The Lightning XB9S has the personality of Buell's
original streetfighter, the legendary Lightning S1, infused with new Buell
technology that customers want. This new streetfighter touts many of the same
industry-leading features first introduced on the Firebolt XB9R, including
fuel-in-the-frame, oil-in-the-swingarm and a Zero Torsional Load front brake.
Additionally, the Lightning rests on the same telepathic chassis geometry - the
compact 52-inch wheelbase features a steep 21-degree rake with 52 percent of the
bike's weight balanced on the front wheel. These traits, combined with the
all-aluminum, lightweight and extremely rigid chassis, gives the XB9S
exceptional agility, flickability and intuitive handling.
Key characteristics of the Lightning ® XB9S
motorcycle
-Minimalist tail section, dirt track style bars
and riding position, and bare essentials dash/bikini fairing combine for a more
upright, in-control riding position
-Dynamic Digital Fuel Injected 984cc, 45-degree V-Twin force cooled engine
delivers serious torque
-Telepathic chassis geometry - 52-inch wheelbase, 21-degree head angle, and
52-percent front weigh distribution means this motorcycle is all about
exceptional agility and sport-muscle performance
-The Lightning features extremely light wheels of an all-new design concept
-Frame as fuel tank - keeps the weight lower on the bike for improved handling
-Swingarm as oil reservoir - allows for tight packaging and lower center of
gravity
-Zero Tortional Load front brake - significantly reduces unsprung weight with
incredible braking power; braking forces are transferred by the optimum path to
the rim
-All-new, lightweight, multifunctional aluminum frame - its massive size and
super rigid quality make for a tight ride, great responsiveness and flickability
-Mass centralized muffler - the weight of the exhaust system remains as low and
near the center of the bike as possible, resulting in intuitive responsiveness
and handling
-As with other Buell motorcycles, the XB9S builds on Buell's founding principles
of mass centralization, rigid frame, and low unsprung weight.
ELECTRIC
Charging System 540-watt trident three phase AC alternator
Battery 12 volts, 12 amp-hour
Headlight 55/55 watts
Taillight 5/21 watts
Turn Signals Manual canceling
Review
Torrance, California,
October 25, 2002 -- You know what bike this bike
reminds me of? It reminds me of a KTM Duke, but with a bunch more power, a KTM
Duke you don't need a crane to mount. I thought I'd be able to write that "only
the KTM is as stubby and small as the Buell," but my spec charts inform me that
the Duke is in fact five inches longer of wheelbase than the 52-inch Buell. Come
to think of it, the Lightning is closer specwise to my beloved little Yamaha
TT-R125L--which has a 50-inch wheelbase and also a higher seat than the Buell.
When the TT-R collapses under my (m)ass, though, it and the Buell have nearly
the same ergoes. The Buell does weigh substantially more--at 420 pounds all
gassed up--but carries it so well you barely notice. (Pretty cool how Buell was
able to use that big old engine and still wind up with a
package smaller, and just as light as all the
Japanses 600s, huh?)
In the do-chicks-dig-it test, Vanessa the
Receptionist prefers the looks of a Yamaha YZF600R over the Buell, which proves
it's a stupid test and that Orange County women do have an innate anti-Harley
bias.
My 8-year-old sprog, though, likes the Buell.
"These Buells look like the motorcycles of the future," he says. Yeah yeah, I
can already see the lips quivering out there: But it only makes 80
horsepooooower.
Well a KTM Duke makes less than 50, and it's
another favorite motorcycle. (Difference being, the KTM is a drag on the freeway
if you have to go somewhere more than 20 miles away, and the Buell's a sweet
cruiser indeed.) Right, any Japanese 600 or liter-bike will bore any bike with
80 horsepower a fresh rectum any time speeds become elevated, but in most street
situations I must ask you yet again: How many times do speeds become "elevated"
above 100 mph or so? This, friends, is the key to Buell performance. Those
screaming four cylinder sportybikes will disappear into the distance above
100--but the XB9 packs all its performance below 120 mph or so--and down there I
for one am of the opinion it will hang with anything. A GSX-R 600 out-torques
the other 600s with 46.5 foot-pounds at 10,5000 rpm. Well, Mr. Buell's already
past 46.5 at 3000 rpm, and goes on to pump out 65 foot-pounds at 5500 rpm. The
Buell produces 80 percent of peak torque all the way from 3200 rpm `til lights
out at 7500--the GSX-R from 6500 rpm until 13,000-whatever.
Meanwhile, the Buell pilot simply leaves it in
top cog and twists the grip. The difference is sort of like between driving a
hot rod with a built small-block or a finicky Ferrari. There's a place in the
world for both, of course. The place for most of us MO-ites being the U.S. of A.
though, I would contend that the former has the kind of power you can enjoy much
more often, not to mention the cacophonic soundtrack.
Running ever-so-smoothly at 4500 rpm and 80 mph,
the Buell is in the heart of its powerband, and top gear is good for anything
from between 40 and a hundred-however-many mph the twin can stir up. The big
silver gas tank, has a pass through for the air intake in the left frame spar.
The airbox connects to this and fills the gap between the spars, where the fuel
tank would normally be. Chassiswise, though, the Buell turns the tables by
having the sort of nimble reactions you'd expect from the exotic sports car
instead of the solid-axle Nova. With its stubby wheelbase, steep rake and very
short trail figures, you might expect a certain skittishness, but nothing could
be further from the truth. At 90 mph over the very freeway slabs that make our
much heavier and longer ZRX1200 Kawasaki feel a bit, ahem, nervous, the
little Lightning remains completely unflappable. It is the world's fastest
Schwinn Stingray. Credit must go to that stiff frame and to some highly
competent suspension calibration. The ride over sharp pavement is not Gold Wing
or even Ohlins plush--but it really is a reasonable facsimile when the
compression adjusters are backed out a tad. A suprisingly comfortable deep-dish
saddle and a handlebar which falls naturally to paw make it a bike you could
ride all day. As a matter of fact, our main complaint with the XB9R was its low,
narrow clip-on bars and highish footpegs. The "S" is the bike we wanted all
along, and our sources tell us there was quite a bit of discussion as to which
Buell should've been introduced first. Should've called me and asked.
The ergoes, it seems, were primarily repsonsible
for the confusing handling signals picked up by our own Minime and various print
magazine journalists who thought the XB9R was just too heavy-steering for a bike
its size. No more. Now, the tighter the road, the bigger the XB9S' advantage
over just about anything else trying to keep up with it. Now there's enough
handlebar leverage, and enough less weight on the riders' hands, to allow
flinging the Lightning into corners like yesterday's boxer shorts. And if
there's still a slight tendency to stand up on the brakes--which there is since
"S" and "R" share all chassis dimensions--the wide bar makes it easy to ignore.
Better yet, think of the tendency to stand up as
"feedback" worth paying attention to. Whatever, Don Canet of Cycle World, the
fleetest motojournalist of all by a margin, found the XB9R to be a mere tick
back from the winning Honda F4i in a multibike handling test in that magazine a
few months ago--and the S should run rings around the R on any public road.
Alas, what fun would life be if things were perfect? The gearbox and clutch,
while light-years ahead of the run-of-mill Sportster, remain a few orders or
magnitude behind the best Japanese cog-swap mechanisms. Clutch pull is heavyish
and long-throw, and you need to use it for nearly every shift--not to process
the actual shift, but because the zero-lash drive belt's ahh, zero lash, gives
no cushioning at all like you get from a chain with an inch or two of slack.
All I (an admittedly huge fan of these new
Buells) can say is; you get used to the way these things shift, and the beauty
is you don't have to shift them much. In sporting use they're really not bad at
all; when you're deliberate, the box is good. It's around town--stop and go and
in traffic--when your mind is on other things, that the 2-3 shift hangs fire
about half the time--but I think ours is getting better as the miles break it
in. Wait, here's another bummer: That beautiful gas tank of a frame only holds
3.7 U.S. Gallons. Our R always got around 45 mpg; the S is lucky to get 40, and
the low fuel light is on at around 120 miles (whereupon the LCD tripmeter
automatically begins displaying miles-travelled-on-reserve). Gearing is the
same. Maybe your big head poking up higher produces more drag? Maybe the S just
encourages us to twist the throttle harder? In the end, I just like the Buell's
attitude, its sunny disposition. It managed to pry me off my Kawasaki ZRX--a
thing not managed by a Ducati S4 Monster, a Honda 919 or a Yamaha FZ-1 that were
also taking up space in the MO cave--even though all those bikes make more
power.
"Its tiny size and
anti-peaky power delivery encourage you to wheelie, ride on peoples' lawns, take
kids for rides `round the block even if they don't want to go, and honk the horn
at teenage girls in Britney-wear..."
My approach to the mighty ZRX, in particular, is
a respectful one. With its size, power, lack of handling refinement (and its
tone of voice, with the Muzzy pipe), it's obvious to most sentient beings that
here is a speed tool that wouldn't even shed crocodile tears if it killed or
maimed you. The Buell is the complete opposite. It's a dachshund puppy with a
wagging tail not a Rottweiler. Its tiny size and anti-peaky power delivery
encourage you to wheelie, ride on peoples' lawns, take kids for rides `round the
block even if they don't want to go, honk the horn at teenage girls in
Britney-wear--and if I weren't too lazy to round up tires I'd really like to
take it to Maely's Ranch for a little dirt-oval action (especially since
somebody at Buell mentioned "street-legal dirt-tracker." ) I think it would work
pretty well, and if it didn't, well ahhh, you guys were the ones who brought it
up...
Certain people must always spoil the mood by
pointing out things like, for $10,000 you could have an R1--and which would you
rather have if you were a one-bike family? Tough call. For me, a man with an
intimate fastrackriders.com relationship which allows me more than my fair share
of track days, I would need the R1. However, if I were John Public and track
days were few and far between, and if I lived in a climate with hot summers
especially--then I could see myself becoming a Buell man. Lately it seems there
are a lot of multi-bike owners out there. If you already have some sort of
serious sportbike, this Lightning is the perfect stable pony.
My only regret is that the Advertising Department
informs me we have a new Buell campaign running here at MO, and so many of you
won't believe me when I tell you how really good this little bike is. Your loss.
Cynicism does not always pay.
I admit I was quite skeptical before riding the
new Buell XB-9S. As it turns out, in many regards, that skepticism was totally
off base. It was well-founded in others. There is no problem with the engine. A
rocketship it ain't, a slug it ain't. The XB-9 does possses the vibes that
tickle your netherbits in that Harley way, but it also possesses the lungs to
happily rev smack into the rev limiter just north of 7,500-RPM. It delivers
healthy torque and easy wheelies in a linear rush that (VFR riders, may I borrow
your cliche?) feels like an electric motor. Other than the lack of a choke knob
and the whine of the fuel pump, you'd never know the bike was fuel injected. It
doesn't hitch, jerk or surge. The handlebar bend is perfect. The throttle feels
like it rotates on precision ball bearings and the grips are nice and fat with
just the right firmness.
For such a compact package, the seat and overall
riding position are excellent. Niggles and gripes? The clutch feels like you are
compressing a garage door spring, using a rusty cable connected to a lever
clamped in an over tightened pivot made from the same pot-metal as a Dnepr
Nepal. The clutch problem is amplified by a gearbox that dislikes clutchless
shifting. Furthermore, this bike possesses a touch of schizophrenia. It has that
big American-looking air-cooled V-twin, but it is topped by thst very plasticky
faux gas tank with glitzy raised chrome Buell appliques that looks for all the
world like one o' dem plastic fantastic rice burner thingys.
Then there is the cruiseresque, antique
sterling-silver tea steeper between the subframe rails behind the seat. When
parked at the curb in its yellow paint scheme, the 9S can resemble the cutesie
Blast, those of you who weren't comfortable wearing pink Polo shirts in the 80s
may have
a problem with that.
"It's fun around
town, fun on the freeway and fun in the canyons."
As a general purpose motorcycle, the Buell is
hard to fault. It's fun around town, fun on the freeway and fun in the canyons.
Riding the 9S in traffic is an absolute joy. With its delightful midrange and
high leverage bars, it makes rush hour feel like asphalt surfing. If it wasn't
for the clutch it would be the ultimate commuter. IMHO, the front end feels a
little vague, for a banzai canyon blaster or track weapon. The front brake is
slightly grabby, yet not incredibly powerful. Reapplication of front brake after
turn in, causes a noticeable hitch in the front suspension, which saps
confidence in those close-quarter streetfighter wars. I never got used to this
in my limited test time, but if I lived with the bike on a daily basis (Not an
unpleasant prospect at all) I would most likely be able to dial out the traits I
didn't like, or learn to ride around them more effectively. Bottom line? It's
fun with its own unique character. I like it, warts and all.
--Sean Alexander
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