VOL. 50 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 17, 2013
P133
BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEL EDGE
D
ucati will have twin-cylinder reinforcements in 2014 in its World Superbike
campaign against the fleet of fours,
with the debut of Erik Buell's EBR in the
hands of Geoff May and Aaron Yates. Besides marking Buell's long-awaited arrival on
the world stage, this will be the first all-American motorcycle to compete in the World Superbike Series (the Harley-Davidson VR1000
was never homologated for world-class competition).
Originally designed by Rotax in Austria for
use in the now defunct Buell 1125R sportbike, the EBR's water-cooled DOHC 72-degree V-twin engine is now entirely built in
evolved guise in EBR's factory in East Troy,
Wisconsin. So, like Arnold Schwarzenegger,
it was born in Austria, but has now become a
naturalized U.S. citizen.
And since the powerplant is fitted in a Chicago-made monocoque chassis, Ducati will
have to pay better attention to its terminology
and stop claiming that its Panigale 1199's vestigial chassis is a monocoque design - when
actually it's just a metal fabrication doubling
as the airbox that's used to hang the front
suspension off the engine. It's not a closed
structure actually carrying the fuel inside it,
as a true monocoque frame like the EBR's
does.
But that's not the only significant landmark
that the EBR's arrival will represent – for
adorning the sides of its sleek fairing will be
the name of one of the world's largest motorcycle manufacturers, India's Hero MotoCorp, which produced 6.2 million powered
two-wheelers in 2012, and in July this year
purchased a 49.2 percent share of EBR's
equity as part of its strategic realignment in
the wake of its divorce from Honda.
