1986 Buell Rr1000
1986 BUELL RR1000
PREVIEW:
HARLEY-DAVIDSON'S XR1000 ENGINE FINDS A SPORTING HOME
IT SOUNDS LIKE FANTASY:A HARley-Davidson XR1000 engine mounted in a state-of-the-art roadracing frame, equipped with all the lights and turnsignals and paperwork to make it street-legal. Fantasy it may be, but of a peculiar sort. It's a vision belonging to Erik Buell. one he's busily translating into hard steel and shiny aluminum called the Buell RR1000.
Buell's entire past seems to have destined him for this project. An engineer and motorcycle fanatic who roadraced a Ducati in club races and AMA Superbike events in the midSeventies. Buell eventually put his engineering talents to use working for Harley-Davidson. He then left Har ley to undertake an extraordinary project foran individual: to build and offer for sale his own Fl racebike. a rotary-valve, two-stroke square-Four designed to go head-to-head with the then-dominant TZ75Os.
While that Fl racer may have been a personal and technical victory for Buell. he never had the financial backing to threaten the F! establish ment. So by the fall of 1985. he was ready for other projects.
Enter Rex Marsee. Manager of the Marsee Division of Bell Helmets. Marsee wanted an American-built centerpiece for his exhibit at the Great American Motorcycle Shows. and thought a street-legal version of the Bud! F! bike would be just the ticket. But that was not to be: Buell txplained that EPA certification of a 750 two-stroke was next to impossi ble. But. Buell asked, would Marsee he interested in a Harley V-Twin-en gined street racer that made use of the Fl bike's technology? Marsee's answer was an immediate
"yes." Harley-Davidson quickly got involved, as well, offering parts and computer time. Using Harley's struc tu ral-analysis programs. Buell de signed a light, stiff, well-triangulated space-frame that mounts an XR 1000 engine with rubber bushings and steel tie rods. His motor-mount sys tem lets the engine shake as needed to isolate vibration while also allow ing the engine to function as a stressed member of the chassis.
Based around 16-inch wheels at both ends, the RRI000 is tiny. Its wheelbase is only 53.5 inches. and dry weight is a claimed 395 pounds. A single Works Performance shock is located under the engine, where it controls the rear wheel directly. with out a complicated linkage. But per haps the most striking feature of the Buell RR 1000 is its bodywork. Based on aerodynamic principles and wind tunnel-gained knowledge, the
streamlining is more functional than it is stylish.
linthrtunatelv. we can't say what this device is like to ride. There exists only one machine as we write this (three more were scheduled for com pletion in time for Daytona's Battle of the Twins race). and only Erik Buell has ridden it. He reports that the rubber-mounting system isolates engine vibration even better than that used on Harley Big Twins, and that the bike handles every bit as well as he had hoped-more like an Fl racer than a streetbike. As far as per formance is concerned, we'd expect a stock, 70-bhp XRI000 engine to power a chassis like this to low-i 2second quarter-mile ETs, with a top speed in the 1 30-mph range.
Best of all. there's a good chance that you will be able to buy a bike much like this one in the near future. Buell is talking about a production run of 50 machines. a number that holds great interest for Harley-David son. With 50 RR1000s built, the de sign could be homologated for Super bike racing. an arena in which Harley would very much like to compete. Harley is so interested in the project that it has agreed to sell engines to Buell and assist him in running the gauntlet of paperwork required for government certification of the RRI000 as a street-legal vehicle. No firm price has yet been established. hut it will surely be over I 0.000.
In such small-scale production and at such a high price. Buell's RRI000 may still he a fantasy for most motor cyclists. But for a select few, the fan tasv will have been made real, thanks to the enthusiasm of Erik Buell.
