WTB:Ducati Monster or Buell Lightning

[alteregopo]

All,

I am looking for an used Monster (2002 oe newer) or Lightning.
My budget is about $4000.

[motorider]

my brother has a 96 buell s1 really nice might be in your price range if interested let me know

[2DWN&ON1]

Well man i will tell you this much for the duc. I had an 01 Monster. Was a pain to keep up. The buell is less to keep up so just thought you may wanna know. Later

[alteregopo]

Well man i will tell you this much for the duc. I had an 01 Monster. Was a pain to keep up. The buell is less to keep up so just thought you may wanna know. Later

as maintenance wise?

[eeeeek]

Well man i will tell you this much for the duc. I had an 01 Monster. Was a pain to keep up. The buell is less to keep up so just thought you may wanna know. Later

You haven't owned a Buell, have you?

[alteregopo]

You haven't owned a Buell, have you?

you wanna elaborate on it?

is Buell worse than Ducati?

[auntiebling]

you wanna elaborate on it?

is Buell worse than Ducati?

go to the general forum

search function is your friend.

the XBs are nice if you can live with the harley motor, some love it some hate it. i had a 2000 x1 lightning and was able to live with the motor, even liked it a bit.

the people currently selling the tube framed buells are asking too much for them IMO. KBB, nada etc etc overvalue them, i suspect it's because they are niche bikes thus the audience is small. yeah, someone might pay 5k for an x1 lightning, but there has been a 2003 xb9r on craigslist for a month or two at least that isn't selling and it's only 1k more.. they are not collectible as some would have you believe, they are reasonably reliable in spite of what the naysayers claim, but they Are Not as good as the XB series bikes (fuel in the frame, oil in the swing arm)

if you want a buell, and aren't comfortable doing your own mechanic duties, stick to the 'newer' buells the XB series (?2002? or so and newer)

i dont' know much about monsters....

[eeeeek]

you wanna elaborate on it?

is Buell worse than Ducati?

It's a long winded answer, so I'll try give you the cliff notes.

Buells had several generations of bikes. Some did better than others.

Pre - '99 bikes followed a different, more small company philosophy. If yuo want info on them, hit Google. The '98 S1W was, imo, the pinicle of this era (excluding the Battlewin bikes, but there were very limited in numbers and are more museum pieces than anything else now).

In '99, Buell introduced their closed loop fuel injection (DDFI) system on the X1 and S3. These bikes were plagued with issues, many based around the overstressed sportster engine. There was a mystical 10,000 mile barrier where things tended to go wrong. I'm not basing this off of just a couple experiences, but a large number of bikes that had problems. During this time frame (99-02), these bikes seemed to have a lot of growing pains and during the same time frame, the M2, which had a carb and different heads, was much more reliable.

'03-present uses a new motor; however, these bikes have not been problem free. They don't seem to have as many issues as the previous generation, but they seemed to be more prone to issues than say, a Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha or Kawasaki. If you want to work on one yourself, break out every tool you have. They use metri, standard, torx, allen, everything.

On paper, the Buell would be much easier to maintain than the Monster. Maintenace is less frequent and cheaper, pushrods mean that valves don't need to be adjusted and the belt doesn't need the same attention that a chain does. In real life, the Ducati support structure ends up usually winning out, though.

Buell has often been the red-headed stepchild of Harley dealers. As such, getting good support is often a challenge. The service nightmare storeis are numerous and the service departments would usually only have one or two techs qualified to work on Buells. Wait times were notoriously bad and prices were often inflated.

If you are serious about getting a duc or a Buell, check out the dealer support in your area. Many of the local Harley dealers dropped the Buell name or provide extremely limited support. My experience with Ducati has been more fruitful.

Taking a study of just two bikes is hardley conclusive, but at one point I had a Monster 800 and an X1 in my garage. Both bikes ended up with about 30,000 miles on the each. In that time, the Ducati had valve adjustments every 6,000 miles and that's about it. During the same time, the X1 had countless problems, from broken exhausts to complete engine rebuilds.

Now, I'm just one bike, you may say. During the time I owned a Buell, I had dozens, no exageration, dozens of friends with similar problems with their Buells. The thing about Buells is they are different and a little unique, so you tend to mett other Buell owners and swap stories.

Then along came the XB series. I've kept in touch with poeple who bought these bikes and have seen many similar issues (not the shock, though). It's not just one or two people.

I dig the XBs, especially the City Cross. But if you're going to buy one, make sure you do your research and keep your eyes wide open.

badweatherbikers.com has a lot of information about the bikes. It's a very pro-Buell site, almost to the evangelistic level, but there's a lot of information there.

[faz]

I would like to ask the sellers to PM the buyer (not bump this thread) with their bike info/specifics/etc..

Thanks.