buell bikes

I got a buell blast 500cc  for my first bike and love it. It is a very easy bike to ride but when I up grade Im thinking about staying with the Buell.  I like the Firebolt XB9R. Any info on these bikes would be great and if the are good bikes.  

If you like it, that's all that matters.  

Firebolt is an excellent bike.  My son learned on a Blast and the both of us were impressed enough with it we traded it on a Cyclone (Back in '02).  Have never had a problem with Buells.  Excellent sporting rides.  

Have never been happy with Buells.  Maybe I got the dud because my was in the shop with constant electrical problems.  Traded it in at 900 miles for a Suzuki Marauder.  Now a proud owner of Kawa Ninja 650.  A great, fun bike.  

Although my current mount is a Triumph, I looked long and hard at the Firebolt XB12.  Over the last few years the kinks seem to have been worked out of the design.  Although certainly not the largest number of ponies you can get for 10K (but who cares), it packs a hysterical mix of light weight, high torque and general “flickability”.  After one ride, I was pretty close to plunking down my cash.

The main thing that kept me off one is just that ergos are a little cramped for larger folk.   At 6’0” and 225, I sort of felt a little like a circus bear on a bicycle – not the bike’s problem, mine.  

find where Buell is doing demo's around you.  I did this at the Long Beach show a couple of years ago, riding the XB9S and the 12R.  My experience up till then was on a completely different type of sport bike (CBR600) but these were a very good time.  It sometimes felt like I had to work to keep the front end on the pavement <big grin>.
I still don't have plans for buying one because (I've heard) the single rotor brakes tend to make them stand up a lot on braking ... it's a personal preference of mine that a bike have fairly straightforward handling.  That said, maybe this could be remedied with the right type of tires, or perhaps the tendency is not as strong as some have stated.