You don't say what year or how many miles. Whatever, you could have found a rare gem........or not, but I'm sure there will be plenty of help to be found on here. Best SXs were 06/07s in my book (I have one). Just don't rev it too much or too little! (high revving harley....not a good idea! )

One plus side is that if the motor turns out to have been thrashed or otherwise abused by neglect, you could still make your money back selling off the bike in parts.

Never thought would say that a xb is a fantastic bike!

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The sound of a V-twin engine braking is music to my ears!!

Tell me more - what should I be wary of? And where might this skip full of broken buells be?

...it's mainly down to the way the engine cases differ from the Tubers.
A Tuber gearbox is a 'cassette' type and can be removed in around 30 minutes (allowing for tea-breaks).
An XB gearbox is built into the cases and thus the whole engine has to be stripped in order to access the very bearing that suffers on XBs (but ironically not on Tubers ) as a result of another design fault, namely the belt tensioner.
The cost of doing that makes the bike 'uneconomical to repair'.
HTH
Get a Tuber, infinitely repairable by comparison, and it's a proper size bike.
But welcome to you anyway!

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'98 M2 Razorback, it's a keeper.

'a proper size bike' someone said it

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Today my pet mouse Elvis died ..................He was caught in a trap
There are two types of people in this world, those that can extrapolate

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'98 M2 Razorback, it's a keeper.

proper size bike? engine size or physical size of the bike? - as many might say I'm not a proper sized human the fueller would probably suit me?

Best hope so - as I've bought an XB9SX on fleabay, I was the only bidder which is a little worrying....fingers crossed it's a goodun.

This gearbox bearing, which one is it - output shaft? I'm pretty handy with some spanners, an engine and gearbox rebuild doesn't scare me but should I look out for any signs of this bearing failure?

It has a belt tensioner thingy but I'm sure I saw some upgraded part being touted on here - do I need one of these whatever it may be.

Upgrade thingy on here may be the super strong 'Luckyhands' oil pump gear. Standard gear wears. This was upgraded by factory for 06 onwards with XBRR phosphor bronze item, but even that wears. Mine was quite worn and due for a change at 35,000, some wear much faster. It's a 5-7 hour job to change depending on how easy it all comes apart (like rusted header studs, nuts, and retainer clips). It's also a good excuse to inspect other key components. If you do it, correct bleed down of hydraulic cam lifters is critical or you will bend the valves. My oil pump gear was changed by MAZ as I do not have all the required tools and am not as confident.

...all good helpful info, edd, but (and I may be wrong) I feel reg is asking in the context of belt tension... in as much as "it has a tensioner" (the standard Buell one?) "but I'm sure I saw some upgraded part being touted" (Free Spirits?)
Reg, the standard tensioner is static, the Free Spirits one is spring loaded which gives the belt and that output shaft bearing an easier time. Most owners (on here at least) wouldn't dream of running an XB without the latter type...
Tubers don't need tensioners at all 'cos they're tough, decent and relatively cheap to repair

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'98 M2 Razorback, it's a keeper.

.......and some enterprising souls here have even made up their own designs.

Indeed!

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'98 M2 Razorback, it's a keeper.

link???

You really wouldn't want to know.

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'98 M2 Razorback, it's a keeper.

Well, insurance came back to bite me didn't it.

The original quote for through gocompare was for reg cheeseman who nearly shares my details exactly.
Thought I'd try the meerkats but with my real name to see if it got cheaper and it didn't it got about 60 quid dearer from the same insurers??
So I went back to go compare and now it returned no quotes, back to the meerkats and they no longer wanted to quote me either???

I tried phoning my old insurer to see if I could use the 15+ years no claim that I had with my last policy with them - no dice, we did a quote and they came back with £2500!!!!

I phoned Bennetts direct and they now wanted £270 but said the same deal through comparison sites would be cheaper? eh??

All was not lost. I tried thebikeinsurer.co.uk - who promised to be the cheapest.

Well they came back with £117, fully comp, 0 no claims discount and £500 excess which I dropped to £250 with no increase in premium.

So I've gone with Hastings insurance via thebikeinsurer.co.uk

All I need now is some tax....