Launch report by Bertie SimmondsMeandering down the infamous Corkscrew is something I've always wanted to do. I'll say meander as that's about as much speed as I'm ever going to generate down one of the most famous turns in motorcycle racing.
Laguna itself is full of ups and downs, it's kinda like Cadwell or Brands indy on
acid. Today's track ride on the Buell has also been a little up and down - although I hasten to say more up than down.
Y'see, it's been difficult to keep my mind on the bike when you're actually
barrelling into the if-not blind, then at least 'partially sighted' Andretti Hairpin
which is turn two at Laguna, and secondly the Corkscrew seems to unfairly stick in your memory when this 2.24mile, 11-turn glorious piece of Tarmac has many other delights that jostle for position in your memory. You've got fast, blind corners, up-hill and downhill sweepers, tight turns, slow turns and - of course - the notorious Corkscrew, where you flick-flack left and right through a roller-coaster of a downhill corner.
The Buell 1125R is both a new beginning and an extension of what's gone before for the American marque. New as (finally) we have a more powerful, liquid-cooled motor and yet all the pleasant quirks and foibles that make Buells a curious joy to ride are there: fuel in frame - check, mass centralization - check, Zero Torsional Load front brake disc - check. You get the picture.
Despite launching this machine at Laguna, speaking to Erik Buell himself and the massed Buellites, this is a sports bike for the road first, not the track. But let me say it makes a fine track bike. You could roll up at any track in the UK and this thing would take you by the hand and help you round. If you can do Laguna on this, you could do pretty much anywhere. That beautifully broad spread of power from the 2-degree liquid-cooled motor means gear selection needn't be spot-on while you're learning which way things are going. Buell claims 146bhp at around 10,000rpm at the crank, but I reckon the 1125R will be around 120 on the dyno. Top-end is one thing, but the way this thing makes its power is both impressive and delightful, with oomph coming from low-down all the way to the redline.
Brakes too, are superb. The new eight-pot Zero Torsion fixed caliper means less weight than a conventional dual-disc system and it works very well.
Suspension is where things get a little murky for me. Now, I do a few trackdays a year, I'm 'vaguely respectable' rather than 'really rapid', but the way the bike is behaving in the different sessions is puzzling me. In my first 'proper' session after pulling in with a duff battery, I'm on the 'big-boys' Buell, as befits my weight. But come session two I'm on one set-up for a lighter load and it's making a big difference. The bike is porpoising from front to rear on the brakes and it's not feeling sure-footed in Laguna's demanding turns. Normally on most sportsbikes I can get on something with standard settings and be comfortable - hell, I'm like any of you I rarely really fiddle with suspension - but around Laguna it seems you need to on the 1125R as it seems a little sensitive to such changes. Also, many of the ther journalists are saying they've got a preference for the harder set-up of the 'heavier' bikes so that pretty soon most of the machines were being set-up this way.
In the morning Buell were saying that these machines were pre-production bikes, with perhaps only some rough welds, a muffler change and perhaps a few detail changes, but then it comes to light that they may well make suspension changes as they feel that perhaps they've had a bad batch of fork springs. I can forgive the bike this: this is a pre-production machine after all, but so long as the production bikes have suspension that behaves as well as it did most of the time, you're onto a winner.
So who will buy the 1125R? Obviously Buell fans will queue up to buy this bike, which will sit at the top of the family tree when it's in shops later this year, but what sort of machine is it?
Well, just looking at it you can see it's 'different'. I can tell you that it's better in the flesh than in pictures, but you're going to have to love the looks to buy one. Yes, it looks a bit wide at the front, but that's because Buell has spent plenty of time in the 'virtual' wind-tunnel making sure it's both slippery and protective. Oh, and you better like black, as that's the only colour it's going to be coming in.
By the time you read this we'll be enjoying the 1125R's road manners down some demanding Californian roads and I reckon it's here that the bike will score most. This motor is effortless, it's ergonomically comfortable and it should tackle your favourite set of twisties with ease - which is just what Erik and the team want you to do. This is a different proposition than, say, a GSX-R1000 K7. With that Suzuki say you'll 'Own the Racetrack', but Buell say you'll 'Own the Corners' with the 1125R and I reckon that's about right.
Read the full report in next month's Two Wheels Only.
