Buell X1 cafe racer in the Norton Manx style
What do you do with a half finished 2001 Buell X1 Lightning project bike? That was the question facing John Whitby when he saw it. His friend, Mark Blundell, runs a salvage yard in Canada where the owner brought the non running Buell to get it off his hands. When John and Mark later looked at the Buell, adding new plugs, a battery and some fuel, they had a runner, though still half way to somewhere only the previous owner could know. It sat in a corner for a year when John figured he could do something with it, he had visions of a cafe racer.
Buell X1 cafe racer in the Norton Manx style
Stripping the Buell down, a Lyta-style three-gallon short circuit Norton fuel tank was ordered plus an alloy oil tank and matching seat. Of course, those would never fit the Buell frame so surgery was involved, cutting away the top of the frame and rebuilding it to serve as the base for the tank and seat and creating the look of the Norton featherbed frame it was meant to emulate.
Buell X1 cafe racer in the Norton Manx style
A BMW fender, Lucas style lights, Norman Hyde handlebars, a Sportster carburetor in place of the fuel injection, lots of custom fabrication and all of the remaining Buell pieces combine to make a pretty convincing Norton Manx with some fairly obvious modern touches. In other words, you get the look of the old Norton with the handling of a modern Buell, in my mind, that's a pretty satisfying combination and far superior to some of the repurposed Buells I've seen. Nice work, John!
I stumbled onto this bike, as I do so often, because it's currently for sale on eBay. Cycle Canada has a very nice article about it, too. It seems to me, the new owner would have a pretty sweet ride and it serves as a source of ideas for anyone with an older Buell who might be tempted to rework it into something new.
Link: Buell Cafe Racer on eBay
Link: Cycle Canada
Video below:
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Over the years, Buell has made some very good attempts at Harley Sportster motor-based performance bikes. They run well, make more power than a Sportster and the prices were in the affordable range.
That said, the styling was always “Way out there”. You loved ithem or hated them. But they always provided a good base to build from just as a Sportster has.
This bike here is an awesome example of what can be acheived with merely a bodywork change. Imagine if the tank and seat were nothing more than plastic copies of this layou! I think, instant affordable success! Really nice and it could be done . If Triumph would open the doors to their design shop, they could utilize this design as well. Beautiful.
My only bitch would be, I would’ve put my effort into a nice exhaust design as opposed to the lattice work belt guards.
I echo your sentiments. The Norton Sprint Tank has always been the most beautiful gas tank ever – to me anyway. And the exhaust is a disappointment on an otherwise beautiful build. I’d love to see some megaphones as part of the effort. Kudos for a good job.
Living in Alberta I can only suggest that the reason for the quiet exhaust system is simply the law. I live in Edmonton about 200 miles north of Calgary where this bike was built and I can tell you that we are getting some very stringent laws regarding vehicle exhaust noise.
Here in Edmonton, the bylaw states:
The Edmonton Police Services will charge violators at three (3) benchmark noise levels:
1. Violators in excess of 92 db(A) at idle for all motorcycles; or
2. Violators in excess of 96 db(A) at 2000 rpm for motorcycles having less than 3 cylinders; or more than 4 cylinders; and/or
3. Violators in excess of 100 db(A) at 5000 rpm for motorcycles with 3 or 4 cylinders
NOTE: THIS BYLAW ONLY APPLIES TO BIKES! CARS, TRUCKS AND BUSES HAVE BEEN OVERLOOKED AS THE CITY HAS YET TO EVOLVE A TESTING PROTOCOL.
At present in Edmonton the fine is $250 for the first offence and escalates to $400 plus for the third offence with a mandatory court appearance. Needless to say, the Police have been somewhat zealous to enforce this law to get those bad ass bikers of the streets……….I got stopped on a stock 08 Goldwing simply because I was riding behind another bike that was loud. The second time I was stopped was at the end of a bridge where a noise trap was set up. I forced them to check me as these kind of arbitrary stops are questionable under the Charter of Rights in Canada. After they had tested me and pronounced me legal, I pinned the stereo and road away LOL. The good news is that many have fought this bylaw in the courts and won their cases.
Calgary has toyed with a similar bylaw. The federal government has also passed new more restrictive laws on new bikes being offered for sale which will come into effect in 2012. So now you know…….
I think it already has a bitchinass exhaust design that actually helps develop Hp, and anything else sweeping up past the mid section would be a distraction…although typical of cafe racer builds. But I also think the lattice work IS a bit prissy.
nice work.
“the look of the old Norton with the handling of a modern Buell”. I wonder what the difference really is. Those big tires probably slow down the handling a bit. I was once on a ride with a guy on an old Triton. He was helping lead the pack along with a VFR and a ST4 and a F650GS. There were all sorts of people trying their darndest to keep up with that front pack including a couple Buells, CBRs, and me on my GB500. Sure, it’s possible that we were all just a bunch of terrible riders but I don’t think old bikes are as far off the pace as the perception goes.
-todd
Big sticky modern tires make a difference on the track, where things can actually be pushed to 10/10ths. On public roads…a sticky tire in a classic size is exactly as fast as the one in a modern size. The limiting factor on the street is usually the rider’s appetite for risk…
Big, sticky tires feel good and work better anywhere. Even well below 10/10ths.
A pack lead by a single cylinder dual sport would be well behind a well ridden Buell. Any “slowness” found in the superbly executed chassis of the Buell is better known as “stability”, which is welcome to those of us who use these bikes at the corner speeds and lean angles they are designed for. The unsurpassed capabilities of these bikes is the result of the correct relationship of wheel size, head geometry and weight distribution in addition to a number of other arcane and occult elements. Consequently the builders of this bike achieved striking style without sacrificing sublime function.
Wire spoke wheels, megaphone pipes, and dual shocks would all have been prettier but such a bike would be more form than function, like a Redneck Engineering Mutant Buell.
And no disrespect for the 650cc dualsport. I ride mine 4 days for any one on my Buell. But when I want to really fly I taxi the old tuber out of town and turn it up to 11.
Agree, Tire selection is everything. ..Z
That’s what everyone seems to think but experience has shown that fast riding has very little to do with the bike and very much to do with the rider.
I know a number of people who can’t keep up with me on my GB500 and there are quite a few people on dual-purpose bikes and Ninja 250s that I can’t catch on my Ducati. I also happen to be no faster on my Ducati than on my GB500 even though the Ducati has much more power, wide tires, USD suspension, Ohlins shock, and carbon fiber fenders…
-todd
I love the look of the frame. They really dressed that Buell up.
sacrilege! but nicely done, and rescuing a great bike from the junk yard to boot.
Fred X1
” I don’t think old bikes are as far off the pace as the perception goes.”
It ain’t what you ride, it’s how you ride.
It’s big fun confounding 20-somethings on new sport bikes on my 1972 Ducati on smaller back roads. Especially with grey hair.
If the Buells would have looked any thing like this they would have sold alot more Buells. Eric Buells inovative designs have been copied by most Sport bikes now on the market, It was the alien looks that held them back.
I don’t know, it just doesn’t push my buttons. It may work, but it doesn’t set right.
It would be interesting to put a 100 hp Buell 1200 (or an XR1000) in an actual Featherbed, and see how it would compare to a Norvin, since the aluminum Sporty engine trans unit has to be lighter than a Vincents, and makes at least as much power. Only Featherbed/Harley I’ve seen was a flathead 45. Nicely built, but pretty slow.
Sweeeeeeet!
I think this bike looks really great and offers the right balance of old school cafe look with modern sport riding hardware.
If HD is looking to build a new line of bikes like they recently have stated, I hope they have a picture of what these lads in Canada did pinned in the design studio. Like others that have commented, the Buell tuned1200cc HD engine is a good lump, it simply needs to be slid into a great looking bike like this to really draw the customers in.
To chime in with one more agreement, this is the Buell that could have been, though KR roadracer styling may have been more apt. Aichbe, I did just that with 1200 4 speed. It works and looks fine, but I may be biased there.
Having seen and heard the infamous “Nortley Fartster” as Nortley speaks of … the concept does work and looks good (a bit more “retro” in the execution). Who was first…???
Perfect…
About the exhaust, not pretty yes but it also does not take anything away from lean angle nor clutter up either side of the bike,,,,function, a worthy God! A beautiful bike to my eye, just as it is and very usable. One could even throw some soft bags on it and not worry about burning them on the pipes.
I can only say…watch our website in the future;) The Buell being rebuilt by Bottpower, the XR-1, is the perfect chassis for other interesting projects…
There is one thing I don’t understand about this build. Why did they swap out the FI for a carb? For the look of the the thing?
The oil tank is there because the standard Buell has the oil in the frame, and I guess that has been hacked into. I wonder if there has been any compromise to the frame structure?
Other than that, I think this is wonderful. I have always liked the Manx look.
The Buell originally had a plastic oil tank in the same location. I imagine it was replaced with the alloy one because it looks much nicer. As for replacing the fuel injection with a carb I bet it has more to do with not having all the original FI parts and Sporster carbs laying around on the shelf.
All in all I think it is a well executed bike and a nice homage to an iconic bike.
-todd
Love the look of those Featherbed frames, not sure how the V-twin looks in there though.
Best use of a Buell ever . Nice . Classic lines with modern underpinnings . The exhaust note and volume ? I say two thumbs up as the whole ‘Loud Pipes Save Lives ” schtick is grossly over rated ( simple fact ; one always steers towards what one is looking at ; e.g. loud M/C blasts along side driver , driver looks at loud M/C and BAM ; racing 101 ) and I personally prefer the sound of a well sorted motor over a ‘ Loud for the sake of Loudness one
And yeah + 1 to the ‘ This it what Buell could of been ‘ comments . Fact is they still can , assuming Eric can get enough sales in the door to justify expanding the line up
Mark in Sydney & Todd, my guess as simple as the removal of the fuel pump and not having to deal w/ one. Carbs are just so simple to deal with and certainly plentiful.
Love it! My cyclone won’t be going under the knife any time soon, but this is a beautiful machine. I wonder if HOTBIKE mag has the guts to run something other than a cruiser? I better send them a link . . . ; )
Nice work! It is tough to marry vintage parts and a modern frame, but that rear view looks great. Maybe some dual pipes, one on each side to channel the cafe racer vibe …
This x1 platform never had good bones to start with. Nice attempt but I think the 2003-2010 platform offers a better platform to build from
If one of those had wandered into the salvage yard like this one did and was sitting around available for someone to make use of it, then maybe they would have started there. This was an excellent use of what they already had.
Still another damm Harley powered bike,cant these guys see past this water pump power crap and use some modern power plants
Ric