Buell't For Speed
BUELL'T FOR SPEED
VD Classic's cafe-racer
A STOCK BUELL IS A CROSS between a greyhound and a badly groomed pit bull." So says Jean-Francois Vicente, owner of the French aftermarket manufacturer VD Classic.
Vicente is certainly entitled to his opinion. After all, the outspoken entrepreneur has fabbed his share of show-stoppers. His latest creation? What else? A Buell.
The fruit of more than 1000 hours of labor, VD’s SI Lightning-based cafe-racer is more than a simple makeover. “I wanted to play with the shape, rebalance the tail, round off the gas tank and refine the details,” Vicente says. “I wanted to transform the bike into a true classic.”
Vicente began by nickel-plating the frame, for “an Egli-Vincent look.” He formed the 5-gallon gas tank,
front fender (with carbon-fiber supports) and oil tank from aluminum, then machined new headlight-mounting brackets, and lowered the handlebar and instruments. The seat/ tail light setup and knurled rearsets are catalog items from VD Classic (4 Rue du Maréchal Foch, 67880 Krautergersheim, France; Oil 33 88 95 75 96).
The 1203cc V-Twin is stock, save for intake and exhaust mods. Vicente
ditched the stock airbox (“It looked like a baked potato”), then adapted a custom manifold and a 41mm Keihin carburetor. The looping, XR-750-style exhaust is a work of art, comprising drainpipe-sized stainless-steel headpipes capped with shortened reverse megaphones from-you guessed it-a Norton Commando.
Vicente’s creation is for sale, but quality is never cheap. Cost? A breathtaking $32,000. -Matthew Miles
