Love hate

[Bikerhoss]

My Buell XB12



Best handling bike I've ever owned, Huge grin factor, brilliant low down grunt, all day comfy (for me anyway), stoppie powered brakes, hassle free belt drive, great heated grips, quiet buffet free screen, lovely noise even as standard, but................

leaked fluids like an old brit, new wheel bearings every oil change, needed mods to prevent it munching gearbox & clutch, used bulbs like petrol, would have been better strapping a torch to my head at night the headlight was so bad, and finally ate it's primary drive chain tensioner and covered my boots & the rear tyre in oil..........

Glutton for punishment that I am, if I had the money to keep it as a 2nd bike, I wouldn't have sold it though, still miss it, still hate it

[Corvus]

Yamaha xz550 circa 1981 ish. No pics, why would you want one? Except to ridicule.

Bought brand new. The only love part of the equation was foolishly believing that, on paper, it would have been everything my cx500 was and more.

It was poor. Slow (slower than the cx) and bad handling, riddled with flat spots due to over complicated down draught carbs and a "trick" airbox.

I've had lots of bikes between 1975 and now, but that one is the only one I can bring to mind which I didn't like in multiple ways. I would apply the term "hate" to the engine performance and the handling. Not a lot else left! It stopped well, but on the cx500 I had before it, I didn't need the brakes that much.

Maybe two or three in that time, including the CX, I really loved/love in every way.

So in the context of the thread.
What did you love about it (Love Hate) ?

Re read, it's in there.

But post purchase, nothing much. The brakes were very good, but we didn't seem to put much emphasis on them back then and that's probably a good subject to discuss in its own right? The v twin burble was good and different to the CX.

Basically I just lost my way a bit. Should have gone for an xj550 or gpz550. Back then I could afford to sample a new offering every couple of years and had done 30k on the CX so fancied a bit of a change. Wrong choice!

I guess you're right, it's not really in the context of your thread as its mainly all on the hate side! I don't think I've ever had another machine where the word "hate" would fit. So overall I've either been lucky, wise or just plain easily pleased!