VOL. 51 ISSUE 17 APRIL 29, 2014 P87
nal one without excessive weight
on your wrists and forearms. And
you can actually see more than
just your shoulders behind you in
the well-placed mirrors.
The new bike features the
same trademark monocoque
chassis design as on all recent
Buell-developed bikes, with the
4.5-gallon fuel load carried in
the twin frame spars - a fact that
doesn't intrude on space for your
legs thanks to the bike's narrow
waist. You actually end up feeling
less perched on the seat, more
a part of the EBR, than on the
smaller-seeming Ducati Panigale
that the new American bike will
inevitably be compared with.
And that greater sense of bulk
can also be turned to advantage,
with the RX's broad-shouldered
build thanks to its fuel-in-frame
format delivering better protec-
tion to your own shoulders and
arms via its wider nose fairing.
But its low screen exposes your
helmet to more turbulence than
I remember on the RS, even
crouched down atop the shroud
for the massive airbox, which is
where you'd expect the gas tank
would be.
Still, the new EBR feels a
good place to be in sportbike
terms, especially with the grippy,
knurled footpegs with adjustable
toe levers that were positioned
just right for me. They aren't over-
ly high-set, yet don't ground out
at excessive lean angles, plus
they aren't as slippery as the Pan-
igale's shiny metal pegs. Little
things mean a lot, and I think the
EBR will be a good streetbike,
away from the racetrack.
It was certainly a good place to
be when rounding any of the Jen-
nings track's tighter turns, or flick-
ing it from side to side in its pair
of chicanes and through the sev-
eral double-apex corners. That's
because of the pinpoint steering
delivered by the EBR's combina-
tion of quite radical steering ge-
ometry (a 22.4-degree rake to
the 43mm Showa BPF fork, with
96.5mm of trail and a 55.4-inch
wheelbase), and a centralized
mass that's partly obtained by
reducing gyroscopic (and un-
sprung) weight at both ends via
the lightweight cast aluminum
'hubless' wheels and single front
rim disc brake. And partly via
the more compact narrow-angle
72-degree V-twin engine.
Coupled with the flawless
