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.

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