| Author | Message | ||
     Court |
Interesting night....  | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Court, Stop teasing us! More pic's!! How about letting us see the rest of that beast! Brad | ||
| Court |
It was nice to see old friends again. Gary brought something he's working on. It was done for a very SPECIFIC purpose, to show his confederates what some of the new young talent could do with no outside input. We laughed about when folks took Erik Buell to task for placing the muffler right smack dab in, from a polar moment of inertia perspective, the PERFECTLY neutral place on the motorcycle. Sure folks will tell you that Erik's being ahead of his time had no influence.....but they'll admit the 2nd caveman to produce a wheel likely said the same thing. Anyway.....  | ||
| Kahuna |
What is this suppose to be??  | ||
| Blastin |
When I was at the IMS show in Chicago, everyone was drooling over the Honda NAS(?) CONCEPT bike. I walked up to take a look, and everyone in the crowd was having trouble finding the exhaust muffler. Being a good Bueller, I pointed out that it is under the bike.( Where it belongs.) Everyone in the crowd was amazed that you could put the muffler under the bike, instead of having this huge ugly(in my opinion) can stuck on the side of the bike. I then pointed them to the BUELL display and said that this concept has been used for several years on Production bikes. It is good to see others thinking outside the perverbeal box. Nice pictures Court  | ||
| Mikej |
Looks like a c/f front fork peeking out there, single sided as well?????  | ||
| M2cyclone00 |
The first one is a Yamaha Roadstar/Warrior based concept bike. The second is the Honda single sided fork & swingarm concept bike. I saw that one at Daytona. I've never seen the first. Show us the rest Court. Dave | ||
| Court |
Truer words have never been spoken and just what I was thinking as the Diet Coke spewed from my nose and a German engineer talked about the radical "innovation" shown below. I harkened back to 12 years ago and a conversation with a dejected struggling engineer who'd sent TUV a bike that had a muffler under it with the outlet pointed toward the rear tire. "Ustvutenwatzensprayin" uttered the omniscient German touting his arrogance....."takest ye back to Mukwonago and FIX this contraption, lest it cause the rear tire to go POPanzee at speed". Hastily our hero retreated ...started ciphering....explaining thermodynamics....where kilocalories go to die.....how a rotating mass of rubber responds to changes in thermal state and threshold levels necessary to diminish integrity...how Graham's Law applies to the dissipation Returning with sound engineering information he plopped in on the table in front of the Hun who bellered....."Ve arst German Engineers....ve didn't ask to have it explained...ve said FIX IT!" This story, though true in basis is embellished for consumption here....but, to help illustrate the glee that some of us (who can say so publically) feel in the vindication of seeing things like this.....  By the way this is one incredibly well executed bike...darn thing is art and game to replace the 2000 F650 currently living in my garage. | ||
| Court |
   | ||
| Jim_M |
Anyone know what the kanji means on the Yammy's tail pipes (talk about a hot seat  ) | ||
| Ara |
Court: Why is the pully on that F650 so deep? It appears in the picture that the pully hub sticks out an inch wider that than the pully itself. Looks like a lot of unsprung mass to me. Is that just a photo-effect, or is it really like that? Russ | ||
| Court |
I loved this thing. Frankly, as a dyed in the wool "Buellaholic" there exists a cathartic component as the waves on the marketing ocean subside and the entrenched companies gingerly put a toe into the waters where the "American Dreamer" has been swimming since I met him.  Today I am free from any worry about whether the XB9R lands in a given spot today, tomorrow or next week and instead reminded how lucky we all are to be part of a living dream. Don't think for one moment that each and every person who owns a Buell isn't just as much a part of the dream. Erik, if he took a moment to come up for a breath, would tell you the same thing.  A dream without beleivers is a book without words. In typical fashion, the highlight of the evening was a PERSON. I got to meet another legend who I'd never met face to face. Turns out that he was perhaps one of the closest of the close to my dear friend the late Joe Boyd. We shared tales about how Joe and I met in the days of the 1996 S-1 testing and intro and how Joe had single handedly changed the course of Honda in the United States. Joe, he explained, had an uncanny ability to communicate to the Japanese. Even the one's who didn't speak a word of English were moved by Joe's frequent presentations. In his final years his job was receiving the Japanese design, testing it and sending it back with proposed mods to make it marketable in the USofA. He was, one the level of Erik Buell, not only a genius but a person who changed all the lives he touched.  The NAS is unique in that not one idea, part or design element came from outside the 100 acre Torrence Campus. I listened in wonder about how, left unconstrained and encouraged to "fly" a group of young engineers were encouraged to think, not about how "it looked" but how to make it the most functional. How to optimize everything. "Have you ever heard of such a thing?", the question came. "Yes....15 years ago.....and, it works", I replied There are days I think about other hobbies and then all of a sudden I realize that long before life's Low Fuel light came on we all got to share a gift of friendship. You think the big boys don't watch Erik Buell closer than they do his parents, guess again. | ||
| Court |
Russ: The hub is part of the single sided swingarm that is tough to pick up in this photo. The pulley, itself, looks like it's begging to go "cross platform" and be part of a biiger/more powerful bike as well, huh? | ||
| S320002 |
Court, A tachometer on a Yahmaha that only goes to 6,000 RPM? And some people think we have it bad. Greg  | ||
| Jim_M |
"The hub is part of the single sided swingarm that is tough to pick up in this photo. The pulley, itself, looks like it's begging to go "cross platform" and be part of a biiger/more powerful bike as well, huh? " Maybe the Hooligan R1150R? | ||
| Jima4media |
Court, Did you get any pictures of the front single sided swingarm on the Honda NAS, or the perimeter brake? Looks like the Yamaha MT-01 prototype hasn't changed much since 1999 when it was introduced. Jim X-2.5 | ||
| Jima4media |
Here is a full picture of the Yamaha MT-01 that I posted back in 2000. http://static.userland.com/images/cafeRacers/Yamahamt01.jpg And the Honda NAS from Laguna Seca last July http://static.userland.com/manilasites/images/PhotosManilaSitesCom/HondaDreamRightProfile.jpg Jim | ||
| Kahuna |
Those Jap bikes never did it for me, but this one! Wow! Very sharp... | ||
| Court |
  | ||
| Blake |
Great photos Court. You have an artist's eye for framing those pics. Thanks! Honda NAS: I'd really like to see Honda build it. It is a way cool concept. Methinks it needs some serious engineering/development though. I'd be surprised if the rear swingarm made it past the stiffness testers without evolving into a closed section like BMW and Duc use. It is fairly deep though, a fact not revealed by previous pictures I've seen. (Way to go Court!) Yammer MT-01: With 100 Ft-LB of torque, who needs revs?  Again, I'd like to see Yamaha actually build it. New Beemer 650: Does this mean we might-could (a Texas phrase  ) remove the edges on our rear pulley? I like the way the exposed belt/pulley look. | ||
| Court |
 | ||
| Rick_A |
I like the new Beemer 650...but it looks a little long in the wheelbase...anyone know the figure? | ||
| Blastin |
Court, Did they have the DO NOT TOUCH OR SIT ON THIS MOTORCYCLE sign up, like they did everywhere else? | ||
| Court |
The Beemer is in this months Cycle World....soon as I can get hold of one I'll measure it with a tape measure  | ||
| Jim_M |
I actually like it...to bad it's not a V twin though  | ||
| Road_Thing |
Court: Thanks for the pictures! And please, as soon as you get done measuring that butt-ugly beemer, leave it outside in NYC with the key in the ignition! r-t | ||
| Dynarider |
That BMW is definately hideous. The whole deal with being able to "strap" items to the air box cover is very weird also. No thanks not for me, think I will stick with my X1. | ||
| Rick_A |
I think it'd look good once it's stripped down a bit | ||
| Tricklidz |
Hey look where the mufflers are located in all of these "CONCEPT" bikes..by the same designer??  | ||
| Tricklidz |
 |
