The Buell Era

Buell motorcycles were first introduced to the world in 1983. Erik Buell a privateer racer in the AMA Road Racing Championship Series built his first bike the RW750, actually two were produced the other being sold to another race team. Not long after this the series was cancelled and that’s when Erik decided to build his race inspired street machines powered by Harley Davidson engines.

Erik began building motorcycles in 1983 in Troy Wisconsin, the ex- Harley engineer produced motorcycles for the next ten years. The first being the Road Warrior 750 built with parts and tools from a failed race company, and then onto the RR1000 Battle Twin in 87 88, it featured the Harley Davidson XR100 engine. The other technology that stood out on this model was the isoplanar engine mounting system. It allowed the heavy vibration prone engine to become part of the frame without transmitting the vibrations. And due to lack of space the suspension components were located underneath the engine.

In 1993 Harley Davidson and Buell made a deal where Harley ,purchased forty -nine percent of buell, in this deal Erik Buell actually put up his house for collateral, against his lawyer’s advice. It was an investment that Harley Davidson spent five hundred thousand dollars. Most of the bikes were built using the XR1000 engine, which was a four stroke air cooled V-twin. After depletion of these engines he then began to use the 1200 Sporster engine.

Another project , the liquid cooled Harley V-Rod motor was originally an Erik Buell project, designed for a fully faired AMA Superbike in 1998. The bike was made EPA legal with the help of Porsche and Harley decided the engine should also be used in a sport cruiser, and took over the development making the bike too big too heavy and a little too late for Buell.

Buell had a strict plan to follow within the Harley Davidson world, in the nineties, the philosophy of that Buell was the starter brand and that customers would...