Buell Ex Machina

I got a double shot of exciting news from the Buell Motorcycle Company today. I had heard some vague rumblings that they had a new harder-core sportbike coming out sometime down the road, but I didn't give it too much thought. Today I got a new motorcycle magazine in the mail that had a headline on the front saying that Buell was going to put Rotax engines in their upcoming machines. Now, at the same time, I received a promotional email from Buell announcing their new bike--the 1125R--and pointing me to their very nice and informative website.

After seeing the magazine article, Susan (surely feeling herself slipping into a deeper circle of hell) had to listen to me gushing about the prospect of a real sportbike engine in a Buell chassis all day long.

I can't quite convey how quietly thrilled I am at this development. (Much of this is variations on themes already explored, but hey, indulge me.) First, I have bitched for YEARS that for all the millions of motorcyclists in this country who don't buy Harleys or Harley knockoffs there has been no viable American machinery to choose from. Harley's unwillingness to cater to this non-cruiser crowd always exasperated me, since they had the resources and expertise to at least get a foot in the door. But it was not to be. When Polaris came into the fray with their Victory brand a decade ago, there was hope (and talk) that they'd follow their performance orientation from snowmobiles, but no: they started with more retro-nostalgia "bad-boy" cruiser stuff and have stayed there. Buell was the one ray of light, starting from the dimmest ember and grown now into a viable concern. Given that Harley now owns Buell, I must finally give them their due credit, even if this was not directly of their doing; it is their company, after all.

But more than this, or rather wrapped up with it, there is my ongoing and surprising deep affection for my own Buell. And I have to say that the Harley motor in my bike, in spite of the constant mixed feelings it gives me, has played a big role in my emotional attachment to this machine. I'm maybe oddly emotionally attached to motorcycles generally, but I have to say I'm more deeply attached to this present machine than to any of the previous dozen I've owned. This is an astounding statement to me, an astounding situation to find myself in. My mantra all these years has been that I'd be willing to buy an American bike that wasn't quite up to the Japanese / European standards or that was up to those standards but cost a little more, just to be able to cast my vote of the democratic marketplace to say "Yes, this is a worthwhile product and an exciting and viable direction to proceed." When Buell produced the Ulysses, I found myself compelled to make good on that statement.

My one reservation on this bike (well, two reservations; the other is that anti-lock brakes are not available) has involved its Harley engine. The narrow-angle, undersquare, air-cooled, pushrod, unbalanced twin is just not a configuration that any modern sportbike designer would choose. I give Erik Buell a standing ovation for how well he has adapted this engine to his mission, and his machinery to this engine; and I'm torn because that unexpected engine (for these kinds of bikes) gives them attitude and personality. The bikes speak with authority and they cope with the low-revving, high-torque nature superbly. But again, it's surely not what the man who designed this fabulous chassis would come up with if given a blank sheet of paper. And so there was always the sense of waiting for the other glass slipper to drop, waiting for Buell's deus ex machina to take us that last step of the way.

And that's what's so exciting: with the chassis I know firsthand to be superb, this modern, designed-from-scratch motor is poised to make a machine which will compete favorably with anything made anywhere. It's everything that's good about the present motor, and all the rest of the good stuff as well: being a big V, it has high torque; it's seriously oversquare, which means higher, quicker revving; it's liquid cooled, for tighter tolerances and lower mechanical noise (plus it can look after itself in hot city traffic). I'm still very happy with my current machine, and in any case I'm happy to wait until the modern motive machinery makes its way into this chassis more suited to an old fat guy; but now we know it's coming.

Congratulations, Buell! Congratulations, America. It's about fucking time.