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View Full Version : "One Man's Imperfect Quest to Build Sportbike in America"



streetfighterx
05-14-2015, 10:08 PM
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One Man's Imperfect Quest to Build Sportbikes in America - Wes Siler (http://lanesplitter.jalopnik.com/one-man-s-imperfect-quest-to-build-sportbikes-in-americ-1704285665)

Too long to post, but here are some of my favorite parts


In 1987, Erik was smuggled aboard a cruise ship that Harley had rented for its annual dealer meeting. There, according to CycleWorld, a group of dealers and former racers helped pitch the idea of a sport bike range to the Motor Company’s executives, suggesting Erik could do
What a badass, although something like that was probably a lot easier in 1987


So, they came up with the harebrained scheme of lopping a cylinder off that Sportster motor and designing a new bike around it. It was also a scheme that would see Harley make money on each motor it sold to Buell, then Buell took a net loss due to the extreme cost of re-engineering it. The end result was one of the ugliest, most boring bikes ever made: the Buell Blast
HA!


To compete with the rest of the world, Buell desperately needed a liquid-cooled motor. He originally developed the V-Rod engine with Porsche for that purpose, but Harley ended up perverting that project for its own ends.
I did not know this. Those blastards!