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     Barker |
Good article! http://autos.canada.com/news/story.html?id=4594b2b 5-a6aa-49cb-82df-deac390b69f1 Aiming for the zen zone Erik Buell wants his bikes to be extensions of their riders Lynn Saxberg The Ottawa Citizen Friday, December 14, 2007 When Erik Buell first launched his motorcycle company in the early 1980s, his plan was to build a sportbike using a Harley-Davidson engine. He did it, and for more than two decades, the Buell name has been associated with American-made, Harley-powered sportbikes. But now, 25 years later, the former motorcycle racer is unveiling his most impressive piece of machinery yet, the 1125R, which runs on the all-new Helicon engine, a liquid-cooled, 146-horsepower V-twin showstopper that was not dreamed up by the engineering minds at Harley. Instead, the motor that powers this sleek, dark beauty was co-engineered with BRP-Rotax. "How come?" is the first thing some people were wondering when Buell paid a visit to the Toronto Motorcycle Show last weekend to draw attention to two 1125Rs prominently displayed on the show floor. His schedule that day included numerous interviews, photo ops and even an autograph session. Although the Buell company has been a division of Harley-Davidson, Inc. for years, as chairman and chief technical officer, Erik Buell is still the heart of the operation. In my interview, the wiry 57-year-old in jeans and a blue Buell workshirt reminded me of a kid with a new toy as he talked about his company's headturning new product. With his thick hair and a mischievous twinkle in his eye, the youthful-looking chairman said he had been wanting to tackle something like it for years, but Harley had been too busy with its own projects. He got impatient. "Harley was booked to capacity," Buell says with a shrug. "We've been wanting to do this engine for a while, and they said, 'maybe 2015.' I said, 'Nah, I can't do it. I just can't wait.'' He knew the company needed to improve its technology to compete with Japanese and German bike-makers. "We've had a lot of success in the air-cooled niche, which is a smaller niche for people who like a little bit of classic mixed in ... but the mainstream market is now modern, water-cooled technology. For us, this is the first time that we've been able to bring our philosophy of how to do a bike to that mainstream market, and that's a big step for us." The philosophy, according to Buell, is to make a motorcycle that feels like an extension of the rider. "I always say I want the bike to disappear when I'm riding it. I want to feel like I have wings on my feet, I want to be in that zen zone," he says. "When I'm traveling somewhere I want to be totally captured up in the world I'm traveling through, and I don't want to be interrupted or surprised by this. While I'm bent over and the world's flowing through me -- and all of a sudden, I'm wobbling! or the engine's sliding! -- come on, I want it to disappear." To make the 1125R disappear, the engineering team's attention was devoted to three main elements: mass centralization, a stiff chassis and low unsprung weight. The bike's mass, including 5.6 gallons of fuel and an underslung muffler, is carried low and forward, while the 72-degree angle of the engine also allowed it to be pushed a little further toward the helm. The chassis is not only the stiffest they've ever manufactured, promising excellent torsional rigidity, but also the lightest. Also cutting down weight is Buell's radical ZTL braking system, which uses a single, perimeter-mounted 375-mm disc rather than a dual disc. All of this engineering comes at the remarkably reasonable list price of $12,919 ($11,995 U.S.), and is warrantied for two years. Back to the Helicon engine for a moment. Uppermost on the wishlist of specifications presented to Rotax was a power band that had to be "dead flat. No torque dips, none, nothing." The engineers couldn't accomplish it at 1,000 cc, but they could at 1,125 cc. Although that means it won't fit the 1,000-cc race class, the 1125R does dovetail nicely with the company's 25th anniversary. Buell says he was reluctant to make a big deal over the silver anniversary of his company. He felt no urge to mimic Harley, which has a special logo and paint job for every anniversary. For Erik, black and blue was the only combination he had in mind for the new bike's colour scheme, "because I feel black and blue," he says with a laugh, referring to the ups and downs of a quarter-century in the business. Buell took a job with Harley after attending night school to get his engineering degree. Friends teased him for being willing to work for a motorcycle company in Milwaukee instead of an aircraft company in Florida or California. But Buell was a serious racer and mechanic and bikes were his passion. Although he's never been an avid cruiser rider, Buell worked for Harley for four years before starting his own business, eventually realizing his plan to build a sportbike with Harley parts. In 1993, Harley bought into Buell. Five years later, they took over majority control and then bought the whole operation, keeping Erik Buell as chairman and chief technical officer. While the new bike has been earning rave reviews from motorcycle journalists, there's still the question of whether or not the world needs another performance sportbike. Despite prohibitive insurance rates such as those in Ontario, and the proliferation of baby boomers buying cruisers, Buell believes the market is strong for what he's offering. He describes his target customer as a motorcycle enthusiast who appreciates what the bike delivers. "I think it's experienced riders who have owned a number of bikes, like high performance, like technology but aren't into the thrill of the moment or the flavour of the month," he says. "They really ride. We don't think it's an impulse buy." |
