear any excess oil from my previous cylinder lubing. With the sparkplugs back in the cylinder heads I pulled the choke, hit the right turn indicator button, and nothing happened.

Harley handlebar switches are so weird. Pushing the starter button on the inside of the blinker switch worked better, and the Buell fired up in a couple revolutions. The engine popped and farted a few times. Lots of smoke came out the tail pipe but all things considered, it was running good. Then came a loud pop followed by a geyser of oil spewing from the oil tank. The oil broadcast in a 15-foot fan covering the general area with great dollops of thick oil. The spots were viscous, so they stood proud of my clean concrete floor. Except for the spot I was standing. I received a blast of spraying oil that covered my sweater and left a clean, Joe-shaped silhouette on the concrete floor.

My nice, clean floor got its first baptism-by-Harley.

My sweater took the brunt of the oil explosion.

What a mess. How long the Buell had been sitting was unknown, but the oil tank must have slowly drained into the crankcase. Some helpful person topped off the tank with fresh oil and I squirted the stuff all over the place. I drained the tank. There must have been a gallon in there if you include the oil on the ground. Once the oil level was correct, I fired the Buell and it settled down to the hit and miss syncopation Harley likes to call idle.

Back to other issues. I didn’t like the way the muffler was held into the bike. The setup relied on the front clamp combined with two rear brackets that bolted up in a parallelogram-like deal. The only thing that held the muffler in place was fastener tension. To achieve a more secure mounting I made a thicker bracket out of mild steel and welded it to the Muffler. Now in order for the muffler to slide back my crappy weld would have to break. Which it just might.

Since I don’t have the equipment to weld stainless steel I made a mild steel bracket for the muffler.

The bracket welded to the muffler. Now the muffler can’t work loose and rub the tire.

The rear brake on the Buell was stuck. There were several issues contributing to this problem. The first was the brake pedal. It was bent where the master cylinder pushrod attached in a way that made the rod move dramatically sideways when the brake was applied. I used Harley tool 0-U812 (a big crescent wrench) to adjust the brake pedal. Now the push rod moved in a straight line concentric with the master cylinder.

This replacement rear brake assembly was close but off in meaningful ways. The seller refunded my money and didn’t want me to ship it back.

This part of the brake left was bent causing the master cylinder pushrod to go off course.

It’s still a little bent but the pushrod articulates correctly now.

The clone master/slave kit I bought on Amazon that was supposed to fit was just off enough to be completely useless, so I decided to rebuild the original stuff.

All the original brake parts cleaned up well. So far no leaks.

The piston inside the master cylinder was stuck but a few raps with a hammer had the piston moving and I dismantled the master/slave. I was having trouble finding seals for the Brembo components, so I cleaned everything and reassembled the brakes.

Bleeding the brakes wasn’t going well. I could get pressure at the banjo bolt on the master cylinder but nothing at the slave. Shooting brake cleaner into the brake line did nothing. The hose was clogged. Out came the battery to access a hose clamp bolt, and I removed the brake line. Removing the brake light switch gave me a mid-point spot to shoot cleaner. The metal brake line was clear, the clog was in the rubber line. I soaked the line in an ultrasonic parts cleaner then worked a 0.30 flux core welding wire through the rubber line. It took a bit of finagling but the wire made it through. Then it was just a matter of soaking with brake cleaner and shuttling the 0.30 wire back and forth until the line was clear. Blowing the lines with compressed air got rid of any stragglers inside the hose. A quick reassembly and I had pressure to the slave. Bleeding the system was a straightforward proposition. The rear brake works.

Next on the list is fixing the kickstand and broken clutch lever.

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Coming Your Way…

By Joe Berk

Boy oh boy, do we have cool stuff coming up on the ExNotes blog! Here are just a few of the things coming your way…

The Rough Rider Knife and Custom Holster

Wow, a super cool Rough Rider large folding knife, so big it actually makes a Buck 110 look small, along with something that makes it even better: A custom-made holster, stitched together by good buddy Paulie B! It’s the one you see at the top of this blog, and it sure is sweet!

More Buell

Joe Gresh is going great guns with his new Buell. I am so jealous. You can expect more on Joe’s bringing the Buell up to Tinfiny moto standards, and maybe even get a chance to listen to the awesome potato potato potato aural splendor that is the essence of all things Harley.

Good times and good stories coming up on this one, boys and girls, including more on the Iconic Motorbikes auction process. Gresh greatness inbound, folks!

Good Morning, Vietnam!

We are digging Mike Huber’s Tales of the Open Road from Vietnam, and his stories have spiked a significant uptick in donations to the ExNotes site. Being the inveterate veteran that he is, there’s more TOTOR (Tales of The Open Road) revelry from Mike in work.

After Vietnam, it’s going to be Japan TOTOR, and then Colombia. I’ve been to both spots, and like you, I’m looking forward to Mike’s keyboard kraziness. Bring it on!

An Update on the How To Series

I’m doing a lot of How To articles for my favorite moto mag (one that should be yours, too), and that, of course, is Motorcycle Classics. I’m back in the saddle as you read this headed toward Indio and Cycle Garden, home to all that is classic Guzzi.

In addition to the Guzzi goodness, good buddy and ace tech Steve roasts his own coffee beans, and I am already jonesing for that first cup of Joe. The How To articles are running in Motorcycle Classics magazine, and if you don’t have a subscription to Motorcycle Classics…well, you should. Stay tuned!

Dirty Harry Rides On!

We haven’t forgotten our gun stuff. Want to read about a great .44 Magnum load in a superior sixgun? It’s on the way, my friends.

This is good stuff. So much so that Baja John and yours truly are talking about using the .44 Mag sixguns on our next Arizona pig soiree! Sooey! Clint Eastwood, eat your heart out!

Pizza Pizza Pizza!

It’s no secret…I like to cook. We’ve done a few recipes here on ExNotes before, and we’re going to be adding a lot more. If you can cook, oh, how can I say this? I learned from good buddy Texas John that the easiest way to meet beautiful women was to invite them over for a home-cooked meal. I’m an old married guy now, but prior to that, I put John’s advice to good use!

That’s a story for another blog, and I’ll get to it, but in the meantime, I’ll share my favorite pizza recipe with you in a near term blog. And yeah, that pizza above was as good as it looks!

Stay tuned, folks, keep clicking on those pop-up ads, and work that Donate button you see here and at the bottom of every blog. It’s what keeps us going!

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Buell Fever Part 1: Give Me More Cowbell!

By Joe Gresh

As my age keeps creeping up and I slowly fall apart like Jeff Goldblum in the movie, The Fly, there is an urgency, a panic lying just below my normally placid exterior. Time is running short for all of us and if you have unfulfilled dreams, it’s best to get a move on.

The ill -fated VR1000, inspiration for my Buell’s paint.

Owning a tube frame Buell has been on my wish list since the S2 model came out in the mid 90’s. The combination of modern sport bike and 1957 lawnmower engine had a strange appeal to me and let’s face it: everyone should own a Sportster.

The dawn of 2026 found me frantically searching the internet for a 2000+ Buell Cyclone and I found a few. Several were pretty beat up all were reasonably priced but far away.

The deal I missed due to my inherent thriftiness.

I happened upon Iconic Motorbike Auctions and they had a pile of Buells from a private collection. The crown jewel was a Cyclone with only 6 total miles. It was a brand new, 25-year-old motorcycle. I bid on the bike and it made reserve at $4,000. What a deal! $4K was out of my self-imposed Buell budget so I stopped bidding. Someone got a hell of a deal.

Next up at Iconic was a clean, Buell Ulysses complete with Buell saddle bags. It was a gas-in-frame model. I prefer a tube-framed Buell but bid on the Ulysses anyway. It sold for $3,250! I didn’t bid anymore on it because it just wasn’t the bike I wanted. Although if I got it for $2K I would have learned to love it. After that, Iconic had an S3 with saddlebags that went for over $5,000. Now I was starting to freak out. I had Buell Fever bad-like. What if I was witnessing a Buell market correction in real time?

It’s like getting two bikes in one! Orange on the right.

Iconic has a buy-it-now section for motorcycles that don’t make their auction reserve. I plundered around in buy-it-now and found a beautiful 1995 Thunderbolt with only 13,000 miles for $3,000. It has a few minor issues to sort out like any 30-year-old motorcycle but what really got to me was the Harley VR1000-tribute paint scheme . It looked cool as hell. I loved the paint job. I pushed the button.

It’s not an actual Cyclone, but it mostly is a Cyclone. The main cosmetic difference is the front forks and faring. Also the 1995 Thunderbolt used a bone-stock Sportster engine that Cycle World dynoed at 65-ish horsepower. Later Buell’s were pumped up a lot with Buell-specific heads and other parts churning out 100 horsepower.

While I wouldn’t mind another 35 horsepower, the truth is I just putt around on bikes. My go-fast days are behind me much like the strange growth I had cut out of my back a few months ago (see The Fly with Jeff Goldblum).

One advantage to the Sportster engine is that parts availability should be excellent for the remainder of my life and beyond. If I truly need more oomph there are tons of Sportster hop-up parts and 60 years of institutional knowledge on the Internet. 75 horsepower is a pipe and cams away.

But I probably won’t do anything to the Thunderbolt except ride it and look at it. I’ll be fixing the minor issues right here on ExhaustNotes so you’ll be able to follow along with this Buellishness.

Got to go. Driving out to Panorama City in California to pick up my dream bike from Iconic motorbikes.

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The Motorado Vintage Motorcycle Meet, Santa Fe, New Mexico

By Joe Gresh

We were flying low and slow, like vatos do, heading north from Mountainair, New Mexico. The Mud Chuckers, one on a Buell 1000, one on a Kawasaki Vulcan 750 and me on the 1974 Yamaha RD350. It had been a few years since the last Motorado event and we decided to ride up as a group. Covid and inertia combined to equal a 4-year gap since the last Motorado event. Last year in 2022 we held an unofficial Motorado rump-meet at the traditional location. About 15 old bikes showed up and no one drank beer because the pub was closed. There was a swap meet going on and we drew some interested lookie-loos. It was better than nothing for sure and I was prepared to go do it again this year but the real Motorado got on the pipe.

Saturday’s weather was warm and sunny and none of us felt in the mood to go very fast so we burbled along at 50 miles per hour enjoying the beautiful, two-lane New Mexico scenery. Traffic was typically light. Three cars passed us. At this stately pace the old two-cycle, twin cylinder Yamaha RD350 progressed 58 miles for each gallon of gas. That number would be a lot more impressive except the ancient, 1950’s era Sportster motor powering Mike’s Buell did 68 miles per gallon. Long stoke, four stroke, no poke, no joke.

The unofficial, official motel for Motorado 2023 was the Sunset Motel in Moriarity, New Mexico. The Sunset is laid back and low slung just like us. You don’t get breakfast at the Sunset but you do get a monster homemade muffin, which is almost the same thing. After getting settled in our rooms we rode off to get dinner at Shorty’s BBQ joint.

Shorty’s has the best BBQ brisket in Moriarity but the place is always in kind of an identity crisis. The first time I ate at Shorty’s the walls were covered with Jesus stuff, bible quotes and crosses. A few years later I stopped by and the entire restaurant was a shrine to Donald Trump. The Mud Chucker’s are about as far from liberal as you can get, but are also not too fond of The Donald so I feared the worse going in, but the décor had changed again. Now the place was Jesus-lite® without a single reference to our 45th President and a marked reduction in Christian symbolism. You get to experience Shorty’s political and spiritual evolution through the walls of his establishment and eat a great brisket sandwich to boot.

Late September in New Mexico is prime motorcycle riding season. The mornings are cool, gradually warming to hot afternoons. Elevation changes and drifting clouds create a seesawing temperature landscape. The Mud Chuckers were moving slowly on Sunday morning and I’m of that certain age where I no longer care whether I arrive anywhere at any particular time, so we managed to pull out of the motel around 11 a.m. From the Sunset, it’s a straightish shot up Highway 41, through Galisteo to Highway 285 and then north a few miles to the Motorado.

There was a good crowd at the 2023 Motorado. It looked to me as though they had not lost any attendance despite the 4-year layoff. All brands of old bikes were represented and several shops had booths selling whatever it is they sold. I hit the Motorado T-shirt booth first but they weren’t set up to take credit cards and I had a limited amount of cash on hand. Once again it was no T-shirt for me. This whole T-shirt thing is out of control.

One of my dream bikes, a Kawasaki Avenger 350. These disc valve two strokes were pretty fast back then and still fast today.

High pipes on a Norton P-11. This is pre-isolastic mounting so you get to feel every vibration the parallel twin puts out.

Every Motorado I see a bike I never knew existed. Here’s a Taurus diesel that looks a lot like Royal Enfield running gear strapped to a diesel engine.

This over restored but still beautiful Ariel Square Four was a stunner. I hung around to hear it run but got tired of waiting.

The oldest bike at the event, a 1906 Fairy opposed twin. Not sure of the horsepower but they made 2-1/2 to 8 horsepower models. I bet the 8 was a real screamer.

This bike is the great grand-daddy to the RD350. Two generations behind the RD it’s still a sweet looking bike.

After a few passes we had seen pretty much all the bikes in the show and the swap meet. The Chuckers and I took the long way home on the Turquoise Trail through Madrid, New Mexico and got back to the Sunset motel at Sunset. Moriarity rolls up the sidewalks on Sunday night and all the regular places were closed so we retreated to a 24-7 truck stop that had the worse spaghetti ever made, and then we called it a night. It’s tough eating night-spaghetti.

The morning ride from Moriarity was brisk bordering on cold and our rag-tag group made the 200-mile rode low and at our now standard slowpoke speed. I’m very happy the Motorado is back in business and barring another world-stopping pandemic I hope they stage many more years of vintage shows. As long they hold the meet I’ll be riding an old bike up to Santa Fe to check out the hardware. I’ll see you there next year. Swing by the Sunset Motel and we can ride the last 50 miles together.

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Dream Bike: Buell XB12s

Joe Gresh posted a Dream Bike blog the other day about the Buells and I think he was spot on. A confession: I’ve always wanted a Buell, too. Given the choice, I’d probably go for the XB12s like you see in the photo above. I didn’t much care for the ones at the end of the run with the Rotax engines (apparently, neither did Harley-Davidson), and I didn’t like the ones with the lower bars and the bigger (yet still small) front fairing (the lines just didn’t look right to me). But that XB12s: Wow. I think Buell nailed what a hooligan bike should look like, and Bike Looks Matter (I could start a movement under that name, I think).

Buell had versions of the XB12 with translucent body work (the fairing and the tank) in orange, red, and smoky gray, and those are muey cool, too. I particularly liked the orange one. Orange has always worked for me on a motorcycle. Orange bikes are faster, you know.

I went as far as riding out to Victorville Harley about 15 years ago to test ride a new Buell, and that’s what scotched the deal for me. I had the money and I was ready to buy. The bike was beautiful, but it was slow compared to my Speed Triple and the wheelbase was so short it felt twitchy to me. Maybe it was the steering geometry. Whatever it was, the bike just didn’t feel stable.

The handling wasn’t what killed the deal, though. It was summer when I test rode that Buell and when we were stuck in traffic along Bear Valley Road, I suddenly heard this horrific whine from beneath the seat. The noise startled me. I thought something broke, but it was the rear cylinder fan (something I didn’t even know the bike had). Evidently the Buells ran hot (as did the Big Twin Harleys) and they had a problem with rear cylinder overheating. The answer was a thermostat-activated rear cylinder fan. Nope, that was too Mickey Mouse for me, and I kept the $12,000 in my wallet that day.

But the looks! Wow, those Buell boys nailed what I thought were fine aesthetics for a motorcycle. And the Exhaust Note was perfect. Nothing sounds better than a Buell at idle. It was locomotive like: Big, powerful, industrial, all business. I liked that, too.

As a mechanical engineer, I appreciated Buell’s concepts…the oil in the swingarm, the fuel in the frame, the oversized single disk front brake, and the whole mass centralization thing. These were ideas that made sense and were ahead of their time. Maybe that’s why Buell didn’t make it. There were other reasons, but sometimes you can be too far ahead of the curve, and Buells were out there.

Gresh said he liked the earlier Buells better, and even though I’d like to someday own a later model Buell, I agree with Joe that the earlier ones were also beautiful. Buell had an earlier gray and orange color combo that I thought was especially stunning…

I think the earlier Buells didn’t have the rear cylinder cooling fan and I like that. The fact that Buells were slow compared to Triumphs doesn’t bother me these days. I think I could put up with the noisy cooling fan silliness. Or maybe I’d just ride on cooler days, or stay out of traffic. I’ve found myself poking around a lot on CycleTrader and the Facebook sales pages recently. Who knows what the future holds.

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