| Author | Message | ||
     Buellfart |
Around the mid 90's some transformation must have taken place once they numbered in the thousands- did tubes come pre-bent and were they welded on in house jigs, often wondered about this. I'm an undying fan of the tubers since they are mutable to a greater extent. Thanks. | ||
| Court |
Tube frames were outsourced . . . . originally from a local welding shop. By 1996 demand was growing and an additional source was brought in. A careful examination of a 1996 S-1 frame will reveal which source it came from. HINT: Look for the tab that secures the rubber vent line. | ||
| Davegess |
With the exception of the first few frames none of the Buell frames were made in house. I don’t remember who welded the first RW750 frames, I will have to ask that question for the archive, and I believe that the first one or two RR1000 frames were welded up by Henry and Erik. Jim Schneider may have already been on board and doing the welding. When the RR really went into production Jim Welded the frames at his shop where he built race and custom cars. As production grew he built a variety of jigs to miter tube ends and hold them in place for welding. When HD bought in Jim continued to weld the S2 frames in this manner. There were many minor changes to the frame to make them easier to build, more bent tubes and some extra plates. I can’t tell you exactly when it happened but S2 production pretty quickly out stripped Jim’s capacity and a new vendor came on board (I am drawing a blank on the name). These guys had much more automated equipment for not only welding (Jim welded by hand)m but also bending and mitering. Not exactly robots mind you but faster than a guy at a milling machine. They made frames for several years and the design evolved over time to make it easier to produce. The last tube frames were made by a company called Nelson if my memory serves me well. There are more details in our book. | ||
| Loki |
This is one of the things that caught my eye after I purchased my RS. Comparing the welds from the RS to the S1. The welds on the RS are pure artwork. While the welds on the S1 look mechanical. | ||
| Ratbuell |
So is there a way to look at an S2 and determine the source? Or are there VIN records by that point for something like this? I'd *love* to be able to look at folks and tell them "yep, my bike's 14 years old now and it was hand-welded by a guy named Jim" if that's the case. Just to drive home the small-company-pride, built-in-East-Troy point to the "Buells are made by Harley" crowd, of course  | ||
| Court |
>>>> it was hand-welded by a guy named Jim" If you said it was welded by a guy named Jim . . . . you'd be just fine. His last name is Schneider. | ||
| 1313 |
a new vendor came on board (I am drawing a blank on the name) Dave, How does Arc-Ron sound? The last tube frames were indeed made by Nelson Industries. 1313 | ||
| Davegess |
Arc-Ron sounds about right! | ||
| Ratbuell |
Court - awesome info, I'll add that to my growing 'trivia/not-trivia' file. Thanks | ||
| Davegess |
Rat, just compare an early to a late one and you can tell. The first few hundred were built by Jim. | ||
| Court |
Look for the tab that secured the vent hose on the left side. | ||
| F_skinner |
Here is a comparison of the welds on my 95 S2 (#35) and my 96 S2-T.   | ||
| Rex |
Wow, that is really cool to see. Three of my 4 S2 frames have the welding like the bottom photo, completely welded all the way around vrs. looking like it is tacked. The Red S2 is one of those nice welded ones. The White one I am trying to bring back to life, has the nice welds. I have two other frames, and one of those has the nice welds. cool to know. neat little stories...REX | ||
| Rex |
I just looked at the welds on my 97 M2. They looked like the bottom photo. Welds all the way around |
