| Author | Message | ||
     Firebolt020283 |
Blake that is Eddie's twin brother... (Message edited by firebolt020283 on November 29, 2010) | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
The more I look the more I like. Too bad it's gonna be expensive. C'mon Bombardier, lets get some mass production, economies of scale going! | ||
| Hughlysses |
I can think of a couple of Badwebbers that will flip about the dirt bike. BTW- some more interesting tidbits about various E-B-R plans are revealed in the interview linked at the Asphalt and Rubber article Jaimec posted above. Direct link: http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c ?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.motonline.com/pr ove/Articolo.cfm%3FCodice%3D283244&rurl=translate. google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhiw5p_jIseibO7OPfDZ6-D7Y iSCJw | ||
| Mikef5000 |
That is dead sexy, but I think any naked bike they make should have a more comfortable seat (think XB-S) and upright bars. | ||
| 2008xb12scg |
very very interesting... | ||
| Hughlysses |
Different Barracuda photo at the interview link:  | ||
| Bartimus |
yea, that tail is just too small for my fat azz. and I need to be able to sling a set of soft luggage over it also... YUP. we are still dreaming of a sport tourer from Erik. | ||
| 2008xb12scg |
once he has the basic sport bike, it's easy to tune and dress it for a sport, sport tourer or naked bike. Like the xb line only better. | ||
| Ratbuell |
For all the sport-tourer beggars out there - read the Asphalt and Rubber interview. "You have to bring the heat". Smack down the competition (or hell, the whole industry!) first. Build a name. Get a rep. Make sure you have instant recognizablility. THEN, expand the line. Get the RR out. Win some races. Gain some respect - GLOBAL respect - for the platform. THEN, figure out (as if he hasn't already - he built an 1125 concept in 1988!) how to put together a capable sport-tour on the platform. That Typhon looks waaay more polished than a Loki. Don't get me wrong, I love my CR...but the cooling setup on the Typhon? Art. Plain and simple. Not to mention the tuber-esque lattice tail section. Just like he says in the interview - "this is the bike we should have come out with first" (the Barracuda) "but HD got in the way". Paraphrased, of course. But it's in there. Interview: a very good read. Typhon: a VERY nice motorcycle. My question...where Bombardier is concerned...who's buying who? LOL Things are gettin' good now!!  | ||
| Gregtonn |
"once he has the basic sport bike, it's easy to tune and dress it for a sport, sport tourer or naked bike. Like the xb line only better." I agree with most of that. I would add one thing. I think a sport tourer needs a minimum range of 200 miles on one tank. Maybe a slightly longer frame would add fuel capacity and keep the front tire from spending too much time in the air with hard bags on. G | ||
| Rex |
Doesn't typhoon have two ooooo's? Agree with more of a sports touring bike with higher bars and lower pegs. Probably not in the cards for us at the present. probably just trying to build the best sport bike. REX | ||
| Phelan |
Typhoon does have two O's. TYPHON has only one O. Different word, different meaning. | ||
| Ridenusa4l |
so how about the pic of the 1190RS??   Jake | ||
| Trojan |
Very Nice indeed. Why didn't the CR look like that to start with? | ||
| Court |
>>>Why didn't the CR look like that to start with? It did.
Brought to you by the same folks who think "black" is a model and who think a Sportster is a "racing motorcycle:. "Ahh Paulie, Won't See Him No More." | ||
| Trojan |
No excuse Court, whoever is to blame for the original styling of the 1125 (whether Buell or H-D) got it very wrong in most motorcyclists eyes and hence sold far less than they should have done and that the model deserved. The styling was the biggest single failure of the 1125 in a lot of peoples eyes (mine included) and this was not addressed with the launch of the 1125CR. Who took the decision to style the bike 'in house' rather than by a decent professional stylist as they did with the XB range? If the 1125 did look a little like the Typhon originally I would like to know who decided to 'restyle' it so it ended up like the 1125 we got? Are you saying that this all happened with no input from Buell but was all done against their will by the nasty people at H-D? | ||
| Glitch |
Matt, if you believe the Erik Buell interviews, this all happened with little or no input from Buell but was all done against their will by the nasty people at H-D. (Message edited by Glitch on November 30, 2010) | ||
| Blake |
>>> Are you saying that this all happened with no input from Buell but was all done against their will by the nasty people at H-D? Kinda, mostly, but to clarify, H-D dictated design constraints to Buell, one of which was no full fairing. That edict was indeed opposite the will of the folks at Buell. | ||
| Xb9er |
I think a 2003 xb9r in battle blue is the best looking bike ever made | ||
| Trojan |
Kinda, mostly, but to clarify, H-D dictated design constraints to Buell, one of which was no full fairing. That edict was indeed opposite the will of the folks at Buell. That is all very well, but I don't beleive that every single decision made at Buell Motor Company was either overrulled or diregarded by H-D, so there must still be some corporate responsibility for their products. It would be easy now to blame H-D executives for everything that ever went wrong or didn't work at Buell, but I'm sure that isn't the whole picture. They could for example have designed an attractive half fairing and still fitted into the design brief, rather than the end result we got. Even the existng XB fairing was more attractive so why not keep that (they did that with the seat unit after all!). It may have world beating aerodynamic qualities etc but buyers didn't like the look of it and we all know that bikes sell on looks more than any other factor, including performance. The CR was worse if anything, because they didn't do anything about styling faults when they had the ideal chance to make a new model with a clean styling sheet rather than just remove the fairing and stick a Streetfighter headlight on the exising 1125R. I know it is easy to criticise after the event, and hindsight is 20/20 etc, but you only have to look at the competitors products to see that Buell were on the wrong styling track to what most prospective buyers were wanting. | ||
| Blake |
>>> I don't beleive that every single decision made at Buell Motor Company was either overrulled or diregarded by H-D "every single decision" You win as you are arguing against a straw man. >>> It would be easy now to blame H-D executives for everything that ever went wrong or didn't work at Buell, but I'm sure that isn't the whole picture. You win again. Again you argue against a straw man. >>> Even the existng XB fairing Racing part? I have no idea what you are talking about. There was no XBike that sold with a full fairing. >>> They could for example have designed an attractive half fairing and still fitted into the design brief, rather than the end result we got. No way to counter your argument as you seem to be guessing at the facts. What is this "design brief" that you reference? Did you not read the Cycle World article by Steve Anderson that commented in detail on all the projects that Buell wanted but H-D killed? A quick summary: 1. The Baracuda version of the 1125 from the start. H-D stole the Porsche designed engine intended for Buell to use on the VRod, ruining it for any serious sport bike use. 2. A 120 RWHP turbo-charged XBike. H-D demanded that Buell wait while they/H-D develop their own turbo-charger in-house. They never did. 3. A 130 RWHP XBRR-based (detuned for street use) XBike. Killed by H-D. 4. Even the Blast engine was sabotaged as H-D broke wildly from their original cost quote making the bike unprofitable for Buell. From what I've heard, H-D did similarly with the XBRR engine. Incompetence and arrogance seem to have been the rule at H-D wrt Buell, either that or an intentional campaign to ruin the sport bike company. It's tough to believe that management of a company could be so unbelievably incompetent as to allow all the above. >>> I know it is easy to criticise after the event, and hindsight is 20/20 etc, but you only have to look at the competitors products to see that Buell were on the wrong styling track to what most prospective buyers were wanting. As they were hamstrung by H-D. As soon as they break from orders and develop what they wanted all along, the Baracuda 1190, they were summarily executed. It's as if H-D saw Buell about to gain huge market share in the repli-racer superbike market but just couldn't tolerate the thought of such great success. Or maybe you have a better explanation. (Message edited by blake on November 30, 2010) | ||
| Jandj_davis |
Lovely. Absolutely lovely. | ||
| Trojan |
>>> Even the existng XB fairing Racing part? I have no idea what you are talking about. There was no XBike that sold with a full fairing. >>> They could for example have designed an attractive half fairing and still fitted into the design brief, rather than the end result we got. No way to counter your argument as you seem to be guessing at the facts. What is this "design brief" that you reference I meant they could have fitted the original XB9R road fairing and that would have been more atractive than the 1125 offering (if a little dated by the time the 1125 launched). The 'design brief' I mentioned was in response to you saying that H-D wanted only a half fairing. There is considerable latitude in such a statement which does not automatically mean you design something ugly surely? Suzuki, Ducati and many others managed to design a half faired bike that didn't look as if the fairing was an afterthought after all. I find it very hard to believe that H-D deliberately sabotaged Buell at every turn just to force them out of business at considerable cost to H-D themselves in the process. They may have made bad decisions and run things badly, but a deliberate conspiracy to run their own company into the ground? | ||
| Elvis |
There's a very interesting (though exceedingly frustrating) exchange in the latest Cathcart interview in which Cathcart asks why the 1125R wasn't a 1200 from the start (and I'll have to paraphrase here), Erik responds that the V-Rod is an 1130, to which Cathcart, puzzled, points out that the 1125 and V-Rod are completely different engines. Erik then says something like: "Let's just say it's a corporate thing". The apparent implication is that Harley wouldn't allow the Buell to be a 1200 because then it would have more displacement than the V-Rod. | ||
| Blake |
>>> I find it very hard to believe that H-D deliberately sabotaged Buell at every turn "at every turn" Not "at every turn" as you say, and not H-D as a policy, but a few key persons with ego problems certainly could do much damage. The issue Elvis documents is par for the course. Combine that with an utterly clueless HDI board of directors save just a few and you get what you deserve, disgusting, unmitigated, well-earned FAILURE. | ||
| Blake |
"H-D wanted only a half fairing." I didn't say that, only that they forbade a full-fairing. The forbade other stuff too. I don't have a complete list. | ||
| Rex |
Sure is a shame. from the cycle world article. Some great models that would have been very popular were not created. I believe some of the pricing for the various models would have been successful too. Buell really changed the air cooled motor that HD had. I believe some of the last Buell air cooled motors were very good, taking care of some of the problems the old sportster motor had. Mostly all buell engineered, I believe. Buells have always been a little different than the industry anyway, in looks and design. Probably the biggest thing on the 1125 was the look of the pods. I think that was probably the biggest thing people didn't like about the looks. They could have been easily designed in with a small fairing, still showing the motor and not have a full fairing look. Sure is odd to think HD didn't want a full fairing bike. You can only see the cases of the motor anyway, since the frame members really cover the top half of the motor. They must not like any of the looks of the Japanese or European bikes designed with the full fairings. You can have opinions in business, but you have to realize what segment you are working in, and what the market research from your customers want. The other full fairing bikes from the competitors aren't there because people hate them. The folks buying the bikes want them. Still one of the best looking bikes was the S1 White LIghtning in my opinion. All white bodywork, all white frame, white wheels, and the blacked out motor. Very minimal in looks...Motor and wheels, with a seat. | ||
| Rex |
 Of course I like the looks of this bike of mine too. rex | ||
| 86129squids |
Rex- sweet ride! Got enuf brake there, buddy? Someone local to Knoxville has a nice looking X1 on Craigslist, sez it has a fresh motor, etc.- asking 5K OBO, which is a little optimistic... | ||
| Bikertrash05 |
>>>Why didn't the CR look like that to start with? It did.  And I would have bought one. The pods STILL haven't grown on me. |
