Erik Buell

When you think of the true mavericks of the racing world, names like Carroll Shelby and Dan Gurney immediately come to mind. These men dared to take on the established pecking order by hand-crafting racing machines that often put the big-budget manufacturers to shame. In the world of motorcycle racing, Erik Buell is exactly the same type of guy.

The founder, Chairman and Chief Technical Office of the motorcycle company that bears his name, Buell has been a racer at heart right from the get-go. He began by racing motocross before switching to road racing in his early 20s, racing a Ducati in AMA Superbike competition and a Yamaha in the old AMA Formula One class. At the same time, Buell was earning an engineering degree and working as a motorcycle mechanic.

In 1979, he landed a job with Harley-Davidson, working on concept bikes and helping to refine the ride on the FXR series of cruisers. At the same time, Buell was building and racing his own prototype bikes, eventually creating the RW750 to compete in the Formula One class.

Three years later, he left Harley-Davidson to focus on his own burgeoning race efforts. Unfortunately, the AMA abandoned the Formula One class in favour of Superbikes for the 1986 season, leaving Buell without a product to race or to sell to fellow privateer road racers.

Rather than give up the ghost, he built his first production sportbike, the RR1000, after purchasing XR1000 racing engines from Harley. The close connection with Milwaukee continues to this day: In the 1990s, Harley-Davidson purchased a 51% interest in the Buell Motorcycle Company and then bought out the remaining shares in 2003.

Since that time, Buell's keen mind for motorcycle engineering has led to the establishment of the Trilogy of Tech - mass centralization, low unsprung weight, superior frame rigidity - and a line-up of bikes that offers great bang for the buck.

On the occasion of the Toronto Motorcycle Show - and coincidentally the 25th anniversary of his company - we had the opportunity to ask Erik Buell a few questions about his legacy and what the future holds for the Buell Motorcycle Company.

What would you say is your biggest accomplishment in terms of technological development?

I don't know if there's any one thing that stands out. But I think this path that we've been pursuing - of trying to make the bike feel at one with the rider - has really glued together a whole bunch of different, new technologies and patented concepts that really work. [A Buell is] different from the other products out there and for good reason - not just to be different.

2008 Buell Lightning XB12S