Read Full Post | Comments(0) A Question of Character Why some bikes move us and others just carry us.
So, what exactly constitutes “character” in a motorcycle? It’s an old debate and probably has as many answers as there are riders, but I’ll try to put in my two cents because Editor Hoyer has asked me to. He probably figured that, as a serial owner and restorer of British and Italian motorcycles—not to mention [...]
Read Full Post | Comments(1)Days of Future Past Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…and then one fine morning we’ll wake up and say what did ever happen to that beautiful future, anyway?
Call them what you will—show bikes, concept bikes, future bikes, whatever—they’ve been around for a long time. Sometimes they point the way to the future, most of the time they should wear a sign that says DEAD END. But the fun part is that nobody knows for sure at the time. The first memorable concept [...]
Read Full Post | Comments(0)Hines Rides H-D V-Rod to Hole-Shot NHRA Win
HD Racing Press Release: A perfect reaction time at the starting line earned Harley-Davidson® rider Andrew Hines a 0.0077-second, hole-shot victory over Buell rider Hector Arana Jr. in the final round at the NHRA Spring Nationals at Royal Purple Raceway. Riding a Harley-Davidson® V-Rod® motorcycle, Hines scored his first win of the season and the [...]
Read Full Post | Comments(0)Erik Buell Racing 1190RS – Exclusive First Ride Ultra-light EBR 1190RS superbike from Erik Buell Racing.
It’s an old Viking story: A tall, one-eyed man goes into a bar…well, actually, a Viking great hall…in any case, a place where much beer is consumed. He strides toward the tree the hall was built around, pulls a sword from under his cloak and sticks it deeply into the trunk. This sword, he says—now [...]
Read Full Post | Comments(1)Erik Buell Racing EBR 1190RS – First Look Erik Buell’s stunning new V-Twin EBR 1190RS superbike revealed.
The only downside in the release of the new Buell—oops—Erik Buell Racing 1190RS is that GM has somehow managed to hang onto the “Firebird” copyright. If any vehicle ever deserved to be named after the phoenix, the legendary immortal bird that was continually reborn after repeated immolations, it’s this road-going superbike that is leaping from [...]
Read Full Post | Comments(1)Why the Ugly Mufflers? – Special Feature The truth about the trend toward larger—and uglier—exhaust pipes.
Back in about 1971, Triumph stopped putting its traditional tidy sausage-shaped mufflers on 750 Bonnevilles, replacing them with swoopy, Honda CB750-style megaphone mufflers. Very Buck Rogers. But young men, cash in hand, would ask at the dealership if they could still get, you know, the other kind. And we at the dealers had to say [...]
Read Full Post | Comments(1)Buell Fights Back – Special Feature Erik, that is, not the former brand that carries his name.
Erik Buell is building something in East Troy, and it’s more than a few racebikes. While his new company, Erik Buell Racing, has constructed and sold a handful of roadrace-only 1190RRs, including the one currently dominating the European Twins championship, the real work is going toward building a new company to produce road-going American sportbikes. [...]
Read Full Post | Comments(0)Magpul Ronin – First Look Orphaned Buells Have a Home.
This Buell 1125R could seriously be the poster child for things that look better naked. When Harley pulled the Buell plug, the boys in the back room at Magpul Industries jumped, buying up about 30 of the poor orphaned Twins.Magpul (www.magpulronin.com) mostly makes things that enhance the pleasure and efficiency of military and law-enforcement types, [...]
Read Full Post | Comments(0)Exclusive: The Demise of Buell Motorcycles Cycle World gets the inside story on the closure of America's sportbike maker and rides the Barracuda 2 superbike before it goes to the crusher!
It is safe to say everybody was shocked when the press release went out on October 15, 2009, announcing that Harley-Davidsonhad decided to close down Buell Motorcycles. But nobody looked more shocked than Erik Buell himself in the video address posted that same day on the Buell website. I got the release just after 6 [...]
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