Buell Motorcycles

About Buell

The Buell Motorcycle Company was an American motorcycle manufacturer based in East Troy, Wisconsin, and was founded in 1983 by ex-Harley-Davidson engineer Erik Buell.

The first Buell motorcycle, the RW750, was built in 1983 purely for competition in the AMA Formula 1 motorcycle road racing championship. At that time, Erik Buell was a top contending privateer motorcycle racer. After completion of the first two RW750 racing machines, one of which was sold to another racing team, the Formula 1 series was canceled. Erik Buell then turned his focus towards racing-inspired, street-going machines using engines manufactured by Harley.

Most Buell motorcycles use four-stroke air-cooled V-twin engines, originally built from XR1000 Sportster engines. After these were depleted, a basic 1200 Sportster engine was used. In 1995, the engines were upgraded with Buell engineered high-performance parts and further upgraded in 1998.

In 1998, Harley-Davidson bought a majority stake and took control of Buell Motorcycle Company, and the company became a subsidiary. Since then, Buell has used modified Harley-Davidson engines, primarily from the Sportster, to power its motorcycles.

In 2003, Buell decided to make some improvements and introduced an efficient engine which left behind all the emissions test requirements. On the same list of innovations were the ZTL perimeter floating disc brake system found on the new models, then the fuel-in-frame technology and the dual use of the swingarm as an oil tank.

On October 15, 2009, Harley-Davidson announced the discontinuation of the Buell product line as part of its strategy to focus on the Harley-Davidson brand. The last Buell motorcycle was produced on October 30, bringing the number manufactured to 136,923.

Moto blog

New 2010 Buell Blast has Impressive Specs

Buell is getting their priorities straight these days, and nothing says this more then their new 2010 Buell Blast (pictured above). How do you ride that? You don’t.

Buell Motorcycle Factory Looks like a Fun Place to Work! [Video]

Motorcycle.com’s own Kevin Duke recently took a tour of Erik Buell’s “little” garage where Buell motorcycles are dreamed up and created and it looks like a mighty fine place to work! The Buell factory is a quite small operation but quite technically advanced, using high-tech testing facilities and computer programs to design, build, and test out their bikes.  There’s only 170 people on staff! Just 170 employees are responsible for the entire operation, and Mr.

Top 10 Best Sportbikes of 2009

Since it’s inception Motorcycle.com Specs has been the best place for bikers and enthusiasts (like you) to voice their opinions; there has been a lot to spout-off about too! Over 528 Motorcycle models have been updated for you to review in 2009 alone. It’s great to see what the Motorcycle Community has to say about the bikes they ride.

“Jesse James is a Dead Man” Pre-Show Review

Jesse James, the man behind Monster Garage, might die. But I doubt it. His new television show “Jesse James is a Douchebag Dead Man” is Jesse toying with death through a variety of different feats and stunts he will perform.

Mac Motorcycles

British motorcycle design studio Xenophya Design and product designer Ellis Pitt have teamed up to produce a new company, Mac Motorcycles. Based out of Upton-Upon-Severn in Worcestershire, England, Mac Motorcycles will produce a line of bikes powered by Buell’s air-cooled single cylinder 492cc engines used in the Blast, with a tubular backbone frame. On the company’s website, Pitt describes its bikes as being simple to maintain, include references and details from choppers and bobbers and feature “Harley posture, flat-track manners, Ducati handling”.

What’s next for Polaris?

Polaris Industries, the parent company of Victory Motorcycles, announced this week it will form a new on-road vehicle division. The official announcement says the new division “maximizes cohesive and strategic growth for Victory Motorcycles and other on-road products and brands”. Which begs the question: what other on-road products and brands?

Buell On Ice

Get the Flash Player to see this player. About 2.7 million years ago a meteorite crashed into Hälsingland, Sweden creating the Dellen lake system, which only freezes over once a year. On March 4th with temperatures at -10C, Craig Jones, riding a Buell 1125R complete with a nitrous oxide kit (an estimated extra 50bhp), reached a top speed of 148.7mph on a 1.1km run over the frozen Lake Dellen.

D1200R Demonstrates Innovative Design

What do you get when you combine a BMW R1200R and a Buell XB12? The D1200R! A former employee of Lamborghini by the name of Pablo González de Chaves Fernández has turned his attention from four wheels to two and has begun creating innovative design improvements to existing motorcycles with the help of Juan Elizalde Bertrand.

Buell Motorcycle Ad. You Own the corners

Think you know everything about motorcycles? Did you know Buell owns the patent for the ztl braking system (u.s. patent 6,561,298 b2), fuel-in-frame (u.s.

College Pair Build Two-Wheel Clothes Dryer

What could be considered this generation’s Harold and Kumar, a pair of Swarthmore College engineering students have designed and built an experimental hydrogen fuel cell-powered “motorcycle.” Sourcing parts from what looks to be an early generation Buell Lightning and the unearthed remnants of Robby the Robot, the duo may have just created the World’s quietest and slowest two-wheeled grant-waster. Constructed with the intent to “evaluate the viability of a hydrogen economy by studying real-world data,” the two-man team says that once the experiment yields the likely results that anyone who uses a hydrogen-powered vehicle is a homo, results predicted by the pair’s Alpha Beta member roommate, they’ll abandon any legitimate research efforts and just use it to follow women that would normally avoid them. “Since it doesn’t make any noise we’ll get a lot closer to the girls before they have a chance to formulate lame excuses to leave,” said the elder of the two.