The 1125CR 105 was Buell’s café-racer-styled follow-up to the 1125R, created from the same liquid-cooled 1125 Helicon platform but with a more upright, stripped-back streetfighter attitude. Buell introduced the CR as part of the 1125 family for the 2009 model year, giving the company a more style-focused naked sportbike at the top of its lineup. In period Buell service documentation, the 105 HP France version is identified as a distinct VIN/model code within the 1125CR range, showing that this exact export specification was part of the official 1125 line-up rather than an aftermarket or unofficial variant.
The model arrived during a brief and important chapter in Buell history. The 1125 series marked the company’s move away from its older air-cooled Harley-Davidson-derived engines and toward a modern liquid-cooled V-twin designed with Rotax. The CR translated that new mechanical package into a café-racer format, with revised ergonomics and styling that distinguished it from the fully faired 1125R while keeping the same core engineering concept. That made it one of the most distinctive American sport motorcycles of its era.
Production of the 1125 family was short-lived. Buell’s motorcycle business was shut down in 2009, but Harley-Davidson’s 2010 Buell 1125 model documentation still includes the 1125CR and the 105 HP France variant, indicating that the nameplate carried into the 2010 model year. After that, the 1125CR did not continue as a regular production Buell model, making it a relatively rare and highly recognizable end-point for the original Buell performance era.