You are kidding of course?

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Life is short - drink the good wine first

So, a conjecture for you or anyone else. What if someone produced a bike with similar quality levels to your very lickable Ducati (ask Small #2, who still raves about it!) was available at, say, £7k-£8k but with "only" 100 ponies at the tyre and with a focus on rideable shitz'n'giggles rather than hyper-sports abilities?

I think that KTM and Aprilia produce bikes similar to that at the moment, with the Super Duke and SM / SM-T, maybe the Tuono etc, but none of them is quite the S1 / X1 in terms of looks or basic feel.

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Good in straight lines
2001 X1 "The Tart's Handbag"
2001 FZS1000 "The Fridge"

ah, like the hideously named Streetfighter? ...no, too powerful.....as are the others you mention.....a Monster is closest I suspect....... you're right of course, the Tubers have a certain something that makes me want to keep one, although I rarely ride it anymore... May chop it in for an XJR....again I's nice to have an engine that has a powerband wider than 3 or 4k rpm....

Pat the delightful small 2 on the head from me, a girl of impeccable taste....sure she doesn't resemble your old milkman?

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Life is short - drink the good wine first

Serious question, like to keep my options open.
But at the same asking price as a restored Black Shadow, it'll have to wait for a slot in the Digger stable.

Hmm! Been here before, I would ride my XB 300 miles without a second thought, but.....think mine could have been made by Aprilia, it still feels great at 17200 miles Maybe I've just been lucky so far, or I half knew what I was getting into and take more care than I would with another machine .

I see a few more XB's at the bike meets now and the owners seem blissfully unaware of the pitfalls, so maybe some of us are psychokinetically giving our bikes
an inferiority complex.

Whatever, when I started mine up to go there was a crowd gathering to watch and there is usually someone interested enough to ask questions. Don't get that with most other bikes.

....and that's another thing, endless nosey stickybeaks being impertinently forward.....

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Life is short - drink the good wine first

that doesn't bother me at all. i get a lot of interest and questions about my xb from people who would never look at a bike. you never know, it could end up with them possibly riding, rather than looking.

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My Smugmug Photos

hi as a newcomer to buell an 07/57 XB12X i bought it because i liked the look of it
as a bmw user untill now in the 3 weeks ive had it i love it even more using it every day communting to work .rain and shine please dont speak all these negative vibes about my new bike

Are you related to JBR, or just go to the same clinic?

I think there's three of them Spook.

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In a purple fug

I care what the brand says. And so does just about everybody, whether they admit it or not - that's precisely why branding and marketing are such mega-industries. But my post was about a sod of a lot more than branding. Maybe you missed that...at round about the same time you missed me stating that I'm well aware Buell is part of the HD mega-empire. But Buells don't feel - to me at least - corporate and faceless and soulless. They feel quirky and slightly mad and different to the norm (not Norm the Fridge and handbag owner - norm the boring).

And bad advice, btw. I'd hate to ride a bike I just "like". I like plenty of bikes from plenty of manufacturers. I prefer to ride a bike I absolutely love.

hear hear

My experience of Buell has been very similar to Lucky...... In over 6K miles I've had nothing go wrong.

I usually change my bikes every 18 months or so.....and sure enough earlier this year I had hankerings to change.... I didn't want another jap bike.... I've done those to death since 1978, so I decided to have a look at some of the italian stuff. I didn't particularly want a Ducati because they had nothing in their range that suited my needs. So.... I looked at Guzzi and Benelli.

Owing to the fact my hands go dead if I have too much weight on them I always go for the "sit up" style of bike. In this case the Stelvio and Tre-K. I really really wanted to like the Benelli..... It has a decent amount of poke, and the styling/sound is good too. So... I rode off to the local italian bike centre and had a ride on both.
To say I was disappointed is an understatement...... The Benelli was ok.... bit raucous, and rough around the edges but I think ultimately good fun. Where it lost out was in the accommodation(not good for 2).

The Guzzi.......Well that unfortunately was a barge....No other way of describing it...

So...... I got back on the Uly and immediately felt "at home"...... The truth is, for the kind of riding I do, there is nothing out there "with character" that does it better for me. It sounds right....it feels right, it has been utterly reliable in over 2 years of ownership, and I simply cannot remember having a bike that made me feel so good.

And that's it for me.........