Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127208
Team Profile #49 "The guys at OTORCYCLIST really bring it alive." -Erik Buell Name: Erik Buell Occupation: Engineer; President, Buell Motor Company, Inc. ; Coowner, Pittsburg h Perform ance Products, Inc. Riding history: "The first motorcycle I ever rode was a Honda step-through at the age of 14. The owner showed me how to start it up and I rode down his driveway, turned left onto the street and kept going. When I got. back he was horrified and never let me ride it again. But I was hooked; it was freedom. I always had a weird, exotic assortment of bikes. In college, I worked part-time as a motorcycle mechanic and built a bike for a friend who was a racer. He decided to retire and I was stuck with it, so I went racing myself. I raced both . Superbike and Fomnila I and was a rookie Expert in 1978. I did pretty well, always running in the top five or 10, but in 1979 I went to work for Harley-Davidson and no longer had time to race." Professional background: "I was with Harley for five years and got a chance to work in just about every engineering area. The last project I did for them was the FXRT. I wanted to tie my roadracing background in with my engineering, but there was really no place to do that in the States because Harley had no interes t in that area. The only alternative was to go out on my own. I had already started the racing accessories business, Pittsburgh Performance Products, and left to do that fulltime. I decided to build a pure racing bike and just as it was about to go into production they eliminated the Formula 1 class. I gained a lot of notoriety from it, however, and eventually decided to build an allAm erican superbike. The Buell RRl000 was conceived as an love riding motorcycles and want to be able to do it for a long time." Bikes currently owned: Harley-Davidson 1200 Sportster; 750 Ducati; 500 Matchless; 750 Matchless twin; Honda CR250; Yamaha 125 twin . PHOTOS: DAVE GESS advancement on the state .of the art, but with a classic Harley motor. It has the nice tight handling, oneness with the rider, and powerful brakes of a race machine, but with power more appropriate to the street. We delivered 50 RR1000 bikes in '87 and early '88, and will build about 200 of two different models in late '88 through '89. We like to think of ourselves as the little Lotus of the motorcycle industry." Riding preference: " I like any kind of riding. What I'd really like to do is go roadracing again, but I just don't have time for it, so I have to settle for street riding. I do go out and ride windy roads as much as I can, but I don't ride race speeds on the street. I guess I Magazine: "It's the enthusiasm that makes me look forward to reading MOTORCYCLIST. We particularly appreciate it in the winter up here in the cold north woods of low-overhead Mukwonago, Wisconsin, where we suffer so we can bring you these motorcycles. When you're about to give it up and go make screendoors in Alabama so you can be warm again, it's always fun to read what's going on in the sport .. . and the guys at MOTORCYCLIST really bring it alive." This endorsement is purely voluntary. No fee or other consideration is paid. AT NEWSSTANDS FOR $27.00 PER YEAR OR BY SUBSCRIPTION FOR $17.94. FOR SUBSCRIPTION ORDERS CALL (213) 854ยท2470.