Ulysses issues

[Mito]

Hi everyone, had my Uly for about 4 months now and really enjoy it, well as much as my dodgy hips will let me. Few things that can be off putting though. She has a tendency to stand up and push to the outside of corners under brakes. It also really stuggles to soak up corrugations when cornering, just about lost it a couple of times, gets real skittery. The front brake shudders. I cant detect any run out, just feels like theres sticky and slippery parts on the disc, grips..releases..grips..releases etc. Iv'e just done a 3000k trip and she's great in that 130kph sweet spot but seems to have a few vices. Anyone had similar??. Cheers, Stu

[sprinklerdude]

My 2006 does the same thing with the front brake so I just ordered new stuff of ebay rotor and caliper and a sweet black and white buell jacket. Tired of wearing my rossi yamaha jacket on my buell.

[g3STRIKES]

suspension setup is important start with factory specs for ur weight.my xb12 has had same brake issues from get go.

[freak2180]

Never hurts to deglaze the rotor ever once in a while...... Especially if she's been used hard. I used 1000 grit wet sanding paper and elbow grease.

[sprinklerdude]

my 06 uly has about 25k on it. I ride the piss out of it. Ever sience I changed pads at 8k the damn machine has a surge on slow or shallow braking, if you brake hard its not bad. I've flipped rotor,checked for run out,finally said screw this and just ordered crap from ebay (rotor) if problem consists will order caliper. and fork seals does anyone know of good after market fork seals cause getting crap from thunderchicken H-D is 6-8 weeks out if they remember to order it

[Buellysses]

Mito;
It sounds like (aside from the brake chatter) you have some suspension setup issues.

If you are interested in lowering the bike a bit, there are kits available to drop it down a little. That may make for a better cornering experience.

[user_deleted]

stu; my 2007 Uly with 4000 miles on it had same feel on the front brake. would lightly pulse the front brake lever at very low speeds. not dangerous in any way but just annoying. the rotor and all attachment hardware was perfect but i found that the factory pads were causing the problem. i switched to EBC sintered metallic HH pads which i keep in stock here and it solved the problem. factory might have cheap chinese pads on it from new or something was only thing i could figure out. hope that helps. regards, john

[rdkingryder]

Recommend suspension setup. Sounds like it may have too much dampening or too much preload to soak up those bumpy turns. As to the braking. Clean the rotor up really well with brakleen and a scotchbrite pad. Wash down brake pads with brakleen. Slowly ride and brake, will be grabby/noisy until the pads dry up. Should be good to go.

[sprinklerdude]

Got a new rotor and sintered pads works like a dream now. do not by parts from H-D dealer they suck monkey ass EBC work well and are not expensive

[BRatigan]

Something I remember tells me that you should do most of your braking before the corner with light drag braking before the apex. If you jump on the rear brake the bike will stand up in the corner. If you apply the front brake too hard while in the corner leaned over then you risk a lowside if the wheel slides out. I try to slow the bike first, pick a good angle of lean and roll through the corner till apex and drive out.
I would try to clean the rotors first because they build up residue. Might save a buck.

BR

[Mito]

Hi Everyone, just removed both wheels on the Ully for a tyre change and found the juddering front brake problem. Disc side wheel bearing was on the way out big time. Obviously, when the brake was applied, the whole wheel was moving. Fortunately bearings are cheap and I deglazed the disc while I had the wheel out and all good up front now. If you have shuddring front brakes, might be worth a check. Cheers Stu

[user_deleted]

Disc side wheel bearing was on the way out big time. Obviously, when the brake was applied, the whole wheel was moving.

thanks for posting stu as that's very good info to have.

[g3stripes]

i too had brake issues, as per instructions from old mech friend i removed rotor and sanded with 80grit on a d.a. (dual action)sander quite agressively and as to date my problem has not returned, been bout two years. he said that rotor had spots that where metal had hardened on surface. all i know is it worked and i too did everything i cud think of. rotor metal is quite hard,i actually wore couple of pieces of sand paper out on it.

[BuellyBagger]

All the roads in my area that have descent curves are also very ruff roads (NW Missouri for the most part). I had some issues with the sketchy feel when diving it into a corner that was kinda washboarded and found that i had turned my rear shock preload up high for a passenger and never turned it back down, throwing the balance of spring rate between the front and rear off. The issue improved a good bit after changing preload, but i think the short wheelbase still makes it a lil twitchy on those rough corners.