2005 Buell XB9SX Review

2005 XB9SX review by:
George Ihring & Andrew berry

 

Whenever a new Buell comes to the market we hope for something new and unique. The XB9SX has phased out the XB9S, but carries on its revolutionary features seen in the previous lighting models with a few extra bits up its sleeve. There is always a mean streak in any Buell model and the new styling caters for those who need to go a notch meaner.

Marketing has it geared towards the inner-city dwellers with ‘urban warfare’ styling, good vision from the perched seat and colours that will hold back the grime picked up in the back alleys.

To add to the city-x styling, Buell have made the flyscreen and air box translucent blue, so you can see the parts behind the plastic - although in the case of the air box, there really isn’t much to see. Semi dirt-bike tyre tread holds you to the road and blackened out almost everything but the frame and translucent covers.
New to the front section of the bike is metal grill on the headlights and black hand-deflectors that gives you the impression of a motard influence.

While most of the changes are cosmetic, the new 43mm upside down fully-adjustable Showa forks are a nice improvement and if you know what you are doing, you can tweak the front or the rear to suit your riding style.

On the road we found the City cross with its heavy clutch action and somewhat lumpy bottom end to be more at home on the open curves of the country rather than the city scene. The legendary torque is still there making it forgiving about gear selection and among the best wheelie machines out there.

The brutish looks of the Buell are backed-up by the beast-like rumble of the big twin engine. Fire up the beast and it shakes with an uneven rhythm on idle, but you get going the shakes smooth out well enough until getting into the high rev range where it gets a bit buzzy.

Compared to other street fighter-styled bikes, the Buell takes a little while to get used to, you seem to be sitting on top of it rather than being a part of it. While this does give you a great view up ahead, it also feels a bit unnerving at first. To add to this, the seat even though slanted, is flat as a tack and fairly slippery. Give it a fist full and that torque brute, and you’ll be struggling to keep your butt off the tarmac.

After a while aboard though, you get a feel for the short and twitchy base of the bike and it flicks into the bends quite happily and powers out with an abundance of torque.

The 5-speed gearbox works well enough but may seem a little notchy for those used to a quick and smooth gear change of modern Jap bike. We figured a silky gearbox just wouldn’t feel right on the Buell anyway.

Once over 60kms, you can easily leave it in top gear and wind it on and off if you want to be lazy and do the entire back road section in one gear. The donk has tons of torque and is really flexible, although it does need a little practice to appreciate it fully.

The brakes have not changed from its predecessor, 6-piston, fixed calliper, 375 mm stainless steel floating rotor have always done a outstanding job and are still up to the task.

In short we have to say that this is really the same XB9s with a lot of black paint and some cross-category accessories, which for us didn’t really do it as a ‘new model’. One thing that always surprises us about the Buell is that most of the bike is flawless, high-quality stuff, and then a few mediocre bits that bring it down – like the fiddly controls, duplo-like tacho and the residue casting marks on the plastic parts. Sure, these are not the ‘important’ bits, but they certainly wouldn’t make us proud as owners. No doubt there will be plenty of down-n-dirty city dwellers that will find the styling just right, but for those who were looking for something really new – hang on to your helmets for just a while longer.

If you are a Buell nut, be sure to read the other Buell reviews as they go into more detail.

 

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