Well, I got the clutch cylinder installed in the Buell last night and, to my neighbors' dismay, went for the first test ride to get some fresh gas in her at about midnight.
Fuel injection means that there aren't any starting problems!
The engine is mechanically loud. It sounds like it needs upper end work, but everybody on the Buell forum says this is completely normal and that they're loud as hell. I guess the cams actuate the valves with a finger follower that just rattles around between the cam and valve pad. Multiply that by 8 valves, and the inside joke is that it sounds like you put rocks in the case instead of oil.
I expected it to pull in first without any throttle, but it does require a touch of throttle to start moving happily. This is pretty normal, just different than my expectation for whatever reason. Probably because of the lower idle than other sport bikes I've been on.
There isn't a happy low (less than 5mph) cruising speed. Like what you'd use in a parking lot. My first impression was that you need to be accelerating or coasting at that speed because the engine RPM's don't like going that slow in 1st. It was also cold when I tried this, and it was my first 10 miles on the bike, so it may chug along better at low speeds when she's warm and I'm more familiar with it.
The geometry of the bike (rake and trail, I presume) is quite different than the "standard" bikes I'm used to. The bike really plants itself in the corner, and the input on the bars is different than I've experienced before. The bars actually pull a little bit in a corner, and I've not felt that before. My tendency was to overshoot the path I think I'm steering for. I think the trick is to steer by leaning and just using the bars to balance, which is backwards from what seems to come naturally.
The engine has torque over a huge part of the RPM range, and you can make each gear last a good while instead of hitting a curve in each gear and having to shift again.
I don't know why it has 6 speeds. I bet that around town will mostly use the bottom 3. On my Vision, I am guilty of trying to find 6th a few times. On this bike, I don't know that I'll get up to 6 very often.
It's a hot ride. The radiator on each side warms your legs, and you can feel the exhaust headers radiating heat on the right side too.
The perimeter brake disk is awesome. I've not ridden anything with this kind of stopping power before. The taper on the lever was great too. Some bikes have a very digital, all or nothing, kind of feel on the lever for the front brake, and this seemed very natural and smooth.
That's it for now. I only rode for about 10 minutes, so I'll have more thoughts and observations in the next few days.
