| Author | Message | ||
     Lucky_jim |
Hey, new 1125R owner here... I've only taken my bike out twice, I've already fallen in love with it, but I read up on so many problems on this board and others.. people taking their Buells in to get the same thing fixed multiple times, or having some serious issues otherwise. For those unfortunate people that have to deal with constant crap like that, would you still recommend the bike to someone? Or are these issues just blown out of proportion since this is probably the main 1125R hub, and everyone with a problem might make their way here? As I said, love the bike, but I'm just wondering if I bought something that might end up frustrating me instead. Cheers! | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Wow Jim. This sounds like a question you should have asked BEFORE you purchased it. That being said, I LOVE my two 1125Rs. My 2008 (now track bike) was an early build and had its growing pains, however the 2009 has not miss a beat with about 2,000 miles on the clock now. And these are not easy, commuting miles but hard blasts up and down my favorite (and close to the house) stretch of twisties. Yeah the Buell 1125R rocks. | ||
| 01xjbuell |
Only thing I'm personally frustrated with is keeping tires on my bike and not enough time to ride.... Nick | ||
| Banana_man |
Love my bike. just make sure you take it to a pro buell dealer!! recommendation is probably best. take mine 160 miles round trip so I now it gets the right treatment | ||
| Therealassmikeg |
If you love something or someone, you can get past their little quirks and still Love it, or them just as much or more... Congratulations on your new.... LOVE!!! Mike G | ||
| Hogzilla |
The only issue I've had is getting my body used to the riding position. It's taken time but I'm getting used to it. I do love this bike though, it's a lot of fun to ride. Never ridden a more capable machine. If you got it for the fire-sale price, you easily got the best bike for the money you will ever find. It's simply amazing. I'm always learning something about it that amazes me. It's an incredible well thought out bike. Enjoy your new ride and don't look back. | ||
| Petereid |
You'll always see more complaints online. When everything is working good they are too busy riding to post  | ||
| Daniii |
No issues, 1000 miles on the CR. I'm looking for a windshield (second try arrives after this weekend) and have ordered matching bags though. | ||
| Mr_incognito |
The reality of owning an 1125 is that you could possibly have a couple issues out of the box. Theyre not big problems, just some of them have a few quirks when theyre new. With that being said, everyones always ends up getting fixed, and fall in love with them (like you said). I love mine, it will probably be the first bike I keep until it dies. It also ruined me of 4cyl bikes like I used to ride. Im all vtwin from here on out! | ||
| Syonyk |
Hm... I'll be the voice of dissent here. I wouldn't recommend the bike to many people. There's the constant looming threat of "Parts Availability" - HD has an agreement to provide parts, but we've seen all sorts of back orders already, and it's not even a year in. Who knows what parts availability will be in 4-5 years? Also, unless one has a Buell-focused dealership close, owning the bike is a miserable experience. If the dealership doesn't like Buells, and would rather you get out of their service department, and does the minimum needed *to* get you out of their service department, and generally doesn't listen to you, checks it, says it's fine, and sends you on your way, it's a really crappy bike to own. Many of the recalls/things to fix/etc are things one *cannot do at home* - you can't update the ECU at home, you can't (easily) replace a cluster with a battery drain issue at home, etc. So, if the dealership isn't helpful, it's a miserable experience. HOWEVER: That said: If you have a dealership that /likes/ Buells you can get to (doesn't even have to be local, just within range), that will listen to you, that knows what's going on, it removes a lot of those concerns. Knowing that someone will actually work to resolve the issues instead of just shoving you out the door goes a long way to removing the back of mind worries about a bike. As for riding? I love it. It's a great handling bike, with tons of power. Now that I've found a good dealership that works with me to fix issues, I can really enjoy the bike - 8500 miles since Oct 2009 should count as riding it just a bit. Before I found a good dealership, I was seriously considering selling it before it had any major issues, because my chances of getting it properly fixed were very low. Related to this: Three of us bought 1125Rs at about the same time. Two of us from Zylstra in Ames, one from (somewhere around Davenport). Zylstra was a great example of "crap service." The place in Davenport (I wish I knew the name so I could give them a shoutout) gives great service. The other guy who bought from Zylstra traded his after a month and got a CBR1000, because he was sick of taking it in - literally every week, he'd take it in for service (fuel sensor error, check engine, etc - the common issue), they'd clear the codes, and send him on his way. No discussion of ECU updates/cluster firmware updates/etc, just "We cleared the codes for you! Have fun!" I was rather close to selling mine, but found out about the Santa Fe dealership and have been quite happy since I started going up there. The other guy with a good dealership still has his, and loves it. Sadly, the bikes are quirky enough out of the box that dealership support is more important than on, say, a CBR1000. If your dealership hates you as much as you hate them, it's not going to be a very enjoyable bike to own. | ||
| Dipstick |
My 09 1125R has almost 8000 mi. on it and I have never loved a bike more. De-noid it and get the clutch fixed when it starts leaking and you'r good to go. PS: It does go through tires fast! | ||
| Thefleshrocket |
I can't think of a better vtwin sportbike for the money than the 1125s. If there was one, I'd have bought it instead. | ||
| Doerman |
28,000 miles and counting. Does its thing day in and day out. Never misses a beat. +1 on a good dealership. | ||
| Endoman33 |
Yes, I'm happy with mine!! | ||
| Joshinga |
Rant Alert Ok by far having a good dealer is paramount BUT the bike is amazing and I have ridden them all. All the complaining about recalls spotty performance and other gremlins and so on and so forth is IMO on par with any brand new ground up bike build that had its budget sabotaged. I don't see any other issues that you wouldn't see in say a Duc or a Triumphs. As you can probably notice I am purposely not comparing them to the big 4 Asian bikes well thats because I have Never put Buells in the same category as them based on both engine and style. Even with the new motor its got more of a European heart. And if memory serves is the continent in which Erik got a lot of inspiration for Buells. I believe a lot of the hype against Buell is that everyone that wasn't a fan wanted it to fail No matter what. And as the 1125 was forced out early with issues that hadn't been worked out yet it was shown in the Press to be a P.O.S when in reality that could not be farther from the truth. Well I can go on about the whole DSB thing and how people are idiots but I won't. But before I get off my soap box Ill leave you with this. You show me one bike in its first and second year of production that didn't have any issues, like the CBR, ZX, GSX-R, R-1 R-6 . So ride the bike have fun and tell all the nay sayers to shove it  | ||
| Baggh |
Congrats Lucky! +1 on the dealership thing mentioned above. There is a HD dealer a few miles from me... I drive past it to go to a dealer about 50 miles further away for my services. Their tech guys love Buells and for the most part the entire crew was sad to see Buell go. I love everything about my '09 CR (and my XB12S actually). I denoided it, had the clutch leak fixed (twice), and the recall parts\stator fixed. 6800 miles and still loving. The back order thing is a pain but I only really had an issue with that in regards to the stator... all other parts came in within a week. On the bright side of having your bike stay at the dealer a bit is that when you get it back you fall in love with it all over again Congrats once again on your bike... once you get those few problems ironed out you'll be fine. | ||
| Lucky_jim |
Good stuff in here, thanks everyone for your feedback I was looking at the problems of the bike previously, but I was jaded also by the price and well it was my dream bike after all. SO it's a bit of a different situation when I'm actually riding it. I'll definitely try and find the right dealer to service my bike. There are a whole whack of HD/Buell dealers in and around Toronto, but I don't know much about any of them. I also have to agree it's probably the best bike I ever could've bought, with or without problems. I was playing a what if scenario today, thinking what bike I were to get if I did have too many issues with the Buell. And I couldn't think of anything. Every other bike I had been looking at before seems soulless by comparison, made all the more apparent when I rode the Buell for the first time. Thanks again! | ||
| Dktechguy112 |
I love my CR, i upgraded from a sportster, and everything is 10 times better. I told my dealer to order the clutch fix and harness parts, and i will bring it in when they arrive. My dealer told me it should be about half a day to install both, they have done a lot of work on buells. I agree with the others on here about finding a good dealer, it is the key. Honestly i am amazed at how well these bikes are built. Motorcycle usa rated the fit and finish better then aprilia and ducati, and after working on the 1125 i can see why. Of all the problems that are common, i have only experienced two. One was low coolant, which i don't think is a big deal, i think it came low and my dealer forgot to fill it, i added some and it hasn't lost any. The other is a ever so slight clutch leak, it is still ok to ride, but i am going to get it fixed. All the other problems were caused by my brother wrecking it, but after seeing how well it wrecked it impressed me even more. I love the fact that it is an american sportbike. I'm sick of people not buying American. I love knowing that this bike was designed and built in the usa, well except for the engine, but rotax is a great engine maker. | ||
| Jrfitzny |
I'm glad to hear you love it as much as I do No problems for me yet at 6000 miles. (fingers crossed) | ||
| Chameleon |
As others have said, dealer support is the key issue. After paying full retail ($13,500) and putting almost 48,000 miles on mine, I can confidently say that I would do it again. However, I would much rather have paid half like some of you lucky bastards and then could have got an 1125R and an XB12XT. | ||
| Rpm4x4 |
I never thought Id find a bike that I liked more than my XB9 but I have. I love the crap out of my 1125r. Even though I bought it at the beginning of winter in MN I have still managed to put 5000+ miles on it. Ive had no issues with it. | ||
| Trekerguy |
3000 miles and I Love my Buell 1125CR . Never had a bike with this much motor,great brakes and handling No real issues yet, The de-noid, Cali-canister, and harness upgrade but all those were pretty much no cost items. Every bike I have owned had some type of issue with something. In this day and age with the internet and these bike specific forums you are going to get more reporting. I read all the bike magazines cover to cover and have yet to find a bike that is flawless ....  | ||
| Buell77 |
I have over 3000 km on my 09 1125 CR since november and I live in Canada. I love my bike. My bike has only been in the shop twice. Once for first service and the second time for the wiring harness recall. I havn't had any problems. Before I got the 152 flash it ran a little rough at low rpms but the 152 flash was a lot better. I now have a Keda Design RT3 pipe and Erik Buell Racing ECM. Now the bike is awesome. Sounds amazing and with Erik Buell Racing ecm the fueling issues are fixed. It runs so smooth now and even has more power than before. This bike makes such awesome power and handles like its on rails. It gets a lot of attention too. People will walk through a parking lot filled with HDs and jap scrap to look at and comment on my CR! I love my bike! | ||
| Augustus74 |
Love it! | ||
| 1125rcya |
To help out the jeverdy(no excuse not to perform) of the bike, RIDE IT! Days she has sat in the garage are days you could be trying to find a fault before the warranty is up and with that being said 2500 Miles later still looking for one(ya I know im a slacker). A couple of things I have learned on this forum, dont ride her before she warms up and dont shut her down without riding her.  09 1125R The best sportbike for my money! | ||
| Dirty_john |
Wouldn't sell the bike for any money - enjoy | ||
| Furbaby |
I`m riding a `08 R which is absolutely stock and also absolutely flawless. What a great tribute to Buell and the people who put the bike together. It keeps getting better each time I ride. I wonder how much better can it get? I have an XB12s which is the same way. | ||
| Jules |
I absolutely love my 1125R, it's had a couple of "niggles" and I am definately subscribing to the school of thought that it's a race bike you can use on the road rather than the other way around. The handling, braking and performance are absolutely astonishing. I've lost count of the bikes I have owned over the years but this stands head and shoulders over them in terms of the fun factor. I've started to pull together a few "spares" that I've just put in a box in case they become harder to source but I'm not overly concerned about that right now, especially with Erik Buell Racing around! I've recommended it to friends too - most of them don't get it until they've had a ride, then they're converts too. I love to "tinker" with my bikes, and with some light "modding" the 1125R is about as close to my ideal as you can get. I love the heritage that comes with a Buell, I'm immensely proud to have one and even now whilst it's laid up waiting for the sidestand spring and plate I'm not upset, the poor thing deserves a break after the abuse I hurled at it last night. It draws a crowd wherever I go, out accelerates almost anything out of corners and with the Barker on it sounds orgasmic. Am i happy - you bet your arse! | ||
| Milleniumx1 |
Happy with my '09R? Hell yeah! I educated myself (BWB) a couple of days before buying one, and then got lucky ($$ speaking) with the Oct 09 rebates. I've owned several Harleys and a Buell X1. But without question, I've never enjoyed a bike as much as I do this one! Mike | ||
| Pegasusrider |
Couldn't be happier with mine! You already know how much fun they are to ride. I haven't had any problems with mine. It would help to have a good dealer near you, and you've always got plenty of helpful friends here |
