Everyone told me not to buy a Buell…they said that, surely it would leave me on the side of the road unexpectedly with an expensive reminder of what kind of bike this actually is.

They were right, and the Uly did strand me on the side of the road, right in front of a Georgia Highway Patrolman that just so happened to have his radar gun handy as I exited a corner on a local twisty 2 laner. And as if right out of the “playa hater’s” handbook, he was more than willing to offer me an expensive reminder of what kind of bike my dear 12X is, too.

As I pulled to the side of the road and switched off the bike, the cooling fan turned on and began its usual howl as it spun up to draw air across the rear cylinder. I turned back and asked the officer if I could dismount, he said yes…and asked me to turn the bike off.  Yes, the cooling fan is loud, and I think he thought I was being smart when I said that the bike was off, and all of that noise was a Buell thing. He must have been a chopper fan, and never heard that loud fans (not pipes) save lives.

One thing that did impress him, though, was when I pulled my paperwork out of my Buell Stow-n-Go bag. My wife calls it my man purse, and it stores neatly under the seat…keeping everything organized and out of the way. It has plenty of room for everything you need during a traffic stop, and makes you look responsible since it has pouches, pockets, and even a place for a pen so you can say, “No thanks, I have my own, officer” when he tries to hand you a pen to get your autograph. Admittedly, I felt good actually knowing where my paperwork was and not having to dig under the seat to find a random Zip-Loc bag for proof that the bike was legit as I have done previously. The Stow-n-Go fits nicely under the Uly’s seat, and not only holds paperwork, but the tool kit, a tire pressure gage, and a few other odds and ends without any trouble; nicely done.

The problem that day was that I was NOT trying to ride fast. I had just added a bit of compression and rebound to the rear shock and that small adjustment made the bike that much more stable which made a couple dozen mph over the posted limit seem like nothing. The Buell is sensitive to suspension adjustments, and the recommended stock settings are good. However, with a bit of time and effort tweaking the stock settings to your own style turns her into a magic carpet, just watch out for the local authorities as they don’t seem to get it.  FYI, the “It’s got good suspension; I just made a few small adjustments, and bike handles really well” defense doesn’t fly in the Peach State, but results in your state may vary.

I had just put on a new windscreen sourced from California Scientific and it does a really good job of blocking the wind and keeping it calm in the cockpit. I even tried the “California Scientific” defense (“Gee officer, I couldn’t tell how fast I was going because this windscreen blocks all the wind”), and while the officer did comment on the overall quality look of the screen, and noted that it “looks like it does the trick,” he wasn’t seeing the whole picture. Naked bikes are not usually this calm behind the cockpit at interstate speeds. Lesson learned.