Buell XB12S Lightning (2003-current)

I can only agree to the last comments what a great bike!

I owned a lot of bikes from Jap, German, american, Italian, british, austrian and even a Russian. But the Buell is the one which always puts a smile on my face. When I get up on my day off after a 14 hour day, tired and exhausted I look out of the kitchen window and see her sleeping and I just know I gotta get out asap. Reliability? Well I owned an Italian primadonna which would not start straight away when it was raining or under 10C! Bearing in mind that the BUELL is a pretty exclusive bike it never let me down in 54K miles on the original belt!! Highly recommendable even as first 'big' bike.

Love that bike.

Best bike I ever ridden. Go on the twisty country roads or up on the serpentines in the alps and all those r1, blades or zx will eat ****. You don't need to be a Rossi to scrape your knee with the XB.

i owned an XB12sx for 18 months and put 11000 mile on her, in that 18 months the bike cost me £1600 in parts, repairs and hassle. I loved the way it handled and looked but every single other bit was appauling. anyone wanting an everydy bike should not even consider a buell - they dont work!!

Brilliant bike just love it. No big problems on it had a misfire due to bad spark plugs and a tps reset which is nothing. I had a Super Duke before and I love to Buell more than any other bike I had. Never had a bike before giving me so much confidence to throw it into corners and get my knee down than the XB. I know on the UKBEG forum there is a stark tendency to slag the XB of and praise the 'easy fix' Tuber but I think that is all due to people who spend all those hours on their bikes that they just dishonest to themselves how the Tubers really are. I rode any X1 and S1 and the handling is just awful. Also the standard looks of the Tubers are ugly compared to the XB where only the Cheesegrater in the way of the beauty but easily removable. I am using my bike every day in every weather the XB whether it is a S, R, TT or Uly are great bikes and reliable.

I could write a book on here explaining why it is so good but you have to experience it yourself so get down to your local dealership and test ride one and you will see what I mean.

As Clarkson always says you have to own at least one Alfa in your life. I have to say you have to own at least one Buell in your life and this is the model or the XB12R. Forget the old unreliable tube frame models these bikes apart from very early 03 bikes are absolute fun. The first time you sit on them and start em up it might feel weird but the first time you out on a country road you cannot stop loving them. XB riders are known for a constant grin on their face. The handling is idiot proof and superb. The engine, yes it want do over 120 (I don't know where they get the 150 from) but you don't want to do that on it anyway but saying that it will do motorway miles without problems. The old tubers are known for exploding engines on motorways. The XB has tons of torque and will kill any superbike in cornering. Than there is the exclusivity turn up at your local biker caff and you will see how many other Buell's there are most times you will be the only one and you will piss these mid life crisis weekend granpa-rossis on their sunshine bikes off in stealing them the show. only problem is when you wonna hit off you have to fight through the crowd which has build up around your XB.

Well yes I always did. I had a S1 and an X1 both where absolutely horrible blowing engines at early stage. After riding some Nippon the XB came out and wow it looked the business. Love at first sight. But grown older and matured I thought do you want to go through all that again, having the bike fixed when the mates riding on the weekend. Well I test rode one and I just had to have one. Now after 5 years and 56700mls I still love it like on the first day. Thanks to Harley the rubbish reliability of the old tube frame models got sorted and Erik still has his crazy input on the design both pared made a superb handling bike. No other bike handles like the XB and the grunt of the 1203cc is just awesome. If you want to stand out from the crowd, without spending lots of money on a Italo exotica than you have to have the XB!!!!!

If I could only enter one sentence here, it would be: Just take it for a test drive. I admit, the first time you get on it, having a tweaked harley engine thumping away is a bit odd. But once you open it up, ohhh boy. It has power nearly everywhere along the rev range and the cornering is excellent. The bike just has tons of character and makes you smile constantly. As for the comments in the review concerning the engine and the gearbox: not an issue, at least not in the 2008 model that I have. The gearbox is great and there's no jerkeyness what so ever. There's nothing wrong with the build quality these days, the review above definately needs updating. The only thing that might be a problem is the exhaust. Its been known to rust, so far though, i haven't had a problem with it. Fuell range: poor? Thats just plain wrong. If you ride it as a commuter you'll get 200 miles out of it. And as for the equipment, why it gets two stars astounds me as the speed triple get 5 stars (which is also a streetfighter), which is just as minimalist. There's tons of parts available if you want to customize it.