American Dreamer

AMERICAN DREAMER

ERIC BUELL JUST WANTS TO BUILD THE USA’S FINEST MOTORCYCLE, THAT’S ALL

ERIC BUELL'S RS1200 IS THE LATEST EXPRESSION of a very talented man's drive to build an exceptional state-of-the-art, American motorcycle. His efforts have been heroic. Buell, 36, has, while raising a young family, become an entire corporation. He is engineering, management, marketing research, prototyping, testing, purchasing, manufacturing, the sales force and the guy who answers the phone when someone has a problem. It has been an almost-impossible task.

In the 1970s. Buell was an expert roadracer, as well as an ambitious and dedicated motorcycle engineer. His first commercial motorcycle design was a racer built around the British Armstrong 750cc square-Four, two-stroke engine. He meant the bike to be a more-powerful alternative to the then-dominant Yamaha TZ750s. The Armstrong engine had clear advantages, but ultimately the effort went aground and the prototype now sits, dust-laden, out back in a barn.

At the time of the Armstrong venture, Buell was a busy and valued engineer with Harley-Davidson. He was the project engineer managing the FXRTdevelopment team. As you may know, the Harley FXR I is a sporty tourer based on the FXR "Rubber Ohde chassis. Buell’s dissatisfaction with front-end dive during braking led him to invent the anti-dive mechanism that Harley still uses on the bike, as well as on its larger touring machines. Buell has other inventions to his credit, some of which H-D would rather not discuss in public because they haven t been used, at least

While his accomplishments were accumulating and he was gaining a reputation at Harley tor being rea smart, real tough-minded and real valuable, Buell nurtured his dream of building an American road-

racer. When Harley decided to build the XR1000, a street version of their dominant XR750 dirt-track racer. Buell saw his chance. He would design and build a racer around the XR1000 engine and sell street-legal copies to finance a company. He left Harley-Davidson and the frustrations of working within a large corporation and started the Buell Motor Company, setting up shop in the rural town of Mukwonago, Wisconsin.

Understand that Buell motorcycles haven’t been designed and built as you or 1 might do it. We who have undertaken the daunting task of constructing a bike have largely been forced to accept the work and judgment of others. We buy this company’s brakes, never mind that they might be too big or too small. We order the frame from a custom builder with geometry we have seen work on other bikes in the past. We mostly assemble our one-off machines from catalogues of parts. Not Eric Buell.

No sir, he has the talent and experience to design anything he needs to. He has used the advanced technique of Finite Element Analysis to examine the stresses in his frame. That considerable collection of mostly straight tubes that make up the Buell frame, their position, diameter and wall thickness all are the result of careful, correct analysis. Buell designed his own brake rotors to handle the energies and heat of racing his motorcycle. He designed the rubber engine/ swingarm mounting system. It works, and Buells are smooth motorcycles. All Buells incorporate his antidive mechanism, with permission from Harley-Davidson. Each and every design feature is the result of practical thought and sound engineering practices.

The first run of Buells, the RR 1000s with XR1000 engines, numbered 100. There were more problems building these bikes than Buell ever thought he would see. Not problems of design or function, but with getting things done. Or made right. Or delivered on time.

The learning curve at the Buell Motor Co. strongly resembled a brick wall, and the company almost didn't make it over the top.

Mr. Engineer Roadracer Eric Buell learned to keep books. He learned to deal with banks and people who had money to invest. He learned how to sell motorcycles to Harley dealers who, largely, didn't know there were customers who wanted the bikes. He learned to be an employer. He discovered how to get by with less sleep. Somehow, he found time to improve virtually every aspect of manufacturing his motorcycle.

Through this short course on being in businessgiven by the University of Hard Knocks—Buell also discovered that many of the people who could afford his machines didn’t like the roadracing crouch and, aerodynamics be damned, wanted to see the engine. He realized that if he compromised a bit on the aerodynamics and let the engine hang out some, his company would probably sell more motorcycles.

Buell now has about 10 times as many motorcycles on the streets and highways of America than there are Bimotas over here. Indeed, the success of the RS 1200 is proof that the curriculum at the U of HK is a sound one, even if the diploma gets tattooed on the graduate’s backside.

The recent sales surge of the RS has helped to ease things a bit. There are now 14 employees at Buell Motor Co.,and Buell has been able to give them more of the design, prototyping and manufacturing responsibilities. By involving the other members of his company, he is getting a better machine and happier, more-productive fellow workers. Buell Motor Company has become a team.

It may be that the $ 15.000 purchase price of a Buell makes customers more critical than they might otherwise be. That’s fair. But understand that Buells are expensive because they cost a great deal to make, not because Mr. Buell is trying to get rich. He certainly isn't doing that. All those thin-wall steel tubes that make up the frame must be precisely cut, fitted and welded in place. That frame costs Buell almost as much to make as Harley spends on building the engine. Obviously, profit isn’t the only motive behind building these bikes.

Buell RR/RS 1200s exist because Eric Buell is driven to fulfill his vision. He wants to show the world that an American company can build a contemporary high-performance motorcycle. His racing experience, engineering ability and dedication to doing things right considerably improve the odds in his favor. So does his diploma from the University of Hard Knocks.

Joe Minton