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Form over function may be correct Maz as he has done 4k in 20 years of ownership but I have to say that his stable of bikes is second to non when it comes to sports bikes and to top it off he is a great guy!.
Picking up a 1125R at the weekend and asked Eric what he thought ....
Hi Steve,
I have had a long 'love' relationship with Buell, I saw the 1st one in Chicago at a HD dealer back in 1990 right after it was acquired by Harley, it was an S2 and I fell in love with it right away. This was exactly the kind of bike I wanted, a bike with a torquey engine in a small chassis with good suspensions and brakes. They were not available in France at the time, I even had a conversation over the phone with Erik Buell, very nice guy - beside the obsessional passion for fast motorbikes we also share a 1st name and the first 3 letters of our name.
So I ended up buying a Monster 900 and it was ultimately a better bike (kind of...). Then the Buells arrived in France but it's only in 1996 that I bought one, it was the S1 White Lightning, a small production of the S1 with bigger head cylinders to allow better tuning for racing. At the time there was a race series for the Buell S1 in the US. This is how it looked back then:
I still have it and made several modifications, starting with the engine about 10 years ago, high tuning of the cylinders on a flow bench, new cames, huge valves with new springs and race carburettor. It became a different bike, it felt like if I had increased the capacity by 30%, it is much more powerful, with more torque and it revs ! I had made different look as well over the years with carbon bits etc... then did a proper custom work on the engine, wheels and frame 4 years ago. And recently I sent it to a paint workshop in Derby.
This is how it looks now *:) happy
You see I also put a chain kit and a forcewinder, it became even more 'brutal' ! I love this bike, but obviously it's not the bike to use in town for commuting, or maybe the occasional ride to the pub to show off, or to take on a long ride (I have lost bits almost every time I took it outside London). But it pulls like a monster truck and the sound is just incredible. It put smiles on people face, especially kids, every time I ride by.
So, I have kept this bike for almost 20 years, but did not use it much actulally (only 4000 miles). So when HD stopped the Buell production in 2009 I bought an X1 to use everyday and an 1125R that I wanted to take on track (but did not at the end). I paid less than £10K for both brand new !!
I kept the X1 for about 2 years but sold the 1125 after 6 months, I started my company in 2010 and I also had a 999. One sport bike had to go...
I am sure you will like the 1125R, it's a very fast bike with a unique character, although different from the Buell street bikes with HD based engine. But that Rotax V2 engine was much more powerful than the one on the Aprilia at the time. So it could be fast on a track with a few mods, but it is also quite confortable to ride on the road.
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