The Buell 11125R may be finished as a production motorcycle but there are plenty of people ready to continue on with their own ideas of what it might be or could be. The boys over at Magpul have built this version with a girder front end which looks very natural on the 1125, incorporating the visual style of the frame into the girder.
Lots of interesting parts but there’s very little information available and no definite plans for offering these components, but it’s an interesting take on a new direction for the Buell.
Thanks for the tip, Andy!
Link: Magpul Buell
Ola says
Really cool, probably one of the best looking Buells I’ve ver seen, especially compared to the retarded styling of the donor bike (seriously, what happened there?). Can’t decide about the radiator at the front but it’s certainly an interesting idea. I think it carries the spirit of the early Buells forward in a very direct way (the later Buells often seemed a bit forced, designwise).
Russel Caudell says
100% improvement getting rid of those God awful radiators.
JR says
….tight pants….
SO AWESOME! I could fight zombies or post-apocalyptic punks from that thing all day long!
Please offer the girder to the public. Why aren’t girder front suspensions more prominent, I think they are SO badass.
hoyt says
It looks good, but I think girder forks tend to have heavier steering. Adding a radiator’s weight at the highest point of the bike can’t help matters.
Gitan says
Oh God !
One year before and the history may be transformed.
Who want to buy a Confederate after looking at this Ronin ?
Jon says
I certainly seem to be in the minority of commentators, but I’ll throw my opinion out there as well…
I think it’s hideous.
Is that one of those porch bug zapper things glued on the front?
Fred M. says
The pods on the 1125CR served multiple purposes:
For $55 per side, the plastic on them protected other, expensive parts of the bike in a crash, lowering insurance and ownership costs.
They cooled the engine very well.
They formed part of the ram air system that forced high-pressure air into the airbox at speed.
Buell was all about engineering over style. They were the anti-Harley.
I’m all for encouraging creativity, but unless someone has found a way to get the radiator to project a beam of light, I’m not seeing a street-legal headlight. Or turn signals. Or mirrors. Perhaps others live in more lenient countries or states than I do, though.
mark says
For some reason it reminds me of a grasshopper.
anon says
What? No Picatinny rails for accessories?
Kenny says
@anon
Hhahahah! It does look like a weapon alright.
Love to give it a spin back to back with the donor bike to see how they compare.
Paulinator says
Is that radiator/headlight assembly really sprung? Really?
To me a good design element embodies at least two of the following:
Simplicity
Structural benefit
Performance improvement
When a bike (or whatever) has a “look”, it is subconsiously registering victory in achieving these points. This bike reminds me of the Confederate “Fighter” that saws a big wedge out of the otherwise structural (?) backbone tube. What started off as form and function and all that design stuff, suddenly turns into studded collars and blue hair – pointless weird stuff with declining shock value.
todd says
I think, due to some sort of manhood deficiency, the designer was looking to portray an image of “BADASS”. I believe he was successful in accomplishing that goal.
-todd
Billy Pilgrim says
Art bike.
anon says
@ Kenny
I was thinking less about how the bike looks than who made it. I think you got the joke, but for anyone who didn’t: Magpul is known for quality rifle accessories – many of which mount to a standard ‘Picatinny’ rail.
“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picatinny_rail”
Now that I think about it, this isn’t a bad idea: Imagine having a short rail at the front or rear for quick detach lighting modules and mirrors! Perfect for track days. Rear-Side-Top rails could provide a standardized / non-proprietary mount for hard-bags and racks… Quick mount frame sliders or passenger pegs… Adjustable rear-sets moveable for touring or sport. There are a LOT of possibilities. A Picatinny rail would be an ideal mount for a removable GPS, or an Enduro route map or rally computer or whatever.
Stephen says
Picatinny rails on vehicles?
Genius!
Walt says
Radiator: puts weight too high and SPRUNG? Not good!
But looks cool and I’ve never seen the like of this before.
Lights? Surely we can work something out. Love the way the fork matches the frame, and love the pipes.
Paulinator says
Sorry guys, I was being a negatarian (pronounced A.$.$.). The fork blades match the frame and swing-arm beautifully! I am a fan of girder / Hossack front ends. If the radiator was not camouflaged as a number plate I’d love this thing. Frankly, I don’t mind radiators hanging out in the air-stream…they’re kinda supposed to, aren’t they?
WRXr says
A Cylon bike if there ever was one. The LED headlights just need to be mounted sideways and glow red.
FREEMAN says
Definitely a noteworthy rendition of the Buell. Personally, I think it probably would have balanced out a bit more under the seat like the post shown earlier. It would have fit in better with Buell’s mass-centralization principles, too. Other than that, I think it looks great.
FREEMAN says
By that, I mean the radiator.
emmet says
appealing placement of the radiator on the front girder suspension. Looks like a grill facade! If only the 1125 was this good looking…
Tin Man 2 says
Ever notice that a Good design stays appealing forever? A Bonneville looked good in 1966 and still does today, Who thinks this Bike will look good in 50 Yrs? Any time you put Form over Function you pretty much opt for a short shelf life, The Radiator mounted high and outside is against everything Erik Buell believed in. As mentioned earlier, the hated side pods served a usefull purpase, If a Buell was Ugly, at least it served a purpase. In Function there is Beauty.
Davidw says
Looks like a plastic toy you’d buy your kid for christmas. Girder forks were never efficient…the 1948 Harley 125 had a girder fork with rubber band suspension…2 for compression and 1 for rebound!! Wish i still had that one…worth as much on ebay as an 09 Buell. If Buell was all about engineering over styling why after 26 years and a good deal of HD money were they never able to compete with other manufacturers bikes of similar displacement and intent. A bit of good styling would have been a plus, Shame to see them out of business though.
frozen prairie says
Hey, thanks to you Kneeslider contributors, I’ve just added a new weapon to my lexical arsenal. I was always an open sight man myself, so had never heard of a picatinny.
I like the looks of the bike, by the way. I don’t think the rad at the front would be a big problem. The first liquid-cooled Yamaha MXers had their rads up front and the steering never felt heavy.
The rad with its water would probabaly weigh no more than the headlight, tach. and speedo that were normally mounted ahead of the fork tubes in the days when men were men.
coho says
I’m envisioning a removable aluminum bracket/sub-subframe with (picatinny?) mounts for cases and an equally removable style-appropriate windscreen. That would make a sexy sport tourer.
It reminds me (not in a derivative way) of the Confederate Renovatio. Which I also think would look pretty nifty with some distance-related accessories.
Adrian Button says
It’s a grower. Compard to the donor bike it’s a looker. Still don’t know about that front suspension though.
Chris Robson says
I am not much into sport bikes, but I like the industial look about the bike with a futuristic style. Time will tell if it’s fashion of fad.
B*A*M*F says
I love the look of the front suspension, as well as the radiator/headlight.
Paulinator says
…and for me the shakin’ rad/headlight assemby is the one thing that I can’t reconcile. But the doers do as they wish…and we all appreciate that.
joe says
Interesting bike and a nice looking ornament / work of art. Unfortunatly, girder forks are like drum brakes, a thing of the past that should stay there. What next, adding a plunger rear suspension to match ? Why not slot the Buell 1125R engine in a vintage BSA frame and have done with it.
Bob says
@joe
John Britten thought girder forks had enough promise that he replaced the conventional forks on his racing bikes with a girder. They seemed to do alright.
OldGuy says
Actually Britten used a Hossack front end, not a girder.
Al says
Britten’s front end was carbon fiber too, a real work of industrial art. This one looks to have way too much unsprung weight on the front. I too, would like to see how it does going into a turn vs. the doner bike, which works pretty good. But the styling is good to my eye.
And the geometry of the Britten would need to be replicated. That is key to making this sort of front end work on a performance bike. When Britten ran at Laguna Seca, he would throw a rag over the front end linkage in the pits so no one could get a clear side-on picture of it!
Fred M. says
@David W
You wrote: “If Buell was all about engineering over styling why after 26 years and a good deal of HD money were they never able to compete with other manufacturers bikes of similar displacement and intent.”
Able to compete? The Buells outhandled just about every bike made of similar displacement. They were more comfortable. They had much more real-world-usable power bands. And they were faster on the street — which is where Erik Buell designed them to be ridden.
As Erik Buell said in a Kneeslider interview:
“I wanted a power band that starts at 3500 rpm and goes to over 10,000 rpm and I want a dead flat torque curve because I wanted a certain level of roll on performance based on what riders want. When you look at all of those requirements it sort of spits out an engine and that’s where the 1125 came from, crank the numbers and this is what you get and I said I wasn’t concerned about any racing rules. This is a road bike and at the time the 1200cc rule hadn’t come around and if someone could make a kit to shrink it to 1000cc, fine if we were ever going to do that but it wasn’t designed that way, this is a road bike.”
Buell riders care about how well the bike works, not how much peak(y) horsepower they get per cc. If the bike is as light as a Japanese 600cc bike, handles as well as the Japanese bike, makes 146hp at the crank, and has a wide powerband, why the hell should I care whether some guy turning 15K rpm on the 600cc Japanese bike is making more horsepower per cc? I can still dust him and I won’t arrive at work feeling like I’ve been riding a four hundred pound dentist’s drill. And when I get to my office, no one is going to do a tech inspection and fine me for having too much displacement.
But, all of that said, Buell was winning when compared to its rivals:
Buell 1125CR vs Ducati Streetfighter in Sport Rider magazine:
http://sportrider.automotive.com/124737/146-0912-buell-1125cr-ducati-streetfighter-comparison-test/index.html
Short version: Buell wins.
Buell 1125CR vs Ducati Streetfighter vs Aprilia Tuono 1000R on Motorcycle USA website
http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/8/4506/Motorcycle-Article/2009-Streetfighter-Comparo-III.aspx
Short version: Buell wins
bobx says
long version:
buell lost.
Fred M. says
@bobx
Accurate version:
The motorcycling community lost.
Thom says
The most horrible thing for me, being from Milwaukee, was the article in the local paper with the comment by a Harley exec saying that Buell WAS profitable, just not enough for Harley to consider them worthwhile. I suppose, if you’re charging a premium for what is essentially ’30s-era technology, there’s a pretty high profit margin. And girder forks are a fantastic idea that not many people have made work well, due to the technology available when they were popular. A Hossack front end is very close to a girder in design. I LOVE this bike, but I’d rather see the concept applied to an XB9R or City X, so the radiator can be done away with entirely.
Paulinator says
Investors’ version: Harley Davidson Motorcycle Corporation returned to its core business to focus on brand, increase profitability and maximize share values.
Entrepreneurs’ version: Harley quit ’em?
bobx says
@ Fred M.
agreed.
Fred M. says
@Thom
You wrote: “The most horrible thing for me, being from Milwaukee, was the article in the local paper with the comment by a Harley exec saying that Buell WAS profitable, just not enough for Harley to consider them worthwhile.”
And Harley didn’t consider saving the jobs of 180 Americans worthwhile. And Harley didn’t consider the customers who had purchased over 136,000 Buell motorcycles worthwhile.
I’m so sick of Harley and their self-serving fake patriotism. If they were so damned patriotic, why did they close Buell, refusing to sell it, and leave 180 hard-working Americans without jobs a week before Christmas?
Al says
“If they were so damned patriotic, why did they close Buell, refusing to sell it, and leave 180 hard-working Americans without jobs a week before Christmas?”
Because board-level management was afraid Polaris or whoever-buyer would make a success of Buell and then they would look stupid(er than they do now.)
Thom says
@ Al- True. Harley does look stupid right now. They took their only technologically innovative product and gave it the axe. I’m waiting for the day they go under like all the other notable American brands. Excelsior. Cleveland. Pope. Flying Merkel. Indian. etc etc etc.
FREEMAN says
@ Thom: yeah, that’s a great way to look at things.
Regardless of whatever your interpretation of HD’s business practice, it’s a shame that another motorcycle manufacturer, American or not, is out of business. With your great idea, that’s more people (roughly 10,000 employees) without jobs collecting unemployment and a worse economy for everybody.
Paulinator says
Please correct me if I got this wrong…Buell had (as reported here) a significant presence in Europe and growth potential with a brand new model. So H-D killed a brand that had self-sustaining export markets (?) and then increased thier bottom-line by importing Pakistani leathers (also reported here) to sell to the patriotic Americans that they just made redundant?
…and how many of those Pakistani garment workers are Taliban supporters?
hhhm?
lostboy1 says
that is HAWT…best looking Buell ever, Buell had some fantastic ideas that really worked.
Fred M. says
@Al
“Because board-level management was afraid Polaris or whoever-buyer would make a success of Buell and then they would look stupid(er than they do now.)”
And to them, that would be worse than laying off 180 Americans a week before Christmas during a recession. That speaks volumes about the “patriotism,” character, and ethics of the Harley Davidson Board of Directors.
kenpstok says
@anon Same thing I was thinking. Where is the rail system? Is there a tactical purpose for this bike or just taking advantage of the best polymer company in a long time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!