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Eric Buell…….a hero for all of us that love motorcycling and motorcycles.

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Finally……the air-cooled Ulysses is not what this article is about….nor your BMW for that matter.

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You wrote: “Do you actually think no one is using it because it’s patented?”

Have you ever seen what patent infringement lawsuits cost?

“The package according to racers still suffers from brake fade. One rotor can’t get rid of the heat fast enough.”

As shown in the AMA Superbike, the brakes on the Buells were really outperforming the competition. The rotor can shed heat fast enough. It has a huge swept area and air-scoop cooling. While Eslick reported some brake fade at the beginning of the season, changes to the pad material and rotor resulted in a brake that was outperforming the competition. By the end, he said fade was a thing of the past (and it’s not as if conventional discs never exhibit fade).

Motorcycle.com’s review of the 1125R included: “No matter, though, because it could all be reeled in by the single, big hoop 375mm perimeter-mounted front rotor/caliper combo. Snatched right from the XBRR, the eight-piston ZTL² brake is among the best available. Similar to the ZTL found on other Buells, this system has a number of advantages inherent in its design. For one, braking forces go straight to the rim, thereby removing most of the torsional load on the rest of the wheel. Hence the “Zero” in Zero Torsional Load (ZTL and ZTL²). Subsequently, a lighter wheel can be used, with lighter steering as the benefit. I can only hope other makes will grasp this concept, soon.”

You wrote: “The unprung weight ‘advantage” was never noticeable. That was tacit in first comment. I thought most people had known that the journalists never raved about the unsprung weight advantage. So if the promise of unsprung mass wasn’t salient(maybe due to poor suspension components beacuse Eric’s budget was limited)”

I don’t think that the Showa suspension components on my 1125CR are “poor.” In fact, I think that they are damned good. Same with the suspension on my XB12Ss Lightning Long. Sport Rider magazine had this to say about the XB9R suspension:

“The chassis and suspension do an admirable job-fantastic if you consider the characteristics of the engine they’re around-and the bike is great fun on a tight track or twisty canyon road.”

That said, the average journalist is not up to the riding skills of a professional motorcycle racer. They may not be able to detect the effect of lower unsprung weight or they may detect the effect and just call it “good suspension,” never fully comprehending what makes it ‘good.’

You wrote “As for your other comment, the move to under bike exhaust is due to sticter noise laws.”

Untrue. In fact, Buell had to raise the exhaust outlets on the 1190RS because the under-the-bike position would not pass various noise limits (probably due to sound waves bouncing off of the pavement).

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Underslung muffler is U.S. patent 6,267,193. It has other aspects to it also. There is also a patent Harley owns for the muffler in the V-twin air-cooled Buells having to do with out-of-phase exhaust pulses.

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Q: why does he need a network of dealers with their mark-ups… sell direct to the customers(?)”

A: because not EVERY BUSINESS MODEL MAN HAS EVER CONCEIVED automatically lends itself to the internet.

warranty issues aside, you’re idea actually has merit and would fit buell’s mantra of “fierce independence”. the rub however comes in that most consumers don’t purchase HUGE ticket (not just big ticket) items sight unseen… not yet anyway. like buying a house, most still need at least the sensory input of a touch or a feel (of cotton) before pulling the trigger. disclaimer, any 1% types subscribing to the robb report, dupont registry, or who’ve done any christmas shopping this season from the neiman marcus catalog may ignore everything i just said.

“do a deal with an existing chain of service centres”.

by “deal” i assume you mean “play a shell game with the costs” in such a manner that somebody OTHER THAN the consumer absorbs it. ironically, what you describe brings you full circle BACK to the brick and mortar dealers you seek to harm (cavalierly i might add). realistically, they’re going to be the only ones to have long amortized the capitol costs necessary to ensure long term success. though perhaps a hybrid of your idea is possible…? there could be just a handful of flagship stores (think the D-store) placed regionally like NY/LA for visitation, but the rest are all service centers (read warranty work) like you suggest. but of course, there’d be the hurdle of no dealer willing to consciously take on the “non-profit” burden of just doing warranty work without there being some concrete “for-profit” means of offsetting this. perhaps DIY types would even be willing to purchase sans warranty…? i don’t know. not sure if DOT/NTSB would even legally allow such a thing so it could be moot. maybe if you “self-assemble” like so much ikea bookshelf…? again, i don’t know. i’ll let you do the investigating.

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don’t think eric would’ve even tried. he knows it would’ve never passed an examiner’s test for “novelty”. recently had the pleasure of adding a a visit to Motorcyclepedia to my travels.

http://motorcyclepediamuseum.org/

not to take anything away from eric, but a walk along the indian timeline reveals Hendee and Hedstrom were doing underslung exhausts on both singles AND v-twins as far back as 1907…! :-O in fact, the pics are still on me camera. oddly don’t recall seeing this on any of the indian boardtrackers at barber (likely later models)…? pretty sure i would’ve noticed it.

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see, rocky get’s it…!

btw, wasn’t there an aftermarket ZTL system that was was available not long BEFORE eric commercialized it…? i remember reading an article about it and the first one i ever saw was actually NOT on a buell. it was at a trackday on a yamaha or a ducati…? i have the picture (taken with a film camera no less, anybody remember those? LOL) scanned and archived somewheres.

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