Michigan's resurrected Buell Motorcycle Company joins forces with Roland Sands Design engineering a FXR-like Super Cruiser for the 2025 model year.
Photography: Adam Waheed
Video: Adam Waheed
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Photography: Adam Waheed
Video: Adam Waheed
Motorcyclist Shirts: https://teespring.com/stores/motorcyclist
Shop Products We Use: https://www.amazon.com/shop/motorcyclistmagazine
See more from us: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/
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SportsTranscript
00:00 Alright folks, here we are at Roland Sands Design in Long Beach, California.
00:07 Today we are going to take a look at something cool from the Buell Motorcycle Company.
00:14 Does anyone out there on the interwebs remember the Buell Motorcycle Company?
00:20 Maybe you had one of their interesting bikes from the 90s.
00:25 Maybe you are just looking for something neat and trying to learn a little bit more about Buell.
00:31 We're going to go inside here inside Roland Sands Design and take a look at the new vehicle they have for 2023 and beyond.
00:41 Let's go inside and take a look.
00:43 Alright folks, here we are inside Roland Sands Design.
00:47 Here is a Buell 1190RX. We rode that bike back in the day.
00:53 There is the sport bike variation. We reviewed that bike too back in the day.
00:58 These are more modern Buells, I guess if you could call them modern.
01:03 I mean they are many years old at this point, but they were towards the end of the company when it stopped making bikes a long time ago.
01:13 I wish they had some air cooled versions. Those things were always really crazy and neat.
01:19 They maybe weren't the best performing or handling, but they were just neat and had some really cool features.
01:26 Alright folks, they are rolling out the prototype here any minute.
01:33 We are going to take a look at it.
01:37 We'll check in with you folks in a little bit.
01:40 Live from Roland Sands Design in Long Beach, California.
01:45 That is where people get haircuts. I don't think the barber dudes are there today.
01:50 There's no regrets. That bike is sick.
01:53 Here is the Victory 151 Pikes Peak race bike.
01:58 And here is Roland's place of business where he sells all of his merch and apparel.
02:07 Check a look at it. Yeah!
02:10 (engine revving)
02:38 There you go. Super Cruiser.
02:42 Bill approached me about building a Super Cruiser.
02:47 I don't think that was the name yet, but it was kind of like, "Hey, what can you do with the new Buell motor?"
02:53 We have the ability to build a cruiser now. This is a unique opportunity.
02:58 He called us and thought we'd be a good fit for building a concept bike for Buell.
03:04 What does Buell look like? What does the future of Buell Motorcycles look like?
03:08 I drew up a sketch and I thought this was probably the right thing for the two-wheel culture right now.
03:16 I think this is the right vein. I did one sketch and I sent it over.
03:20 He said, "Build that bike."
03:23 It was kind of serendipitous. It just made sense. It made all the sense in the world.
03:30 For me, I've always wanted to build a bike in this style that had a super bike level engine and suspension componentry.
03:39 From the beginning, Bill was like, "Use all the Buell components you can use because we have them."
03:45 And performance is kick-ass.
03:47 And the performance is kick-ass.
03:49 Here is a bike and we really tried to utilize as much of the original Buell as we could,
03:56 which was the motor, the swing arm, the suspension, the fork, the brakes, the wheels, the signature perimeter rotor in the front.
04:07 I think we did accomplish that goal, to use as much as possible.
04:12 The stock switches, controls, throttle housing, master cylinders, things like that.
04:17 Then we built around it.
04:19 As you can see, you may feel that this silhouette is familiar to you.
04:27 That's not by mistake. That's something that we purposely did.
04:33 Really, I think the Harley-Davidson FXR...
04:36 [laughter]
04:39 I'm going to walk around my words here.
04:41 I'm not going to lie. I'm deeply inspired by Harley-Davidson's FXR.
04:47 The handling of it?
04:49 The handling of it. It was a great motorcycle. Eric Buell was involved with it.
04:52 He was involved with getting the FXR to be what it was,
04:56 which turned it into such an iconic bike and a bike that still today people are really into.
05:01 Potentially, it is one of the best handling Harley-Davidson's that's ever been built from a cruiser perspective.
05:07 We want to take advantage of that heritage, that history, that connection with Buell,
05:13 and have the opportunity to build a bike that takes and smashes that Buell superbike
05:18 together with that historic FXR styling.
05:21 Now we have a high-performance club bike.
05:24 It's a superbike-powered high-performance club bike.
05:27 [laughter]
05:28 Does that make sense?
05:29 Yes.
05:30 That's kind of what it is.
05:32 People, if you've never ridden a bike with this style before,
05:36 it's more like riding a motocross bike than it is riding a cruiser.
05:40 When you sit on it, the way the foot controls are, the way the hand controls are,
05:43 everything is where it really feels like it needs to be to be aggressive and ride aggressively.
05:48 It's not a sport bike. This is completely different than a sport bike.
05:51 Completely different seating position, completely different style of riding.
05:54 It makes you feel like a gangster when you ride the bike.
05:56 That's why people love riding club bikes.
05:58 That's why they are as popular as they are because they give you a certain feel and a certain,
06:03 "This is how I feel about riding a motorcycle. This is how I feel when I get on my bike."
06:08 That's what this bike is about more than anything else.
06:11 It's how it makes you feel when you get on it.
06:13 When I sit on it, I just, you know, go through a little transformation process.
06:18 [laughter]
06:20 [applause]
06:22 Nice.
06:23 It's different than jumping on a Super Duke or even a 790.
06:32 You jump on a hooligan race bike, a hooligan-style street bike.
06:36 It feels a certain way.
06:39 This just makes you feel like a f------ gangster, dude.
06:42 And to me, that's half the reason why people ride motorcycles
06:47 and half the reason why people always ride motorcycles because they want to be badasses.
06:51 This bike makes you feel that way.
06:54 No restrictions.
06:56 And it weighs 450 pounds and makes 180 horsepower.
07:00 Whoa!
07:01 There's your numbers, boys.
07:03 That was going to ask.
07:04 There's your numbers right there.
07:05 I just saw that on the press release.
07:06 It's fast.
07:08 Yeah.
07:09 And, I mean, it's 450 pounds right now.
07:12 We could make the bike lighter, but that was like building it and being conservative with everything.
07:19 We didn't go like, "It doesn't have super lightweight chromoly tubing."
07:23 It's like, "This is production-specific tubing."
07:28 It's just not overbuilt.
07:31 You and Aaron crushed it, too.
07:32 It's just what you need.
07:33 Give all you guys credit, right?
07:34 Yeah.
07:35 Cameron, Aaron, Kent, Cameron Brewer, Aaron Boss, our chief fabricator, Guy Mundo, who does our design and engineering.
07:44 My team did a spectacular job getting this bike together, Jacob, as a liaison between Buell and us getting all the geometry correct.
07:57 I mean, Aaron and Cam are both--when it comes to--because we race baggers.
08:02 And if you know anything about racing baggers, they're [bleep] terrible.
08:07 But you can make them fantastic if you pay enough attention to them.
08:10 So we kind of took that same perspective with this bike.
08:13 And we already started with a bike that was a fantastic handling bike, so we almost had to dumb it down to make it more of a cruiser.
08:20 So we relaxed the geometry.
08:22 I think it's 27 degrees, so we've reached like a happy medium.
08:26 Are we 27?
08:28 27.
08:29 27, so just trying to get the right amount of trail.
08:32 And, I mean, I rode the bike all day yesterday, and it's fantastic.
08:36 Like, it's just one of the most fun bikes I've ever ridden.
08:39 It's nimble.
08:40 It turns really well.
08:41 It stops on a dime.
08:42 Those brakes are crazy good.
08:43 Not everybody loves a perimeter brake.
08:46 It's a futuristic take on brakes, but the thing stops, like, on a dime.
08:50 It just does everything it's supposed to do, man.
08:52 All I wanted to do was just ride up the coast and just forget about the world for a little while, so, yeah.
08:58 That's what a motorcycle does.
09:00 That's what a motorcycle does, so thanks for coming out, you guys, and checking it out.
09:04 All right, folks, there it is.
09:06 Buell Motorcycle Company's 2025, they predict, Super Cruiser.
09:14 This is an all-new, high-performance cruiser from Buell Motorcycle Company, originally out of Wisconsin, now out of Michigan.
09:25 It is owned by Bill Melvin, the gentleman with the red hat.
09:30 He owns Buell Motorcycle Company.
09:34 So, Roland Sands Design, Mr. Sands right there, he was the one, him and his team were the ones who helped design this bike.
09:45 And inspiration for this vehicle was the old Harley Davidson FXR.
09:53 This was a high-performance cruiser motorcycle built during the late '80s, I think '88, '89, and the early '90s before it was retired.
10:02 I think for, like, the '92 or '93 model year, I don't quite remember, but it was a limited-production-run, high-performance cruiser that was actually engineered by Eric Buell.
10:15 So Eric Buell, before he started Buell Motorcycle Company in the '90s, he actually worked at Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company in Wisconsin,
10:26 and actually was one of the engineers on that FXR motorcycle.
10:32 And that's where he really got a lot of his ideas for having a V-twin engine, real sporty handling, lightweight, that big perimeter-style brake, housing the fluids in the frame and swingarm.
10:47 Obviously, this doesn't house the fluid in the frame, but that's where a lot of his ideas came.
10:54 For whatever reason, the FXR faded away in the early '90s, and it really hasn't been replaced.
11:01 You know, folks modified Dynas, old Dynas, to make them FXR-ish, and Harley Davidson introduced its redesigned Softail concept for the 2017 model year and got rid of the Dyna.
11:15 But even when they did that, the new Harley Davidsons are just, they're not, they don't have a lot of power and they're heavy.
11:22 This motorcycle harkens back to the old high-performance days of the FXR.
11:29 It's got a water-cooled 1190cc V-twin engine.
11:33 This engine is built by Rotex. It's very similar to the engine in this Superbike, which we tested, I believe, for the 2014 model year at the official press introduction in Indianapolis.
11:48 I'm sure there's a video of me riding that dang thing somewhere in the world.
11:52 So, that is what powers this thing. It also has the same swingarm, which you can see here.
11:59 Buell tasked Roland with using as many parts as possible from the Buell parts catalog, but obviously the frame had to be mastered and the triple clamps and things like that.
12:12 What do you folks think of this bike? I love that big aluminum swingarm.
12:18 It's neat how the shock mounts directly to the frame.
12:23 Look at that exhaust, that SC Project Italian exhaust. That thing is awesome.
12:30 Of course, we have the big perimeter-style brake.
12:34 Eric Buell loved that brake system, love it or hate it, it definitely did an adequate job of stopping the motorcycle.
12:44 Still, twin-disc brakes are what is the standard in the industry. It's kind of interesting that they still stick with that setup.
12:54 Look at the seat. The seat was assembled by Saddleman.
13:00 Look at the Saddleman logo here. Look at the display.
13:05 Let's sit on this vehicle right now.
13:09 What do you think, folks?
13:12 There is the run button. I don't know where the key is.
13:16 Look at the GP suspension.
13:19 Fork caps atop. You can adjust the spring preload and the compression.
13:25 Rebound is on this side, so compression damping on the left fork leg and rebound on the right fork leg.
13:32 Look at these cool RSD risers. These things are boss. Wow.
13:38 Hydraulic clutch, dual disc brakes, there's the fuel cap where you put the key in.
13:45 There is a steering dampener, presumably to help this thing stay stable at speed.
13:52 The seat height is really low on this thing. I'm 6 foot tall and my feet are firmly planted on the ground.
14:00 This bike feels really light. Wow, this thing is cool.
14:06 Look at that iconic fuel tank shape and these metal fenders. Look at that LED headlight, too.
14:16 Well, folks, that is a quick rundown of the projected 2025 Buell motorcycle super cruiser.
14:28 The estimated price of this vehicle is going to be upwards of $20,000.
14:36 You can purchase this motorcycle through Buell Motorcycle Company.
14:41 They say they're going to sell these vehicles direct to consumer.
14:46 You can go on BuellMotorcycles.com and purchase this motorcycle and they'll literally ship it to your house.
14:51 You can also purchase this motorcycle at a Buell Motorcycle showroom.
14:57 They are working with some of their old dealers and trying to reboot that dealer network.
15:04 That's going to be an uphill struggle for them, as is everything when you take it away and then try to restart it.
15:10 But they are going to try their best and most importantly, they're going to do consumer direct.
15:15 If you do consumer direct, you'll get these bikes into people's hands.
15:19 All right, folks, we will give you another rundown here in the next couple of months or maybe in a couple of years
15:27 when we have a chance to ride this vehicle or learn more about it.
15:33 This is just a brief preview event where we get to see this vehicle as a concept bike.
15:42 [Music]
15:57 [Music]
16:17 [Music]
16:27 [Music]
16:37 [Music]
16:57 All right, folks, that wraps things up from Roland Sands Design in Long Beach, California.
17:04 What do you guys think of Buell Motorcycle's 2025 Super Cruiser motorcycle?
17:12 Sound off in the comment section.
17:14 As always, make sure to surf on over to MotorcyclistOnline.com.
17:18 That's where all of our written content lives.
17:22 Give this video a thumbs up. Give it a thumbs down if you didn't like it.
17:26 And thanks for hanging out with us tonight.
17:29 [Music]