Yes, the famous space invaders, James Tiberius Kirk and the solemn pointy-eared Spock couldn’t be more specific with my take on their famous chin-rubbing phrase. Well actually it was – ‘It’s life Jim, but not as we know it’, if you haven’t a clue what I’m on about. And if you’ve never seen any Star Trek episodes/movies, and have no idea what I’m on about, then you have to have been born in a wet cave living off spongy moss, irritating insects and the odd stabbed rat, right?
But the tight shirt wearing Vulcan has a point (not necessarily on his ears), because if he happened to ride this new Buell he would most certainly have changed his historical or futuristic phrase to this. You see, I’ve just spent a week with the new EBR 1190RX and came away as impressed, as I was when I first saw a Chinese lady knocking over skittles by powerfully propelling ping-pong balls from her ‘marriage-garage’.
Spock is most certainly correct though because if you go for a test ride, which you should, you’ll not believe what Mr. Erik Buell has achieved with his latest machine and it’s now justifiably comparable, and in some cases better, than any big-bore V-twin currently available. And before you spit your morning tea all over the kids at the breakfast table, relax, and read on for a while.
Many things were wrong with earlier Buells, well to be honest the first ones were shite, but over the years things got better until Harley gave Erik the ‘finger’ and he stopped with development and invested what was left of his cash stash on triple vodkas and thousands of headache pills for the morning after. But then along came Hero Honda from India and saved his depleting liver by injecting funds into his account, seeing as they have more disposable income than NASA, and now we have the new EBR range and Eriks’s ‘finger’ is now returning Harley’s rude gesture and then some – good on yer mate.
So the EBR (Erik Buell Racing) 1190RX is a completely new machine from the Pirelli tyres up and what a machine it is, as I’ve said. First of all the engine is now a weapon of note due to a million (maybe less) changes to the Rotax ET-V2, 72-degree V-twin. New heads, pistons, valves, giant injector bodies and more have boosted power to a claimed 185hp, so guess where my first space docking was, yes, the Dynojet dyno of course! Even Scotty (Star Trek Enterprise engineer) would be impressed with the new EBR’s highly commendable 154hp at the wheel, which to put that into perspective is more than a Fireblade, GSXR-1000, R1, KTM RC-8 and everything but the most expensive and unaffordable Ducati, and even then they’re not too far ahead. And all of this for R199,000, which I think is good value in today’s market for something so exclusive and it’s also very, very handsome and doesn’t look like a smashed Klingon’s forehead anymore- sweeeet!
So it’s now fast, very, and just gobbles up the tarmac in such an effortless manner you really do have to keep an eye on the superb instrument pod, which looks suspiciously like the new R1 instrument console, aye Mr. Yamaha, where did you get that from? I do like the lack of electronics on the EBR because there’s just too much of ‘that’ at the moment, which I always switch off anyway for the ‘undiluted experience’, if you know what I mean? The 1190RX has no varying power modes just ‘full’ but there are 21 levels of traction control to play with, which is a bit overkill I think, but some people like that. But, switch it off and you’ll be rewarded with wheel-spin through the first three gears and a subsequent grin like a Cheshire cat after swallowing three tabs of acid (LSD that is, not things you put in your pool to dilute the neighbours kids wee).
The new chassis is also a peach and as stable as the Star Ship Enterprise as warp speed seven and still has Eric’s signature fuel-in-the-frame design, which is quite clever if you think about it, because you don’t have to make and hide a fuel tank and therefore you can make the air-box bigger. Another of Eric’s remaining distinctive features is that massive 386mm perimeter front single disc gripped by an equally massive eight, yes eight, piston caliper, which is now as potent as it looks, and I love that big silly air-scoop cooling thingy venting to the calliper.
Not so silly is the adoption of superb suspension components from Showa. Big valve forks at the front are the same as use on Kawasaki’s ZX-10 and the like and the single side mounted Showa rear shock seems to have near perfect damping ratios right from the start. So zero complaints from me in that department as well folks.
The EBR is also surprisingly comfortable, even on the road, and I covered many kays with very little complaints besides considerable heat being spewed from those twin fans when stuck behind slow moving traffic, but the EBR is primarily designed for track use, so there. The clutch was also a bit heavy but EBR do have a conversion kit to soften that off for the limp-wristed dudes who might like to own one, which is nice of them.
And finally, does this bike look gorgeous, or what? The quality of finish is now equal to any other manufacturer and well worth a visit to Cayenne to see one in the flesh/plastic/metal, etc. I even polished my bright red test bike on more than one occasion, which shows how much I bonded with the EBR and was sad to see it go back,
To sum up the EBR 1190RX is, for once, simple. I could never really put my hand on my heart and recommend buying any Buell in the past, but now I would, so no more!
To book a highly recommended test ride go to www.cayenne.co.za and be as impressed as Jim and Spock, er sorry, Bill is.
Also take a trip to www.erikbuellracing.com and check out his interesting new site.
