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Buell RR1000R
This is a beast with a convoluted history. It’s
one of just three racing RR1000s produced by Erik Buell before the road version
was released in the late 80s. The story starts with the Harley Owners Group,
which asked Buell to make a chassis for a race bike using the Harley-Davidson XR
engine: the rise in engine capacity from 750 to 1000cc for AMA BoTT racing had
made the XR750 uncompetitive against most European high-performance motorcycles.
So Buell designed an XR1000-powered bike with racing in mind. It appeared in
1986 and was known as “Lucifer’s Hammer II”, or more formally, the RR1000.
Buell racing motorcycle
The RR1000 was a very small bike, with a wheelbase of only 136cm and a steering
head angle of 25 degrees. It rolled on 16” magnesium wheels and Marzocchi M1R or
WP upside-down forks, with the rear suspension placed under the engine. The
engine is positioned high and forward, and mounted in the chassis using a
‘Uniplaner’ system designed to isolate the chassis from vibrations. The bike has
a dry weight of 180kg, a 55° maximum angle of lean, and a maximum speed recorded
at Daytona of about 280kph.
Buell racing motorcycle
The racer we’re looking at here was in boxes when Roberto Crepaldi of CR&S
bought it directly from Erik Buell in 1992. After the parts arrived in Italy,
CR&S spent two years restoring the bike and then put it up for auction at
Bonhams in 2004. The man who owns it now is Englishman Steve Ledsham, who’s
raced this RR1000R at Spa, Mallory Park and Brands Hatch: “I can say it goes,
brakes and handles superbly,” he reports. Ledsham is currently undoing some of
the CR&S mods and taking the RR1000 back to period race specification. “The
forks, wheels, tanks and brakes were sourced in Italy and not Buell supplied,”
he notes.
Source
hbikeexif
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