Los Angeles has the Rock Store; Berlin has Spinner-Brücke, a biergarten that has been a motorcycle hangout for 50 years. Harley traditionalists in America often look down their noses at the liquid-cooled V-Rod and sporty Buells; their counterparts in Berlin feel the same way, they just express it with a Hans & Franz accent (“Ja, we will let them live…maybe!”).
After the flack über-American Harley-Davidson got for developing the XR1200 solely for the European market, why would its Buell subsidiary introduce the 1125CR in Berlin? Simple. Buell sells half of its motorcycles in Europe, and café racers (the CR in the model name) were born there. And part of West Berlin was a bastion of American idealism in Soviet-controlled East Germany for four decades. So it’s got that going for it, which is nice.
Like Harley’s V-Rod, the 1125R sportbike introduced in 2007 was Buell’s first venture into liquid-cooled territory. Whether you believe these water-pumpers are expansions into new markets or are preparations for the day when air-cooled engines go the way of the dodo bird depends on which tea leaves you’ve been reading (or smoking). Regardless, according to this performance-oriented non-traditionalist, both the Harley Revolution and Buell Helicon engines are superior to their air-cooled ancestors.
Read the full road test, including detailed specs and more photos, in the January 2009 issue of Rider, which is on newsstands now or available to subscribers.
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