2015 Ebr 1190sx

Ignition

IUM RC390 -> HONDA CRF450R -> SUZUKI RM-Z450 -> WORLD DUCATI WEEK

THE RIDE STARTS HERE

2015 EBR 1190SX

FIRST RIDE

BY THE NUMBERS

CLAIMED HORSEPOWER Which is why EBR ikes to call the SX a superfighter"

4 AVAILABLE COLORS: Racing Red, Frost Bite White, Galactic Black, and Laguna Blue

Brian Catterson

Erik Buell's latest creation, the 1190SX, is a streetfighter version of the 1190RX superbike. The fairing has been removed, the headlight has been moved inboard and upward, and the instrument panel is repositioned on new brackets so the assembly now steers with the front end. What's more, a tapered-aluminum handlebar mounts to a new upper triple clamp, and the exposed radiators and oil cooler are now painted black. All told, these changes equate to an approximate 5-pound weight savings, the SX tipping the scales at a claimed 414 pounds, sans

Sometimes less is more

gas. Powering the bike is EBR’s liquid-cooled, DOHC, 72-degree V-twin, an American-built 1,190a: powerplant producing a claimed 185 hp at 10,600 rpm.

Enough nuts and bolts; what’s it like to ride? On the wet Wisconsin roads, I sensed exceptional feedback from the EBR’s Pirelli Diablo Rossa Corsa tires. Similarly impressive was the overall precision of the chassis and the sophisticated tractioncontrol system. ABS, however, is not a part of the recipe. Why this omission? Simple: The 119 oRX doesn’t have it so neither does the SX.

The SX’s revised riding position is much more comfortable than the RX’s yet still feels sporty. If I had to nitpick, I’d note that the rear end of

RED WHITE & BLUE

Okay, so you want to buy an American-made sportbike. One could argue that the EBR, with its international parts list, is more of a “world bike,” but HarleyDavidsons use a bunch of foreign parts, too, and no one dares to call them un-American!

If that's not convincing enough, consider this: Every time you go to adjust the traction control on the 1190SX’s dash, you have to agree to a safety disclaimer. What could possibly be more American than that?

YOU FEEL EVERYONE OFTHE CLAIMED 101.6 POUNDFEET OF TORQUE EVERY TIME YOU TWIST THE THROTTLE.

the faux fuel tank (actually the airbox cover) is a little too broad and square shaped. One of the knocks against streetfighters is this: With their upright seating positions, you paradoxically have to hang off even farther than you would on a sportbike or the front end gets light and pushes at corner exits. But with the SX, that was never a concern.

Speaking of the front end, you can’t fail to notice the mammoth 386mm perimeter rotor grasped by the “inside-out” Nissin eightpiston caliper. Surely you’d expect that to feel different than a traditional twin-disc setup, but it really doesn’t. Feel was fine, and stopping power proved more than adequate.

The Showa suspension is similarly praiseworthy. The combination of a Big Piston Fork up front and a link-less shock in the rear works very welland reputedly better than the 2014-model SXs, as our 2015-spec testbikes gave us a preview of the new suspension settings with a slightly softer shock spring and revised damping rates front and

rear. The ride was still harsh on rough roads, but if that’s the price you pay for this level of roadholding, so be it.

The other upgrade for 2015 is revised calibration for the hydraulically actuated clutch. Due to complaints about the 2014 RX clutch lever requiring too much effort, the engineers went back to the drawing board and reduced the throw of the slave cylinder along with the spring rate. As a result, the pull is now relatively light, particularly for a powerful V-twin.

And this is one powerful V-twin, with no power modes to dumb it down either. You feel every one of the claimed 101.6 pound-feet of torque every time you twist the throttle. It’s much stronger in the midrange than a Ducati Panigale, for example. It’s relatively smooth, too, with just a touch of

vibration at higher rpm.

Thanks in part to the revised clutch settings, gearshifts are positively effortless. And the vacuum-assist slipper clutch helps mask the effects of lean off-idle throttle response, light flywheels, and sky-high (13.4:1) compression when downshifting.

The 1190SX is raw and uncompromising, a true superbike for the real world. But one question remains: Is there any compelling reason to buy one when the awardwinning KTM1290 Super Duke R sells for the same price? It likely boils down to how “different” is different enough for you. Or maybe you just want an American-made sportbike. Fill

ue every time

2015 EBR 1190SX

DOHC V-twin

EHamnEza

32.5 in.

4.5 gal. FUEL CAPACITY

414 lb. (no fuel) CLAIMED WET WEIGHT

$16,995