I made some headlight mountings that worked off the stanchions… but despite putting a lot of effort into making them, they just didn’t look right. I have ended up mounting the headlight on the headstock. it needs to be lowered a bit to line up with the frame top, but I can do that later. here is is out in the daylight!
Not many updates to report... Garage time is limited as my brother is seriously ill and that's taking a lot of my time... Just the odd few hours at the moment, so progress will be slower than usual. On to what is probably my favourite part of a build… the wiring! For the first time I am using a Motogadget unit, as there is not a lot of room for the wiring, and I fancy a change! I will be using the tried and trusted Speedo/tacho unit which are now £15 off the internet! This along with some cheap, but very good quality switchgear which were actually very cheap! As always, Bike reliability is often linked to the quality of the wiring, its important to have good connections/connectors with properly crimped joints. I machined The speedo plinth out of some aircraft quality alloy. I get a lot of this type of material from a local scrap metal dealer who collects scrap from aerospace companies in the area… If I am lucky its marked with the material specification… In this case I had no idea, but it machined so easy, I wish I knew what it was! I didn’t do a drawing for this… I used as my mate calls it “eyeball engineering” and did it without any dimensions written down!
Sincere best wishes to your brother. Praying there’s better news ahead. Impressive to see that the standard of your invention and workmanship (as is also the case with @CAT3) never dips or disappoints. My best wishes for the Christmas season and New Year to you both and your closest
A bit more done on the wiring… I have also made a belt/pulley cover and a retainer for the main shaft nut which i will drill and slot when the nut is tightened
I think that's the best looking Buell (and Harley) I've ever seen. If they'd made them like that from the start they wouldn't have gone bust. It's got that begs-to-be-ridden look. Very nice indeed. Interested to see how the latest one comes out.
I agree it has that "begs to be ridden look" as that's what I have done all summer! Actually to the expense of my other bikes! It definitely has something about the way it rides... I's probably around 95BHP, but it "feels" more. The whole package feels just right, the brakes, the handling, the wall of torque, I cant believe its a Sportster engine! In the summer me and a mate went to a bike show... Half way there and we stopped for breakfast. I offered for him to take the Buell. Off we set with me riding his Yamaha 700 Tenere. I struggled to keep up! although he is a far better rider than me. When we got to the show he was so enthusiastic about the bike and begged me to let him ride it back!
What's the difference in engine spec between the Buell and the Sportster 1200 engine? If that's not too involved a question. The Sportster struggles to make 70 bhp.
There must be some major differences to engine internals. 69 bhp to 95 is quite a jump. Not doubting Buzzer's figures, by the way. Sounds spot-on. Just wondering what tuning work Buell did to the stock lump. Four valve heads for a start I'm assuming, but must be more than that.
its still 2 V! The extra output is down to the reworked heads, cams, exhaust and Ignition. Originally this Buell would have been around 94 BHP but it has a race exhaust and ignition, and a bigger carb which takes it up a bit more, I was being conservative at 95 The new bike (XB12R) is fuel injected and is around 103 BHP as standard which is even better. A lot however is down to the torque it produces and the way it delivers the power...
Lovely project work, as always. To weigh in on the engine power difference between the Sportster and the Buell, it isn’t difficult to get a lot more peak BHP out of a very low revving motor like this - just push peak torque (which is barely changed from the Sportster) up the rev range significantly - up by 2500 rpm in this case likely mainly with cam profile and delimit/assist the peak revs with a different ignition module and lighter flywheel. As BHP is simply the torque x rpm, you get good numbers easily. The standard Sportster has a nominal 6000 rpm redline, but as peak torque occurs at 3500, the power increase by chasing revs is absolutely asthmatic and pointless and slower than riding the torque to say 3800-4000 rpm max before shifting. The Buell (Fi figs as that is the one I’m more familiar with) torque peaks at 6000 with peak power at 6800, so riders are regularly in the 6000-6500 range. As my favourite band says, you can’t get something for nothing, and the big ticket item here is the reduction in engine life. Roughly, we usually consider a halving of engine life (before it blows up or needs major bottom and top end work) for every extra 1000 rpm you regularly access. Apply that rule of thumb and if a Harley is ok to around 100 k miles with routine servicing, a sportingly ridden Buell is likely to want some wallet love before 20k. I had the Fi road bike on loan when released, as I was considering racing on one in BoTT at the time. I would class it as great fun, but flawed. Lovely controllable chassis, sharp geometry, fun torque, lighting up the rear tyre at will out of roundabouts, but though it masked it well up to a point, the weight was huge after being used to race bikes for so long, and the engine felt like an old N/A diesel that needed a turbo, 2000 rpm and 50 hp more - strong up to a point, then it basically just shut off very abruptly, zero soft overrev, and if you hit that point when you were committed mid corner, it tied itself in knots unloading both tyres, and snatching another gear with Harley’s clunkbox either dropping it back to max torque or finding a false neutral at that point was a trip to A&E waiting to happen.
