the harley/buell dealership in long branch does demo rides every saturday in april, so me and two of my friends stopped there and we tried out the new lightning xb12. its funny how these harley guys get all amped up about anything more than 60hp. one of the techs from the dealership was sitting out there and started telling me about how this one powers up in first and blah blah. i rode the crap out of the thing and was not impressed(even got pulled over by the cops ). first of all they rev out at 7k. my bike revs at 9500. i whacked it in first and i hit the rev limiter before i knew it. when you shift, the motor takes forever to drop revs so its hard to shift smoothly. they also brag about how the shorter wheelbase is supposed to make it handle like a beast, but not really. it takes more effort to lean that thing than it does on my hawk. and my hawk is taller and seemingly bigger, but actually is 40 pounds lighter. not to mention that trying to make a sportbike out of a belt driven 5 speed is a lousy idea. the only thing that bike has going for it is looks, and sound if you pipe it. if they sold it for like $6k, maybe i would consider it , but for the same price as a gixxer 1k?

when i got back from the ride they were asking me what i thought, and i told them my bike craps all over it. they were all surprised but whatever. the best part of that ride was the free sling bag

 

did you get any oil on you buell's are a joke