Buell XB12S Lightning - something completely different

In this way, the entire package has been made smaller and lighter. So with the biggest motor in a class of motorcycle known as “streetfighters”, the brutal Buell is also the smallest and lightest of the bunch. On the road, it feels a lot smaller and lighter and more nimble than its competitors, but comparing the numbers really highlights the magnitude of Buell’s achievement.

The XB12 weighs 10% less than the Italians and its wheelbase is 1320mm compared with 1440mm for the Ducati and Cagiva. A 10% difference in the wheelbase of a motorcycle translates to a very different riding experience. It also has a steep 21 degree rake (steering head angle) and a compact, low centre of gravity, and this helps to understand how Buell have created a motorcycle with such a difference.

The fighting weight of the Buell is quite remarkable at an anorexic 175 kg, compared to the Monster’s 193 kilos and the Xtraraptor’s 197kg. Compare those weights with Honda’s all-conquering MotogGP bike which should sit on the 145kg minimum but doesn’t, weighing in at “more than 148 kg” according to official documents.

No weight has yet been specified for the first of the MotoGP replicas likely to hit showroom floors – the Ducati Desmosedici RR. The real Desmosedici weighs in at 145 kilograms, right on the MotoGP limit. It will be interesting to see which is lighter – the Buell or the RR.

Now Ducati and Honda don’t have to worry about head and tail lights, blinkers, mirrors, instrumentation, alternators and batteries and all the other road registrable paraphernalia on their GP bikes. Both are constructed of materials which could not be considered in mass production due to their limited lifespan and incredible cost. Buell’s delivery of a road bike which is so close in weight to the fastest GP bike in history is a feat of some magnitude. That’s how it can be both brutal and surgical at the same time. It stalks down the street, with the feeling that it is applying more rubber to the road than a Formula One car. Yet the wheels are both several kilograms lighter than the competition, and such a substantial reduction in unsprung weight enables the suspension to do its job so much better.

The suspension is made by Showa, the same company which provides the suspension on the aforementioned RC211V Honda MotoGP machine, with both ends adjustable for preload, compression and rebound damping and a set of upside-down forks which further reduce unsprung weight. Inverted forks are state-of-the-art these days, gracing every tarmac machine with sporting pretence from MotoGP to supersport roadsters but Buell was the first to fit inverted forks to a roadgoing motorcycle. With quality suspension, an incredibly rigid chassis and the lightest unsprung weight in the business, those fat sticky tyres stay glued to the tarmac and the XB12S offers a comforting grip on the road in all circumstances.

Most notably, the Buell feels at home under brakes and that’s probably due to the patented Zero Tortional Load (ZTL) braking system. The 375mm perimeter mounted rotor is gripped by a six-piston Nissin brake calipre and offers immense power and delicate feel. You won’t run out of brakes on the Buell, and alongside the Aprilia RS250, you will never get a safer motorcycle upon which to refine the “art of the stoppie”, the spectacular under-brakes, reverse wheelie made famous by stunt bikers.

Read the numbers and you know it steers quickly even before throwing a leg over the low saddle. But with such miniscule proportions and shallow rake, one would expect far twitchier, overly sensitive steering than the XB12S delivers. It feels agile and poised, not skittish and not at all threatening as some bikes of similar proportions do.

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