Sorry it took me so long to get back...
It's definately a sportbike through and through. Does >100 MPH in third gear and gets there very quickly. Handles like the front wheel is welded to the ground (in a sense )... Will pull the front wheel up easily up to 60 and up to 80 if you use the clutch. I was told by one guy that he crested a gentle hill at 110 and the front wheel started climbing. I believe it. The bike has MASS ammounts of torque. rolling along in first gear you can blip the throttle about 1/6th of a turn and let off and the bike tries to jump out from under you with the front tire about 6 inches off the ground. The top In-line four Litre bikes have about 130-140HP and about 45-55 lbs of tourque. This one has 103HP and almost almost 90 lbs of torque. Most of the litre bikes make their torque peak about 9K RPM's, this one makes most of it's torque just off idle. Oldschool racers will tell you it's not the peak amount that matters... It's the area under the curve that matters.
When I was shopping I realized that I don't ride a spec-sheet. I started looking around for laptimes for track-days to compare stock bikes. I found that the Buell XB12R eats most other bikes for lunch as long as it's a twistie track. If there are long straights the straightline speed of the in-line fours will outweigh the handling of the Buell (even the top tier 600's). In full race trim it won't keep up with something like a full raceprepped in-line four unless it's a VERY twistie track. I would imagine that there would be nothing to beat it at a place like Monaco or MOST OF THE BACK ROADS IN AMERICA which is what it was built for. The review of the bike in Cycle World wasn't exactly favorable but I am pretty sure that the reason is because Erik Buell gave them a lashing for wrecking the first bike he sent them. I have alway thought that particular magazine was slightly (and I mean slightly) biased towards european bikes anyway. Also, CW outright LIED about it's dry weight, or maybe they meant wet weight?? They estimated it's dry weight to be 445 lbs. What does 2.7 gallons of fuell and 4.5 quarts of oil weigh anyway? ALL other reviews I have read of the XB series have said only good about them. Most reviews mention that the power band is too narrow, but I think they are just used to bikes that rev to 11K RPM's and have a headrush. This one doesn't. Smooth power all the way from down low to the rev limit (6800 RPM's). I ran my favorite road last night and didn't shift once and never felt I needed to. On my old Honda CB750 I had to shift a good 20 times on the same stretch.
As far as price, it's quite a bit cheaper than most of it's competition. It's mostly compared to the Ducati 1000SS, Honda RC51, Apprillia Milli, etc...
The attribute I was most interested in was handling. I have no interest in doing 195 MPH on public roads and all the racetracks around here are more turn than straight so It's suited to them. I heard of a guy racing in some race class last year and placed very well (top 3-5 I think) with the stock tires. Slicks were legal and most everyone else was on them. It's quite true that if I'm running around on an interstate highway I'll get waxed by most japanese/european 750 or larger bikes but as soon as we hit twisties I'll walk away. That's what I wanted. I certainly won't say it's the best bike all around (I don't think any bike is) but it's the best for what I wanted. I think four of the top five spots in last years thunderbike championship were taken by XB9R's.
I have no pics but go to
www.buell.com and check out the black XB12R. I like it quite a bit .