Intro hook

A 485-pound cruiser with full Fox suspension, Brembo brakes, and 50 degrees of lean angle should not exist. Buell built one anyway. The Super Cruiser looks like an old Harley parked in your driveway and rides like a Hammerhead that decided to put on a costume.

Here's the controversial take: it's not a cruiser. It's a comfortable sport bike wearing the wrong outfit. 485 pounds, 175 horsepower, 17-inch wheels front and back, and rear-sets that let you scrape pegs in a way no Harley engineer ever signed off on. None of it should work together.

I spent the whole ride trying to figure out what category this thing actually belongs in and gave up. The Buell Super Cruiser is a Frankenstein, and that's the highest compliment I can pay it.

Performance highlights

The 1190cc V-twin makes 175 horsepower and pulls hard enough that doing a 40-80 roll-on in first gear becomes an exercise in not flipping over. I had to feed the throttle in like a man defusing a bomb. It still cleared 40 to 80 in 2.48 seconds. There's no wheelie control, no ABS, no rider modes — just 20 steps of traction control and 20 levels of regret you didn't pick a different setting.

The throttle pull is heavy. It should annoy you. It doesn't, because the violent power on the other end of the cable wants the resistance. Roll on with too light a touch and you'd be picking yourself off the asphalt.

Then there's the handling. A 485-pound bike with a cruiser silhouette has no business flicking lane to lane like this, and the 50 degrees of lean angle has no business being available on a bike that looks like this. MotoGP machines get 75 degrees. Cruisers usually max out at 30. Buell split the difference and somehow ended up with something that handles like a sport bike on a diet.

The Fox adjustable suspension is the trick. Around town it rides like a couch. Lean it over hard into a corner and it stays composed. The Brembos are not here to mess around — total confidence, strong stopping power, the kind of brake feel that makes you forget there's no ABS. Until you remember.

Rider experience and tech

The seat sits high, comes up over the top of your butt, and lets you grab the tank with your knees. The handlebars are thin. The body position is upright but sporty — exactly what you don't expect from a 25-grand cruiser. I cleared highway miles without numb hands or a sore back, and the standing-up position is genuinely comfortable, which is a sentence I have never written about a cruiser.

The dash is something else. There's no fuel gauge. There's no cruise control. There are no rider modes. The display looks like an old-school Game Boy that learned color, and the only adjustable rider aid is the 20-level traction control buried three menu buttons deep. Buell will tell you this is intentional. The bike doesn't want safety nets.

That's also why I can't recommend it as your first bike, your second bike, or your bike if you're not paying close attention. The throttle is heavy and the rear tire has 175 horses pointed at it. Nimble, fast, comfortable, and unforgiving the moment you stop respecting it.

The Chase Score and final thoughts

With a Chase Score of 71/100, the Buell Super Cruiser lands in the Good tier and ties for 16th on the leaderboard. That score is doing two jobs at once: rewarding the absurdity of what Buell built and acknowledging that the Game Boy dash, the missing cruise control, and the $25,900 ask are real.

This bike is for the rider who's been chasing a comfortable cruiser for years but can't stop missing their sport bike. Nothing else on the market threads that needle. Skip it if you want creature comforts, want ABS, or expect a bike at this price to come with a fuel gauge. Otherwise, put down the $200 deposit for the 2027 build cycle. There is nothing else like it.