$30,995 Buell

Buell To Produce 150-horsepower Formula Xtreme/Thunderbike Racebikes For Privateers

1339cc (81.7 cid) Thunderstorm Powertrain:
4.080 inch (103.6 mm) bore and 3.125 inch (79.4mm) stroke
12.5:1 compression ratio
150+ peak engine horsepower at 8000 rpm (per SAE J607)
100 ft. lbs. peak engine torque at 6500 rpm (per SAE J607)
Black 6-Spoke Cast Magnesium Racing wheels
Buell ZTL2 reversed rotor front brake with eight-piston Nissin caliper
Ram Air system integrated with full racing fairing
Carbon fiber bodywork
43mm Ohlins adjustable front suspension with inverted forks
Ohlins fully-adjustable rear suspension with coil-over monoshock with remote reservoir

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In addition, every single part on the bike, plus optional parts, will be available for anyone to order out of a catalog at any Buell dealership.

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Yeah, I saw that on a different forum....  $31k ready to race...  I wonder what it costs to turn a Japanese 600 into a FX machine.  About $9k for a bike and $21k in upgrades.    First HD pulls out the Destroyer and now this....  I wonder if we will actually see a full on sport bike from them.  It should be an exciting year for FX, vs the past couple years being dominated by Honda.



Chris  

hahaha buell has to use 1300+ cc's to be competetive in a class of 600s?!  oh well, too bad it still looks like ass  

Looks like Buell wants desperately to get a podium in the one AMA roadracing class they can be competitive in.

A bike like this in capable hands would probably dominate the F-USA Thunderbike and similar classes that grant displacement advantages to air-cooled pushrod twins.  

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hahaha buell has to use 1300+ cc's to be competetive in a class of 600s?!  oh well, too bad it still looks like ass

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There were a couple of Buells in the FX class in 2004, ran mid pac if I remember correctly.They had the most unique exaust, easily the loudest bike in competition. There was a Ducati that year also.  

Not bad for privateer efforts in a class that Honda steamrolled with their full factory team. A privateer 749R also was somewhere midpack by seasons end. I think the 749R in `05 was the ex-Doug-Chandler HMC bike of `04, being run by young Ryan Andrews.

I have to believe Buell wants to capture a Top 10 season standing, if not a podium here or there. Since the Daytona 200 is an FX race...

Ducati has its hands full in MotoGP, WSB, BSB and AMA Superbike... doubt they have the bandwidth to do a factory FX effort.

I predict 2006 will be the the factory Yamaha vs. Erion Honda FX Cup. With the fast privateers and young guns filling in the blanks, as always.  

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hahaha buell has to use 1300+ cc's to be competetive in a class of 600s?! oh well, too bad it still looks like ass

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personaly i have recently taken an interest in Buell over the last few weeks.  I saw a few of there XB9r(s) over at a local bike show and snapped a few good pics.  It was pretty compfy so i checked out the web site.  They got some decent little music vids of theit bikes in action.  And the specs on them are fine.  Plan on taking one for a test drive this summer.  

I was close to buying one a few months ago but never got past the start up. At idle it shook like a paint shaker. I don't mind a little vibration but I was waiting for that thing to shimmy right out the door. It did start to smooth out at about 2K.
If Harley/Buell really wants a decent sport bike they need the V-Rod engine at least.  

It's now being contested if the Buell is legal for FX racing since it's not a production street bike. Once again, Harley exploits it's realtionship with the AMA.

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2006/Jan/060123c0a.htm  

I think Buell may have to put a chain on some XB12's and call it the XB12LE.  

Well the engine is similar to the ones run in FX in previous years no?  So if they didn't have a problem with it then, I don't see why they'd have a problem with it now.  The frame is the same as the street XBs as well, right?  There may not be a street legal Buell "XBRR", but theres also no street legal Honda 600RR "factory race bike" either.

 

At least there is a street legal CBR600RR or YZF-R6 or ZX-6RR whereas there is no street XB-RR. There is no direct correlation to a production street-legal model in this case. The AMA rulebook says FX is a series "based on production street motorcycles."

I expect the AMA to let Buell race with this "a limited-edition production racing motorcycle designed exclusively for closed course competition" (Buell PR). Perhaps the rules may get modified to be more specific or FX will truly become a Frankenstein class where interested manufacturers will start to assemble purpose built bikes for the class.  

I could very easily see how a XB12R is a street-legal model of the XB-RR....IF....in FX you can bore out the stock engine to reach your engine configurations displacement limit.  I have no idea if the AMA allows that in FX, but the XB-RR has the same stroke of an XB9 motor and is bored out to reach it's 13XX cc limit.  It's definatley based off the street legal XB motor.  Don't they open up and modify the engines in 600cc and 1000cc inline fours for FX a bit, changing some parts outs ect?

Was Buell not racing in FX last year?  What series were they racing against 600s in, just AMA supersport or something?  I really don't know much about different racing classes/series.