Tutorials and Stories about working on the SportTwins.
One of the ideas of the NCCR SportTwins.com pages is collecting the knowledge and passing it over to others who enjoy to work on these bikes. We started in 2020 to produce NCCR tutorial videos about standard maintenance work like Buell XB fork seal replacement.
Working on your own bike starts with the magic word RTFM! (Read the f###### Manual), yes take it seriously, in the days of internet access for anyone, it’s easy to get the workshop manual, pages like Buellmods.com have them for download or you buy it in paper. So no excuses and because of that we don’t help you with things you easily find in the manuals, if you are just too lazy to read it up. That way we have more time to help others with qualified support about problems not written somewhere. Please accept that.
You find Buell factory Workshop Manuals for all bikes from the 1995 S2 to the 2010 1125 R and CR. From 2008 on, there is also an extra electronic diagnostic manual.
It’s getting harder from year to year to find mechanics who are motivated to work on the Buell motorcycles. A carbureted Tubeframer S1, M2, S3 is in many, at least engine details, not too different from a H-D Sportster and some H-D mechanics are willing to work on them. But with the fuel injected X1, the owner is often left alone without any professional support. Internet groups give some advice, but it is often hard for the bike owner to understand which statements to trust. With the EBR 1190 RS and RX/SX models from 2010 until today, the situation is a bit different.
Erik Buell Racing decided to produce a series of 243 tutorial videos, going from removal of the belly pan to engine rebuilding. We have them here listed and equipped with a search function to make it easier to find what you need.
In general we recommend always having the Buell 1125 workshop manual aside when you work on the EBR 1190. Understand that in case of any doubt, it’s always the factory video and the torque specifications shown in the 1190 parts books. But please use your brain, we see a tendency in the last years that DIY mechanics blindly follow the books or what they read up in the internet – even if it’s written somewhere, it doesn’t have to be right. We have linked the part EBR books, there you find at each component the factory recommended torque specifications.
There are 2 different PDF books, one for the EBR 1190 chassis and another for the powertrain. For all Buell models, there are part books available as print and on the source mentioned above also as PDF. For the Buell models, you find the torque specifications in the workshop manuals. We linked on the page also the EBR 1190 owners manual, as it also exist only digital as PDF file.
Another thing we like to cover on the NCCR Garage pages are tips and stories about repairing, building, customizing and racing the SportTwins. This will be the place we like to share some knowledge of the last 3 decades including the trial and error, the learning, the defeats and the victories. If you don’t try, you already gave up. If you are willing to learn, you can do it. Read, learn, question, and understand. Take the things systematically and it will turn out alright.