I was rather surprised with the suspension feel.  It's stiff yet smooth to the point of not feeling like a sport bike at all.  I found myself intentionally looking for rough spots and pot holes just to see what the suspension could handle.

As we were heading down a sweeping curve is when I found the biggest complaint I have with the 1125r.  Again like earlier, it didn't seem to want to turn.  As I was in the turn the bike actually felt like I had hit a stop in the steering column like in a car and wouldn't go further over unless I shifted my weight in the saddle and started to force the issue full on race style.  I've always kind of thought it's probably a bad idea to be dragging a knee at 50mph in town traffic wearing only jeans.

We finally make it to the freeway and I get to see how the aero package on the 1125r holds up.  As we hit the on-ramp it dawns on me that the entire time I haven't had my visor down.  I usually drop my visor at about 30mph as I start getting a whistle from the air flowing around the helmet.  So I figure to heck with it and keep the visor up until I get up to speed.  Still nothing!  I reached my hand up to feel where the wind is hitting me on the helmet at it's right at the very top.  Remember, I'm 6 foot tall.  Then I realize there's very little wind hitting my hands and legs as well.  Suffice to say it does a great job of kicking the wind away from the rider.

After the short freeway run we get back to the dealership.  I've certainly enjoyed the experience and I would like to get a better feel for the bike as I didn't feel like I put it through it's paces.  Then when I get stopped and kill the engine, I realize the fans are running like crazy trying to cool the engine down.  I felt rather lucky that I had my ear plugs in still.  I had heard about the cooling issue with the bike but I suspected that was more when it was being run hard which I didn't get to do.

I certainly think that Buell is on the way to a pretty solid bike, but it's definitely got some issues to work out.  The biggest 3 for me are the cooling, handling, and engine braking.  While they aren't deal breakers for me on their own, they certainly add up.  While I can honestly say this bike isn't for me, it does have it's charms and if you're in the market for a sport bike, you should go to a dealer and demo one. It's definitely different than the traditional sport bike and that alone makes it worth giving it a test ride and even if you don't like it enough to buy it, it will certainly put a smile on your face.