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Erik Buell SuperTT interview
Erik Buell interviewed at EICMA in MilanBuell launched the new SuperTT at the 2006 EICMA bike show in Milan. We spoke to Erik about everything from the new bike to engines.
Words & photo: Tor Sagen
Erik Buell is the co founder of Buell Motorcycle Company that is owned by Harley-Davidson. Not many people manage to build a major motorcycle factory in their own name these days, but Erik Buell has done so. Erik’s grandmother on the father side was 1st generation Swedish (her name was Altine Eklund) and Erik is a Scandinavian name. Erik Buell has six children and a bunch of motorcycles stored in his garage. When he’s not designing or riding motorcycles he plays the Fender Strat with his band.
SuperTT
TS: What’s the name about?“It’s based on American TT racing from the 1940’s-The Ascot TT and so on.“
“Super TT the idea came from me being out in Colorado riding these unpaved roads. I was riding a Ulysses and a City-X and had a week and put a lot of miles on. I thought that I needed something in between these. In some ways it might even be better than the City (X) because it is taller. City-X was my favourite for fun riding; now it’s the TT. I’m going to try to talk my wife into buying one of these (STT). I have a lot of bikes in my garage and I don’t want to get rid of any of them. I have six kids so the garage is very busy. Dirt bikes, snowmobiles and way too many powered toys (laughter).”
TS: To me the concept looks like an addition to the new wave of super sized multi-cylinder supermotos such as KTM 950 SM and Ducati Hypermotard?“You know, I think they are all coming from a different direction to a kind of a meeting ground. I actually, you know although we buy a ton of competitive vehicle, I have never ridden any of them. I am sure it (STT) is a lot like that. The TT is not super tall, but have a little more suspension and it’s fairly narrow and nimble. Very fun to ride, I mean, more fun than a bike with huge horsepower I think. Very sporty and very athletic, this is always what Buell has been about. Considering the weight and size of the engine we have we hold our own.”
TS: Does it ever frustrate you the lack of engine choice?“Hmmm, I guess we do have choices of other engines, but at the moment I’m trying to make the most of this air-cooled 45 degree motor. Because I really believe that’s a great motorcycle. Is that the only thing? Am I not going to build anything else? No, but I really wanted to give that engine a fair shot. Because in general, in the sportbike world people have gone, you know an air-cooled motor like that is not an adequate motor. Well, I disagree, I disagree very much. What do I need a 170 horsepower motorcycle for? It’s no longer a sport, it’s almost a battle! It’s interesting to see other people coming to where we have been for a while.”
“The other good thing that I wanted to do was to have a good shot at seeing what we could do with, and this is almost in respect to Harley, saying I am going to make this motor running as cleanly as possible. Because I think that in theory, what I look at is the numbers of people that were saying that air-cooled would disappear. Even 10 years ago. I disagree; I don’t believe that at all. Looking at the fundamental strengths of them (the air-cooled engines), and the way the emissions are done I think, I know it is very clean. We managed Euro 2 with no catalytic converter. And that’s greener if you’re not using up any heavy materials (as catalytic converters) When you light up a cat it actually takes fuel. So the air-cooled engine, although an old design, can be very modern in many ways. So I’m really not frustrated. I’ve been focused on this because there was so many things I could do with it. What other engine type could you take all the way from an XBRR to the Ulysses and the City-X? You don’t do that with a Honda Hornet engine. So in essence still a very relevant engine for a motorcycle.”
TS: Why don’t you use the liquid cooled Harley V-rod engine? Is it too long for a Buell?“It’s too big! It actually was our engine. We started the project and then Harley got engaged and said that we’d like to use it too. And then they said, well actually we’ll probably gonna use it first. And then they thought about it and what bike they could build around this engine. They came up with this big touring cruiser. The engine as we had conceived it was too small. It was wrong. And they said that we want, like in all our bikes, the engine to be a showcase in the middle. In a 66inch wheel-based bike this little engine would just look stupid, so they made it bigger. I said, you know, it’s no longer a sporting engine. It’s a big twin, and a beautiful engine for that kind of bike. But, for me again, sport means nimble, athletic, light and it just became a big beautiful touring cruising engine. I just had to go; you know my customers won’t be satisfied with it. And it’s heavier than the air-cooled, significantly heavier without the water and radiator. I had a target of 140 pounds and it’s (V-rod engine) 210. Nothing wrong with it, it’s just not for our bike.”
TS: With all the resources in the Motor Company, why could you not have developed both a small and big engine?“Well, because it takes a lot of work and a lot of investment to do that. And they (H-D) were doing a new air-cooled for us at the time. The XB shared almost no parts with the Sportster motor. The Sportster motor now is more similar than it was in 2003. They were also doing all the big twin engines. It was really busy. We reached that crossroads and said the engine can’t be common and we can’t do two. We just don’t have the time and the resources. There’s a lot of image that makes Harley-Davidson look so big. I mean, Honda builds 10 million motorcycles a year. Harley does 350.000 which are nice, but think about it, much, much smaller company.”
“Buell doesn’t do heritage, concept or replica bikes. It’s very modern. TT is an American thing. It came before supermoto. In ’94 we designed the S1 Lightning for the ’95 model year. We blended a XR750 with a motocrosser with a roadracer. We did that in the design studio which had not been done before. It’s very much what we like to do.”
TS: European market for the Super TT?“I think it will fair well here. We are successful in Europe because it seems the rider is more sophisticated. They ride a lot. I am sure for the really younger guys are still coming up through the phase on a 125, then a 250 and then a 1000cc sportbike and then, you know I’m tired of reading spec-sheets, I just want to ride! And that’s how it works. It’s neat that it’s successful in Europe for us. Because I know what the choice is. It’s not motivated because it is American, the amount of power but because it works! It’s a real honour for me to have a bike sell well over here. I like people ridin’ ‘em. I don’t think about the numbers and that probably drives my accountants crazy. If we’re making people happy then cool.”
TS: Why should people buy a more expensive Buell rather than a Ducati Monster?“I think there are a number of reasons. Ours work well, extremely low maintenance cost so that you can ride more often, very high tech, the chassis design is extremely modern, and the brakes are modern.
I absolutely guarantee that a Buell handles better than a Ducati Monster. Monster is a good bike, but there certainly are many good reasons to buy a Buell. The technology on a Buell really works, it’s not gimmicky.”
TS: Looking at the XB12STT Super TT again, it wasn’t too much work for you to launch that as a new model? Or was it?“No, I mean it’s definitely platform based. We are now confident of the basis of it. We also work on all kinds of improvements such as wiring harness. We are working on products that are coming out next year, the year after that and the year after that. We also have some very advanced stuff that we do some work on and put in the corner. I made the prototype for the fuel in the frame in 1988. 15 years later, in 2003 it came out. We do some cool projects, conceptionally crazy, but this kinda works. Then we’ll go; ok but we’re not ready yet, we’re gonna build this.
I don’t want to do any gimmicks. When I do something I want to make a product like that for a long time. That as anything is as close as we come to Harley as I agree with the philosophy. Rather than lots of changes every second year, you know a GSX-R from four years ago doesn’t share any parts with the current one. It doesn’t make sense to me. It obviously works for them as a business, but I don’t understand it. I want to think and think and think and then make a big step. But we’re always working on new stuff.”
TS: Tell me about the 2007 XB12X Ulysses?“The seat has been lowered. I never had a problem and I am not that tall. We had a lot of complaints in the US that the seat was too tall. So I made a lower standard seat. Actually I had planned to introduce an even taller seat for the taller guys and keep the standard seat.”
TS: Where can you go next after fuel and oil in the frame? Have you maximised at this point the potential of mass centralisation? Can you do more?“Yes, but it gets harder. There are always things you can do to improve mass centralisation. For example I could do carbon fibre wheels, but it doesn’t make sense to the price. I want to make bikes that a lot of people can enjoy. The next steps we can take to make the bike feel more on with you, they are bigger steps. We will keep everything that way.”
TS: Are you on a 10 year plan like H-D? Does that mean that you know what we’ll see from Buell in 10 years?“I don’t know, but I think I know.”
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