| Author | Message | ||
     Firebolt020283 |
well my wife wanted me to help her with her essay that she was trying to get help with a while back from every one on here. So she asked me to type a paragraph about buell technology so I used the Trilogy of tech to explain it and would like every one to read over my paragraph and let me know how I did and make suggestions of how to improve it. Buell motorcycle's technology is based off of three principals that are referred to by Erik Buell as the “Trilogy of technology.” The first principal is unsprung weight. Unsprung weight is what resides below the suspension. It is composed of the parts that have to move up and down when the motorcycle hits a bump. Low unsprung weight is important to maintain control of the motorcycle. Buell answeres this issue by having the lightest front wheel assembly of any other production motorcycle. They achieve this by using one powerful brake as opposed to 2 less powerful ones. Also they use parameter brakes as opposed to standard disk brakes. This allows the braking force to transfer directly to the wheel with out having to travel threw the spokes of the rim like a standard disk brake system. This is important because this allows you to have thinner spokes on the rim allowing the rim to be much lighter than a standard motorcycle rim. The second principal to the “trilogy of technology” is mass centralization. Mass centralization is taking the weight of the motorcycle and putting it in as low and in the center as possible. An example of this would be to take a base ball bat and hold it out in front of you and then spin your body, then take the base ball bat and hold it next to your body. You Will find out that it is easier to spin your body around holding the base ball bat close to your body than holding it out in front of you. This is because all of the mass is centralized to one area. Buell answers this issue by one putting the exhaust pipe under the bike below the engine instead of out back behind the rider or off to the side like most other motorcycles, and two using the frame as the fuel tank as apposed to up above the frame which is higher than the rest of the mass making it harder to lean the bike from side to side. The third principle of the “Trilogy of Technology” is chassis rigidity. Chassis rigidity is important to provide predictable and consistent response to rider input. Also it provides good road to rider feedback as well as prevents handling characteristics of the motorcycle from changing under acceleration and braking. Buell answers this by using a very rigid aluminum frame to help keep every thing aligned and and not flex under load. | ||
| Hootowl |
"technology is based off of three" --> "technology is based on three " Principal --> principle. | ||
| Iman501 |
nice write up! | ||
| Firebolt020283 |
thanks hootowl I have never been a good speller | ||
| Firebolt020283 |
Iman501 thanks but I don't think I would have been able to do it with out the help of Dave and Courts fine piece of literature. | ||
| Hootowl |
My principal taught me that in the 2nd grade. "I'm your princi-pal" he said. It stayed with me I guess. | ||
| Xb12xmike |
I would change the one/two to 1/2 like this: answers this issue by: (1) putting the exhaust pipe under the bike (etc.) and (2) using the frame as the fuel tank (etc.) | ||
| Kilroy |
Baseball bat instead of base ball bat | ||
| Marksm |
"with out having to travel threw the spokes of the rim" without having to travel through the spokes of the rim  | ||
| Firebolt020283 |
wow thanks guys it truly has been quite a while since I have been in school. | ||
| F_skinner |
Firebolt020283, I review documents all the time so below is just my suggestion. I wish I could use track changes like I do at work but am unable to on the site. Good article and I look forward to reading the completed article. Some observations: Perimeter not Peremeter Disc not Disk Through not threw I hope this helps.... Frank Buell motorcycle's technology is based off of on three principals that are referred to by Erik Buell as the “Trilogy of technology.” The first principal is unsprung weight. Unsprung weight is what resides below the suspension. It is composed of the parts that move up and down when the motorcycle hits a bump. Low unsprung weight is important to maintain control of the motorcycle. Buell answers this issue by having the lightest front wheel assembly of any other production motorcycle. This is achieved by using one powerful brake as opposed to 2 less powerful ones. Buell also uses a perimeter brake disc as opposed to a standard system, allowing the braking force to transfer directly to the wheel without traveling through the spokes of the wheel like a standard disc brake system. This is important because it allows you to have thinner spokes on the rim, allowing the rim to be much lighter than a standard motorcycle rim. The second principal to the “trilogy of technology” is mass centralization. Mass Centralization is placing the mass of the motorcycle, in relation to the overall design, as low and center as possible. An example of this would be to take a base ball bat and hold it out in front of you and then spin your body, then take the base ball bat and hold it next to your body. You will find it is easier to spin your body holding the base ball bat close to your body than holding it out in front of you. This is because all of the mass is centralized to one area. Buell addresses this issue by putting the exhaust pipe under the bike instead of back behind the rider and using the frame as the fuel tank, opposed to above the frame which is higher than the rest of the mass making it difficult to lean the bike from side to side. The third principle of the “Trilogy of Technology” is chassis rigidity. Chassis rigidity is important to provide predictable and consistent response to rider input. Also it provides good rider feedback and prevents handling characteristics of the motorcycle from changing under acceleration and braking. Buell answers this by using a very rigid aluminum frame to keep the motorcycle aligned resulting in a design that does not flex under load. | ||
| F_skinner |
One other thing... I did this quickly so there may be some mistakes that I imposed... Please check my work. | ||
| Firebolt020283 |
Thanks Frank I will get my wife to put the rest of it up once she finishes it because I am sure she will have mistakes as well. | ||
| Court |
Couple thoughts . . .
By the way . . . your writing would place you in the top quartile of the graduate students in my class in an Ivy League University. Well done. | ||
| Court |
PAPERCHECK is your friend. | ||
| Firebolt020283 |
Court thanks for the help, and thank you to you and dave for making such a good reference to use for this section. The yellow section in the book about the trilogy of tech was my main reference as well as the old videos Erik used to have on the buell web site. | ||
| Firebolt020283 |
Ok so my wife suckered me into doing another section of her paper. this section is the history of buell: To know the history of Buell motorcycles you must first know about the history of Erik Buell. Erik Buell was born in 1950 in Gibson, Pa. I first became interested in motorcycles in the 1960s. At this time he was racing motocross and working in various bike shops. In the 1973 he built a bike from a F81M Kawasaki he had wrecked and a H1R frame for a friend of his to go racing with. Him and the friend went to Daytona but the friend decided he wanted out of racing so Erik Buell bought out the friends half of the bike and decided to race the bike his self with a cast on his leg from wrecking the F81M Kawasaki. In the mid 70's he set up a motorcycle parts company called Pittsburgh Performance Products to help cut the cost on his parts for his race bikes and to raise money to pay for them. Also during this time he was working in different bikes shops during the week and at night he was going to collage for a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. While doing all of this he began working his way up the ranks in AMA road racing. Erik Buell graduated from school in 1979. After Graduating from collage he moved to Milwaukee WI to talk his way into a job with Harley Davidson. While Working for Harley Davidson he was still racing, But racing a Yamaha TZ750 and a Ducati. At this time Harley Davidson was struggling to compete with the Japanese companies . His Yamaha was getting old and he did not want to replace it with another Japanese bike since he worked for Harley Davidson. So he instead bought a motorcycle called a Barton in 1980. This bike had a lot of problems and was constantly breaking down on him. In 1982 the founders of Barton decided to end there business and go to work for Armstrong bike company. In 1983 Erik Buell Bought the whole Barton company. From the purchase of the Barton company came the original Buell motor company. From the parts he purchased from Barton he developed the RW750 which used a square four two stroke engine built to compete in AMA's formula one racing. During this time Erik Buell took a leave of absence from Harley Davidson but never went back to work for them. In 1985 sold one RW750 and had another sale pending but then AMA ended the formula one series so the RW750 was no longer eligible to race in AMA racing. In late summer of 1985 Rex Marsee approached Erik Buell to build a show bike for Vetter Industries. Rex wanted it to be based on the RW 750 but Erik did not want to do this as he felt there was no longer a market for two stroke motorcycles, but he did see a chance to create a Harley Davidson engined sport bike. At the same time the Harley Owners Group (HOG) approached Erik with the idea of creating a replacement chassis for there race bike named “Lucifer's Hammer.” From these two request and an XR1000 engine he got from Harley Davidson he built his first street legal bike called the RR1000. Between 1986 and 1988 Buell produced approximately 52 the RR1000 motorcycles before they were replaced by the RR1200 due to the fact that Harley Davidson no longer made the XR1000 engine. The RR 1200 was produced from 1988-1989 and used Harley Davidson's Evolution 1200cc engine which can be found in Harley Davidson Sportsters from 1986 to present. In 1989 Buell Motor Co. moved from Erik Buell's Barn to a Quonset hut in Mukwanago, WI. This is were Buell started Producing the RS 1200 Westwind. This was a bike that was built more for street riding than track riding like the RR1000 and RR1200. This bike along with a single seat version called was produced from 1989 to 1990 when the engine was replaced with a five speed version (the original was a 4 speed). The 5 speed version was produced along with a single seat version from 1991 to 1993. In 1993 Buell Motor company was ended and Buell Motorcycle Company was started which was 51% owned by Erik Buell and 49% owned By Harley Davidson. With this new company came a new motorcycle called the S2 thunderbolt. This bike would be thousands of dollars less than any Buell built under the old company. This Bike was produced from 1994 to 1996. In 1996 Buell came out with a second model called the S1 Lightning. This was a more Naked bike with very little body work and was considered what is called a street fighter. The s1 Lightning was produced from 1996 to 1998. In 1997 the S2 Thunderbolt was replaced by the S3 thunderbolt and a third model was introduced called the M2 Cyclone. The S3 Thunderbolt was a bit more refined than the S2 and easier to build than the S2. The M2 used the same Frame as the S3 but with less body work, less horse power and standard forks as apposed to inverted forks like the rest of the Buell models. In 1999 the S1 Lightning was replaced By the X1 Lightning which was fuel injected and had thunderstorm heads. All 1999 models carried the thunderstorm heads. Also in 1999 the S3 became fuel injected. These three models were produced until 2002. In 2000 Buell introduced the Blast. This new bike used a completely different engine than any other model which was a 500cc single cylinder engine. This bike was built with beginners in mind. It was less aggressive and sporty than other Buells. The blast engine was the basis for what would be Buells new v-twin engine that would be totally built for Buell alone and not a Sportster that was supped up for Buell. In 2003 the XB line was introduced. This was a revolutionary new bike in many ways. This bike featured many first for a production sport bike such as fuel in frame, ZTL (Zero Torsional Load) brakes, and oil in the Swing arm. This new bike came in two models, The XB9R Firebolt and the XB9S lightning. The Firebolt has a a sport bike seating position and clip-on style handlebars and the Lightning has a more up right dirt bike style seating position with a more naked appearance. These two motorcycles used a 984cc air cooled v-twin engine. In 2004 Buell came out with 1200cc versions of these two models. The XB line had a total of 10 different variants to include a limited edition only 50 made race version called the XBRR. The XB line was produced from 2003 until 2009 when the company was ended by Harley Davidson. In 2008 Buell introduced There new 1125r which contained much of the technology that the XB line used but carried a Liquid cooled 1125cc over head cam engine built by Rotax. This Bike was Buells biggest step towards being a competitive production sportbike. In 2009 Buell introduced the 1125CR which was a cafe racer version of the 1125R. This version had a more naked front fairing compared to the 1125R. In October 2009 Harley made the decision to end the Buell company. Erik Buell worked for Harley Davidson for a month after wards for a month before leaving to start up a new company called Erik Buell Racing. This new company has a contract with Harley Davidson to Build race only versions of the 1125R motorcycles as well as provide privateer racers who race buell motorcycles race parts for there bikes. please let me know what you think and feel free to make suggestions of any kind. | ||
| Court |
Two IMMEDIATE thoughts . . . . .   | ||
| Firebolt020283 |
I was already thinking that but I am really bad at knowing how to figure out how to separate it very well. | ||
| Lovemybuellman |
Buell motorcycles have changed the face of American made sports bikes because of the technology and the look of the bike all together. Erik Buell took an idea and made an American alternative to the Asian and Italian sports bike in production. The whole company could be considered an American dream. Buell Motorcycle’s technology is based off of three principles that are referred to by Erik Buell as the “Trilogy of Technology”. The first principle is unsprung weight. Unsprung weight is weight that resides below the suspension. It is composed of the parts that have to move and down when the motorcycle hits a bump. Low unsprung weight is important to maintain control of the motorcycle. Buell answers this issue by having the lightest front wheel assembly of any production motorcycle. They achieve this by using one powerful brake as opposed to 2 less powerful ones. Also they use perimeter brakes as opposed to standard disk brakes. This allows the braking force to transfer directly to the wheel without having to travel through the spokes of the rim like a standard disk brake system. This is important because this allows thinner spokes on the rim allowing the rim to be much lighter than a standard motorcycle rim. The second principle to the “ Trilogy of Technology” is mass centralization is taking the weight of the motorcycle and putting it as nearly centered in the motorcycle as possible. An example of this would be to take a base ball bat a hold it out in front of you and then spin your body, then take the baseball bat and hold it next to your body. You will find out that it is easier to spin your body around holding the baseball bat close to your body than holding it out in front of you. This is because all of the mass is centralized to one area. Buell answers this is issues by one putting a exhaust pipe under the bike below the engine instead of out back behind the rider of off to the side like most motorcycles, and also using the frame as the fuel tank as opposed to up above the frame which is higher than the rest of the mass making it harder to lean the bike from side to side. The third principle of the “ Trilogy of Technology” is chassis rigidity. Chassis rigidity is important to provide predictable and consistent response to rider input. Also it provides good road to rider feedback as well as prevents handling characteristics of the motorcycle from changing under acceleration and braking. Buell answers this by using very rigid aluminum to help keep everything aligned and minimize flex under load. To know the history of Buell motorcycles you must first know about the history of Erik Buell. Erik Buell was born in 1950 in Gibson, Pa. I first became interested in motorcycles in the 1960s. At this time he was racing motocross and working in various bike shops. In the 1973 he built a bike from a F81M Kawasaki he had wrecked and a H1R frame for a friend of his to go racing with. Him and the friend went to Daytona but the friend decided he wanted out of racing so Erik Buell bought out the friends half of the bike and decided to race the bike his self with a cast on his leg from wrecking the F81M Kawasaki. In the mid 70's he set up a motorcycle parts company called Pittsburgh Performance Products to help cut the cost on his parts for his race bikes and to raise money to pay for them. Also during this time he was working in different bikes shops during the week and at night he was going to collage for a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. While doing all of this he began working his way up the ranks in AMA road racing. Erik Buell graduated from school in 1979. After Graduating from collage he moved to Milwaukee WI to talk his way into a job with Harley Davidson. While Working for Harley Davidson he was still racing, but racing a Yamaha TZ750 and a Ducati. At this time Harley Davidson was struggling to compete with the Japanese companies. His Yamaha was getting old and he did not want to replace it with another Japanese bike since he worked for Harley Davidson. So he instead bought a motorcycle called a Barton in 1980. This bike had a lot of problems and was constantly breaking down on him. In 1982 the founders of Barton decided to end there business and go to work for Armstrong bike company. In 1983 Erik Buell Bought the whole Barton company. From the purchase of the Barton Company came the original Buell motor company. From the parts he purchased from Barton he developed the RW750 which used a square four two stroke engine built to compete in AMA's formula one racing. During this time Erik Buell took a leave of absence from Harley Davidson but never went back to work for them. In 1985 sold one RW750 and had another sale pending but then AMA ended the formula one series so the RW750 was no longer eligible to race in AMA racing. In late summer of 1985 Rex Marsee approached Erik Buell to build a show bike for Vetter Industries. Rex wanted it to be based on the RW 750 but Erik did not want to do this as he felt there was no longer a market for two stroke motorcycles, but he did see a chance to create a Harley Davidson engine sport bike. At the same time the Harley Owners Group (HOG) approached Erik with the idea of creating a replacement chassis for their race bike named “Lucifer's Hammer.” From these two requests and an XR1000 engine he got from Harley Davidson he built his first street legal bike called the RR1000. Between 1986 and 1988 Buell produced approximately 52 the RR1000 motorcycles before they were replaced by the RR1200 due to the fact that Harley Davidson no longer made the XR1000 engine. The RR 1200 was produced from 1988-1989 and used Harley Davidson's Evolution 1200cc engine, which can be found in Harley Davidson Sportsters from 1986 to present. In 1989 Buell Motor Co. moved from Erik Buell's Barn to a Quonset hut in Mukwonago, WI. This is Buell started Producing the RS 1200 West wind. This was a bike that was built more for street riding than track riding like the RR1000 and RR1200. This bike along with a single seat version called was produced from 1989 to 1990 when the engine was replaced with a five-speed version (the original was a 4 speed). The 5-speed version was produced along with a single seat version from 1991 to 1993. In 1993 Buell Motor company was ended and Buell Motorcycle Company was started which was 51% owned by Erik Buell and 49% owned By Harley Davidson. With this new company came a new motorcycle called the S2 thunderbolt. This bike would be thousands of dollars less than any Buell built under the old company. This Bike was produced from 1994 to 1996. In 1996 Buell came out with a second model called the S1 Lightning. This was a more Naked bike with very little bodywork and was considered what is called a street fighter. The s1 Lightning was produced from 1996 to 1998. In 1997 the S2 Thunderbolt was replaced by the S3 thunderbolt and a third model was introduced called the M2 Cyclone. The S3 Thunderbolt was a bit more refined than the S2 and easier to build than the S2. The M2 used the same Frame as the S3 but with less bodywork, less horsepower and standard forks as apposed to inverted forks like the rest of the Buell models. In 1999 the S1 Lightning was replaced By the X1 Lightning which was fuel injected and had thunderstorm heads. All 1999 models carried the thunderstorm heads. Also in 1999 the S3 became fuel injected. These three models were produced until 2002. In 2000 Buell introduced the Blast. This new bike used a completely different engine than any other model, which was a 500cc single cylinder engine. This bike was built with beginners in mind. It was less aggressive and sporty than other Buell’s. The blast engine was the basis for what would be Buell’s new v-twin engine that would be totally built for Buell alone and not a Sportster that was supped up for Buell. In 2003 the XB line was introduced. This was a revolutionary new bike in many ways. This bike featured many first for a production sport bike such as fuel in frame, ZTL (Zero Torsional Load) brakes, and oil in the Swing arm. This new bike came in two models, The XB9R Firebolt and the XB9S lightning. The Firebolt has a sport bike seating position and clip-on style handlebars and the Lightning has a more up right dirt bike style seating position with a more naked appearance. These two motorcycles used a 984cc air-cooled v-twin engine. In 2004 Buell came out with 1200cc versions of these two models. The XB line had a total of 10 different variants to include a limited edition only 50 made race version called the XBRR. The XB line was produced from 2003 until2009 when Harley Davidson ended the company. In 2008 Buell introduced There new 1125r which contained much of the technology that the XB line used but carried a Liquid cooled 1125cc over head cam engine built by Rotax. This Bike was Buell’s biggest step towards being a competitive production sport bike. In 2009 Buell introduced the 1125CR, which was a cafe racer version of the 1125R. This version had a more naked front fairing compared to the 1125R. In October 2009 Harley made the decision to end the Buell Company. Erik Buell worked for Harley Davidson for a month after wards for a month before leaving to start up a new company called Erik Buell Racing. This new company has a contract with Harley Davidson to Build race only versions of the 1125R motorcycles as well as provide privateer racers who race Buell motorcycles race parts for there bikes. From the technology and the look of the bike Buell’s have made a name for them selves. Erick Buell made American sports bike something to consider as apposed to Asian or an Italian bike. The company has overcome adversity and took “Trilogy of Technology” to make amazing motorcycles. Even though the company ended this past October it can still only be described as s American success story and who knows what Erik Buell has up his sleeve | ||
| Lovemybuellman |
Thats the whole essay I guess the 5th paragraph is a bit long. | ||
| 86129squids |
Scanned the whole thing once- is there no mention of the 100% ownership move in 1998 by the Moco? Buell's production pre- and post buyout could be summed up separately and each given a little more elaboration... Also, no mention of the change from the more conventional trellis frames to the XB and Loki platforms, with the raft of patents and uniqueness of frame design... Just my $.02... | ||
| Danger_dave |
'their bikes'. | ||
| Danger_dave |
Meant as constructive here: I saw those big blocks of text and read the first and last sentence. Too hard and too much to bother with for a casual reader. Look at how professional documents are written and laid out and copy them. | ||
| Danger_dave |
>>Just my $.02... << I think you over-valued it. (I say that to everyone who says that now, regardless of what they wrote.) | ||
| Etennuly |
Break paragraphs down into thoughts. First an introductory sentence to introduce what you are thinking about, and then the meat of the paragraph that explains or covers what you are thinking. Then ease out of the paragraph with a closing sentence. The next paragraph should follow the same pattern. This particular one is explaining further the previous paragraph's set up, but by going further with a separate thought about the thought in the first paragraph. It could end the story here. I, however, feel the need to proceed further with detailing the need for breaking down a lot of sentences into paragraphs that explain separate thoughts into recognizable patterns that can be understood by the reader. In doing this thought pattern making, forming paragraphs let the readers mind take a break between thoughts. Like now. Then you can proceed with jibberish and nonsensical writing, as I am doing here, without loosing the reader. That is what happened to me when I was trying to read your really, really long paragraph. I even had to stop to pee, and then find my place when I came back. I have now written a bunch of nothing about how you wrote your report about something I care very much about, Buell motorcycles. If you re-read your story and mine, even though mine is almost literally about nothing, it is easier to read and understand. Comprende'?.....My $.08 (that should get me near two cents, eh DD?). | ||
| Danger_dave |
Bloody inflation. :-( | ||
| Etennuly |
 | ||
| Lovemybuellman |
 ok | ||
| Lovemybuellman |
Buell motorcycles have changed the face of American made sports bikes because of the technology and the look of the bike all together. Erik Buell took an idea and made an American alternative to the Asian and Italian sports bike in production. The whole company could be considered an American dream. Buell Motorcycle’s technology is based off of three principles that are referred to by Erik Buell as the “Trilogy of Technology”. The first principle is unsprung weight. Unsprung weight is weight that resides below the suspension. It is composed of the parts that have to move and down when the motorcycle hits a bump. Low unsprung weight is important to maintain control of the motorcycle. Buell answers this issue by having the lightest front wheel assembly of any production motorcycle. They achieve this by using one powerful brake as opposed to 2 less powerful ones. Also they use perimeter brakes as opposed to standard disk brakes. This allows the braking force to transfer directly to the wheel without having to travel through the spokes of the rim like a standard disk brake system. This is important because this allows thinner spokes on the rim allowing the rim to be much lighter than a standard motorcycle rim. The second principle to the “ Trilogy of Technology” is mass centralization is taking the weight of the motorcycle and putting it as nearly centered in the motorcycle as possible. An example of this would be to take a base ball bat a hold it out in front of you and then spin your body, then take the baseball bat and hold it next to your body. You will find out that it is easier to spin your body around holding the baseball bat close to your body than holding it out in front of you. This is because all of the mass is centralized to one area. Buell answers this is issues by one putting a exhaust pipe under the bike below the engine instead of out back behind the rider of off to the side like most motorcycles, and also using the frame as the fuel tank as opposed to up above the frame which is higher than the rest of the mass making it harder to lean the bike from side to side. The third principle of the “ Trilogy of Technology” is chassis rigidity. Chassis rigidity is important to provide predictable and consistent response to rider input. Also it provides good road to rider feedback as well as prevents handling characteristics of the motorcycle from changing under acceleration and braking. Buell answers this by using very rigid aluminum to help keep everything aligned and minimize flex under load. To know the history of Buell motorcycles you must first know about the history of Erik Buell. Erik Buell was born in 1950 in Gibson, Pa. I first became interested in motorcycles in the 1960s. At this time he was racing motocross and working in various bike shops. In the 1973 he built a bike from a F81M Kawasaki he had wrecked and a H1R frame for a friend of his to go racing with. Him and the friend went to Daytona but the friend decided he wanted out of racing so Erik Buell bought out the friends half of the bike and decided to race the bike his self with a cast on his leg from wrecking the F81M Kawasaki. In the mid 70's he set up a motorcycle parts company called Pittsburgh Performance Products to help cut the cost on his parts for his race bikes and to raise money to pay for them. Also during this time he was working in different bikes shops during the week and at night he was going to collage for a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. While doing all of this he began working his way up the ranks in AMA road racing. Erik Buell graduated from school in 1979. After Graduating from collage he moved to Milwaukee WI to talk his way into a job with Harley Davidson. While working for Harley Davidson he was still racing, but racing a Yamaha TZ750 and a Ducati. At this time Harley Davidson was struggling to compete with the Japanese companies. His Yamaha was getting old and he did not want to replace it with another Japanese bike since he worked for Harley Davidson. So he instead bought a motorcycle called a Barton in 1980. This bike had a lot of problems and was constantly breaking down on him. In 1982 the founders of Barton decided to end there business and go to work for Armstrong bike company. In 1983 Erik Buell Bought the whole Barton company. From the purchase of the Barton Company came the original Buell motor company. From the parts he purchased from Barton he developed the RW750 which used a square four two stroke engine built to compete in AMA's formula one racing. During this time Erik Buell took a leave of absence from Harley Davidson but never went back to work for them. In 1985 sold one RW750 and had another sale pending but then AMA ended the formula one series so the RW750 was no longer eligible to race in AMA racing. In late summer of 1985 Rex Marsee approached Erik Buell to build a show bike for Vetter Industries. Rex wanted it to be based on the RW 750 but Erik did not want to do this as he felt there was no longer a market for two stroke motorcycles, but he did see a chance to create a Harley Davidson engine sport bike. At the same time the Harley Owners Group (HOG) approached Erik with the idea of creating a replacement chassis for their race bike named “Lucifer's Hammer.” From these two requests and an XR1000 engine he got from Harley Davidson he built his first street legal bike called the RR1000. Between 1986 and 1988 Buell produced approximately 52 the RR1000 motorcycles before they were replaced by the RR1200 due to the fact that Harley Davidson no longer made the XR1000 engine. The RR 1200 was produced from 1988-1989 and used Harley Davidson's Evolution 1200cc engine, which can be found in Harley Davidson Sportsters from 1986 to present. In 1989 Buell Motor Co. moved from Erik Buell's Barn to a Quonset hut in Mukwonago, WI. This is Buell started Producing the RS 1200 West wind. This was a bike that was built more for street riding than track riding like the RR1000 and RR1200. This bike along with a single seat version called was produced from 1989 to 1990 when the engine was replaced with a five-speed version (the original was a 4 speed). The 5-speed version was produced along with a single seat version from 1991 to 1993. In 1993 Buell Motor company was ended and Buell Motorcycle Company was started which was 51% owned by Erik Buell and 49% owned By Harley Davidson. With this new company came a new motorcycle called the S2 thunderbolt. This bike would be thousands of dollars less than any Buell built under the old company. This Bike was produced from 1994 to 1996. In 1996 Buell came out with a second model called the S1 Lightning. This was a more Naked bike with very little bodywork and was considered what is called a street fighter. The s1 Lightning was produced from 1996 to 1998. In 1997 the S2 Thunderbolt was replaced by the S3 thunderbolt and a third model was introduced called the M2 Cyclone. The S3 Thunderbolt was a bit more refined than the S2 and easier to build than the S2. The M2 used the same Frame as the S3 but with less bodywork, less horsepower and standard forks as apposed to inverted forks like the rest of the Buell models. In 1999 the S1 Lightning was replaced By the X1 Lightning which was fuel injected and had thunderstorm heads. All 1999 models carried the thunderstorm heads. Also in 1999 the S3 became fuel injected. These three models were produced until 2002. In 2000 Buell introduced the Blast. This new bike used a completely different engine than any other model, which was a 500cc single cylinder engine. This bike was built with beginners in mind. It was less aggressive and sporty than other Buell’s. The blast engine was the basis for what would be Buell’s new v-twin engine that would be totally built for Buell alone and not a Sportster that was supped up for Buell. In 2003 the XB line was introduced. This was a revolutionary new bike in many ways. This bike featured many first for a production sport bike such as fuel in frame, ZTL (Zero Torsional Load) brakes, and oil in the Swing arm. This new bike came in two models, The XB9R Firebolt and the XB9S lightning. The Firebolt has a sport bike seating position and clip-on style handlebars and the Lightning has a more up right dirt bike style seating position with a more naked appearance. These two motorcycles used a 984cc air-cooled v-twin engine. In 2004 Buell came out with 1200cc versions of these two models. The XB line had a total of 10 different variants to include a limited edition only 50 made race version called the XBRR. The XB line was produced from 2003 until2009 when Harley Davidson ended the company. In 2008 Buell introduced There new 1125r which contained much of the technology that the XB line used but carried a Liquid cooled 1125cc over head cam engine built by Rotax. This Bike was Buell’s biggest step towards being a competitive production sport bike. In 2009 Buell introduced the 1125CR, which was a cafe racer version of the 1125R. This version had a more naked front fairing compared to the 1125R. In October 2009 Harley made the decision to end the Buell Company. Erik Buell worked for Harley Davidson for a month after wards for a month before leaving to start up a new company called Erik Buell Racing. This new company has a contract with Harley Davidson to Build race only versions of the 1125R motorcycles as well as provide privateer racers who race Buell motorcycles race parts for there bikes. From the technology and the look of the bike Buell’s have made a name for them selves. Erick Buell made American sports bike something to consider as apposed to Asian or an Italian bike. The company has overcome adversity and took “Trilogy of Technology” to make amazing motorcycles. Even though the company ended this past October it can still only be described as s American success story and who knows what Erik Buell has up his sleeve. References Canfield, C., & Gess, D. (2008). 25 years of Buell. Center Conway, New Hampshire: Whitehorse Press. |
