Keep in mind a belt system may be ok but buell uses chains on race bikes if that tells you anything.

 

they have oil in their swingarms and gas in thier frames lol... kinda scary if you ask me.

 

While I am glad Erik Buell had an American success story, more or less, I have never been one to "get" the style. Seems like Buells are for Harley guys that woke up from a bad dream where they were handcuffed, sodomized, and forced to ride a sportbike...except they secretly loved it (the sportbike part, maybe the sodomy too). Buell offers a safe way to come out of the closet...

 

I got to test ride an 1125cr as well as the old firebolt at the Indy MotoGP. I will say that the new engine is MUCH smoother running. That's not saying much though considering the ridiculous amount of vibration from the firebolt. Unfortunately, due to the nature of traffic in Indy on a race day neither of the test rides really allowed you to tap into much of the power available. One interesting note is that the firebolt broke down as I was re-entering the speedway. Buell's aren't as refined or reliable as Japanese bikes. One Kawi ZX-10 owner rode the 1125r with my group and said it was the first Buell that he's tried that he could actually be satisfied with.

 

I don't like normal buells, but the 1125 R seems to have all the right numbers. The other improvement IMO is that it uses a Rotax V, instead of the old HD engine. As for the belt thing, my harley friends tell me the new belts use Kevlar, and seem to be as reliable as a chain.

But still, go for the 1000 RR, inthe long run it will probley be easyier to sell when you need to move to your next bike.