Over on ADVRider a user saw my postings regarding my Buells. He reached out and let me know he was the original owner of an '09 1125R that'd he'd let go "cheap". I've always been an air-cooled Buell guy but never really felt a calling for the Rotax bikes. Still, the price was very good, the color is one I've always loved on the XB12R (white w/ blue wheels), and everything was intact. It came with all the original dealer brochures, manuals, folder of service history, etc. It even came with soft luggage, receipts for parts, etc.
It had the dreaded stator/rotor failure sometime in the early 2010's. The owner replaced the stator with a Ricks unit and replaced the rotor with the EBR unit. Then time got away from him, he acquired other bikes (when I picked the Buell up a month or so ago he had 2 Pan Americas, a RWB BMW RnineT, Kawasaki H2, Duc 916 (also original purchaser), Guzzi, couple of Harley cruisers, etc) and it just got pushed into a corner. I guess my posts got him thinking about his old Buell in the corner, and he thought I would be someone who could bring it back to life and appreciate it. So I dragged it home and it sat in the corner until I was able to tinker with it recently.
Fishing the stator wires up through the factory loom cover the other day was a PITA, but I managed. Cleaned it up a bit, changed oil and turned motor over several times, fresh gas, new battery, and it moved under it's own power for the first time in 10 years or so. Not a long journey (about 3 miles), but still significant!
When I got back to the house I thought I had an oil leak. Turned out it's a leak from the clutch save cylinder. I learned this is the "1125 weep". I've got an Oberon slave cylinder on order and after that it should be good to go aside from needing mirrors and a broken rear blinker. It's too loud with the aftermarket Dean Adams exhaust so I put the stocker back on. Now it sounds like a sewing machine, unfortunately. I can deal with that better than I can deal with an obnoxiously loud bike though.
I've always been more of an air cooled Buell guy than a water cooled Buell guy, but this bike has me quite excited. I'm a bit surprised about it.
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