| Author | Message | ||
     Blake |
That is one BAD @$$ looking racing machine! I'm digging the fairing lowers bigtime. What is going on there? I wish I had $40K spare change lying around! NICE! | ||
| Fuzzz |
I like it, but I would also like to know what the deal is with the left side of the belly pan, doesn't match the right side...  | ||
| Anonymous |
re: the left side: Reflections. It matches. | ||
| Duggram |
That's just a shinny paint job. The left in the pic above has a bright reflection. | ||
| Mrbear |
Hi, I'm new, and I'll post an introduction for myself later this week. I was at the race this weekend, working as a volunteer on the Higbee team. I can tell you that the two superbikes that Buell brought to the track were show-bike perfect. They clearly wanted to make a very special debut, and the bikes didn't have the shop worn look of working race bikes at all. All of the plastic was glass-smooth, and the paint flawless. Add to that the fact that a brand new, untried bike finished solidly mid-pack in its first race weekend. That is an incredible performance for a new machine, for any company, let alone one the size of Buell. The best lap times in the Sunday race were about a second off of the race winner's best times, and dead even with the factory Honda times. Congratulations to Buell and all those who no doubt worked so hard to make this happen. For Buell fans, life is about to get more interesting, and more fun, than ever. Mike | ||
| Dbird29 |
If that bodywork was plastic then we will see a production 1125RR. If it was fiberglass or carbon fiber then it is just a race bike. They wouldn't make plastic forming molds for a few race bikes. My guess is a new production bike will be coming next week. | ||
| Court |
>>>My guess is a new production bike will be coming next week. Actually one was "introduced" last week. . . the 1125RR. Yeah, I'm excited. | ||
| Toona |
I like the new 1125RR...  | ||
| Doerman |
Toona. Really nice to meet you and your son at Mid - O. You're always sporting a smile, aren't you. It is contagious too. Your son does the same. - I was the crew guy for Higbee - (Message edited by doerman on July 21, 2009) | ||
| Jimidan |
My guess is that the new RR will be featured at the bike show next week with all of the other new models. There is reason to be excited. This Buell could be a contender by next year. | ||
| Toona |
 Doerman, is this you? | ||
| Jimidan |
I met this guy in the photo delineated as Doerman at Shawn's pit, but I cannot remember his name. He was in a golf cart with Ebear...and as I remember, he said he was NOT on Badweb. Nice guy though, in spite of that. | ||
| Doerman |
Nope.. Close.. Right age.. right rotundness.. I've got one up on my friend Mike over there.. I have a shaved head! Waitaminit Jimidan. He joined badweb today. So all is well. He goes under the moniker Mrbear. | ||
| Jimidan |
Just imagine what kind of racebike Erik and Co. could produce if they really put their minds to it. The 1125RR is really just a genuine streetbike with some fancy parts on it. The big 4 have been creating racebikes with lights on them for years now. If Erik had intended that this bike was going to be a superbike, then they would have produced a 1199 instead of a 1125 cc machine, with racer ergonomics and a peaky engine. But, alas, it was not. But is is one of the most versatile bikes on the market today. I could put bags on it and use it as a touring bike. Take the bags off and it is a track day weapon. The possibilities are endless. | ||
| Mrbear |
The pic is me, MrBear (Mike). Doerman is a long time friend, and the person who got me into motorcycling in 1995. In June of that year, while I was learning on my Yamaha beginner bike, he bought his first Buell, a dark blue (purple-ish?) S2. A few months later, he finally trusted me to ride it. Then I bought one. Mine was a "proper" yellow, of course. I know it was proper because an older gentleman who came across us when we were motorcycle camping that summer said "there are only two proper colors for a motorcycle; Red, and Yellow". He seemed very trustworthy, so I believed him. I really enjoyed meeting you guys at the race. I had a lot of time to make up for after starting motorcycling so late, so I've been on a lot of brands since that first Buell. It's time for an 1125R soon. There was a yellow S2 of the same vintage as mine at the track this weekend, and I still think it's one of the best looking bikes made. Some may consider the look dated, but as I move into codgerdom, I'm getting more like Peter Egan each year, and the stuff from my past is looking pretty good. One small exception to Doerman's "right age” comment. No way - that dude is really old. We worked hard this weekend, and he was out speed-eating the Tylenol over me 3 to 1 easy. Working a race weekend is a great experience, but it is hard work. On Saturday morning I was jumping over the pit wall. At the end of the Superbike race on Sunday, I was sliding over it like a spilled beer pouring over the edge of the table. Old age ain't for sissies. Cheers, Mike (Message edited by mrbear on July 21, 2009) | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
"If that bodywork was plastic then we will see a production 1125RR. If it was fiberglass or carbon fiber then it is just a race bike. They wouldn't make plastic forming molds for a few race bikes. My guess is a new production bike will be coming next week." I think more clues come from the 1125R pace bike. The fairing on the pace bike is almost identical to the RR, but looks more like a "production" piece to me and appears to fit the standard 1125R cooling system, although from what I read in another thread somewhere a standard exhaust won't fit. I'm wondering about a few other pieces on the 1125RR and whether they'll show up on a street model - The press release says "larger airbox and intake manifold" and "revised valves". Anybody know any details on these? Are they bigger valves? How different is the airbox and manifold? What exactly do they mean by intake manifold? | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
And another question - why change from 47mm forks to 43mm? | ||
| Spike |
This is a total guess, but I remember reading during the 1125R launch that Buell had selected the massive 47mm forks to take advantage of some new valving/damping that Showa had introduced. Most of the other liter-class bikes are all using 43mm forks, so I'd guess that if Buell is willing to give up the internals of the 47mm fork there may be a weight advantage by switching to a more conventional 43mm fork. Also, since the race rules for many classes allow you to change the fork internals but require you to keep the externals Buell may be opening up the option of using standard 43mm fork internals on race bikes. | ||
| Responsible |
quote: And another question - why change from 47mm forks to 43mm? ___________________________________________ The 'standard' Showa forks are 47mm, the BPF's are 43mm. Pete | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
Thanks Spike & Pete. I found an AMA Special Allowances Bulletin approving 43mm forks for 1125R's for Daytona Sportbike, I guess these could be the same forks. The same bulletin also approved an airbox, this could be what's being used on the 1125RR. http://www.amaproracing.com/assets/RR-SpecialAllow ances.pdf | ||
| Mrbear |
Buell may have just been ahead of the game here with the forks. The Japanese liter bikes are starting to switch to what they call "big diameter" forks as well, most notably Kawasaki with the revised ZX10. I believe these also have both adjustments on top, as with the Buell. I need to look into these forks more, because I've mostly been skimming these reviews, but the ZX has been winning the shoot-outs, so there may be a real benefit here. I can't help but notice that from an engineering standpoint, many of the concepts that Buell has made the centerpiece of his philosophy for years are showing up on the bikes from other makers. Have you you checked out the muffler location on Japanese bikes lately? The focus on mass centralization? The relocation of the fuel on some bikes? And now the big forks. I did blow it on inspecting the front fairings on the RR while I was at the track. As I said in an earlier post, they looked flawless, not like typical race bodywork. The edges were very clean and finished as well. However, I didn't look closely enough to see if they were a molded material or something that was made by lay-up. If you want to make lay-up panels that don't use a hard mold look great, it's a matter of a lot of hand work, but it can be done. If you want to spend a little, you can make a metal lay-up mold from the CAD data on a CNC machine that will be very smooth and dimensionally accurate, and still far cheaper than an injection mold. It's still hard to get good and clean rolled edges and mounting tab geometry on lay-up parts, however. I agree with the comment that the panels used on the Superbike RR will not be able to enclose the stock exhaust, so a new exhaust design would be required. What was on the superbike was purely a race exhaust. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Mr. Bear, you will fit *right* in around here... thanks for the great info! | ||
| Jscott |
Lots of excellent detailed pics of the 1125rr... http://www.buelletinboard.com/forums/showthread.ph p?t=10906 | ||
| Hughlysses |
Cool! | ||
| Crusty |
Nice pics! Thanks. | ||
| Mrbear |
Well, I said I needed to look into "Big Piston Forks" more (the posts on them raised my curiosity). I also need to correct a mistake. These forks have shown up this year on the 2009 Kawasaki ZX6R (I said ZX10R in an earlier post) and the Suzuki GSXR1000. These forks effectively turn the entire fork into a cartridge, mainly benefiting low-speed damping, which among other things reduces dive under braking. The following article explains the rationale for them. If you google "Big Piston Fork", you will find many articles on them. In the pics, you will recognize the twin adjusters on top. http://hellforleathermagazine.com/2009/03/details- showa-big-piston-fork.html | ||
| Duggram |
Last winter when I heard about the Showa BPF I started asking questions. What I found out was that they are easier to maintain and tune but not necessarily better, depending of course on who you talk to. I'm a fan, but I'm not convinced yet. Check this thread over on The Independant Bike Suspension Forum where one comment near the end says "Stanchions on forks flex massively during use". Here's another thread I started to compare Showa BPFs with AK-20s. Not all feedback was positive. In a few weeks I will be ordering my new AK-20s rather than the Showa BPFs. It makes no sense to me to put new $2K forks on my bike, then have to go to Ohlin to have them revalved and resprung, which I'm sure is not cheap. | ||
| 4cammer |
Guy Martin says they may be the best forks on a (real) production bike that he has ever ridden. Regardless, the racing 1125R is currently using them as a "future" part, no? I am assuming that this means it will be used on a production 1125R NLT 2010. I see my XB9R turning less and less stock the more Buell gets into this racing mess....  | ||
| 4cammer |
Jscott, thanks for the link! I forget they have a good forum over there as well. | ||
| Rmr |
FYI....Danny rode the superbike at Jersey this week. He is very impressed and optimistic. Hopefully Eslick and RMR will do a little damage in both classes next season. However we will concentrate only on the sportbike championship this season. |
