I had a chance to ride the new 1125R back in September at a Buell sponsored track day at Pocono's East Course. The bikes were pre-production models and the Buell reps asked us to fill out survey's after the ride and let them know of any issues we had with the bikes.
My initial response to the bike was that it was ugly. The radiator scoops on that thing looked hideous in pics. However, that feeling disappeared when I saw the bike in person. The scoops and nose fairing aren't nearly as huge in real life as they appear in pictures.
Now let's get down to business...
On the track this baby rolls. The exhaust sounds good, but not overly loud. Handling is typical of the Buells. Goes where you want it with little effort. Pulls like a freight train from just about any RPM and any gear. It's a total joy to ride. Very forgiving and very easy to go fast on. Nice top end on it too. A lot more so than the XB's. The slipper clutch was really nice. A lot of guys where saying how flawless it was when just clicking down a gear and dumping the clutch. As a guy who blips on the down shift it worked very well for me. The stock Pirelli's have great grip. Ergo's are pretty comfortable as well.
The best thing about this bike, and most v twins for that matter, was the torque. Buell claims something like 83 or 84 ft lbs of torque. It felt like it too. The front end gets very light between corners.
The ZTL brake on the front does an incredible job of slowing that sucker down at the end of the straight. It's easily a 1 or 2 finger job to slow it from triple digits.
There were a few things I didn't like about the bike. First...they were all running sort of hot. Around 200*. Although after some discussions with Vtwin owners, 200 doesn't seem to be a concern. This was the end of September, so air temps weren't hot at all. The Buell rep down played the 200* and said it wasn't an issue. Also, all the demo bikes had a nasty black scuff of the right side of the swingarm from the rider's boots. It was odd to feel the swingarm moving against my boot. And my other complaint was that the rear brake pedal was sort of tough to reach. It was placed oddly behind the clutch cover and took a very deliberate movement to reach.
The bottom line was I LOVED the bike. If I had the cash I woulda dropped the money right then and there for the 1125R. It was a BLAST to ride. Insanely fun. But then again, most V's are.
Here's two shots of me on the 1125.
