I bought this in 2004 at the Harley Davidson dealer in Rocklin, Ca. That's right, a brand new 2002 Buell, purchased in 2004. I was specifically looking for a big displacement twin motorcycle with a carburetor and a large gas tank and no weird deviant design or engineering craziness. I wanted a straight-forward ground pounding muscle bike that I could tune and maintain without any special equipment, and I wanted to go far between gas station stops........
These colors were Molten Orange and Volcanic Grey...I think. All orange parts were powder-coated and held up very well. Just look at that awesome V-twin under slung like that!
In 2004 the Buell line had hollow frames where the gas was stored and hollow swing arms where the oil was stored, and the styling left me cold. No thanks, Add to that fuel injection and it was too much weirdness. I communicated that to the man who was assisting me at the dealership and he thought it over for a second. He then remembered he had this new two-year old, un-sold Cyclone (a model defunct by 2004) sitting in the back warehouse. He explained that it had a carburetor and a 5 gallon fuel tank right where a fuel tank should be. He further said he was willing to make me a deal on it.
Inspired by this news, I eagerly followed him through the repair shop to the back warehouse. There she was, forgotten and covered in an inch of dust. She was tall, stout, but most of all- she was ORANGE. Yeah, I could see why she didn't sell. Imagine that crazy-weird thing parked in the showroom next to all the chrome and black and flames of the Harley Davidson Cruiser stock. Out of place for sure. I was taken back a bit myself. However, the price was very right, and he offered a full HD warranty. I asked when I could test ride and he said to give him a day to prep it.
The next day the bike was sitting on the dealer's demo front slab, shiny and new, ready to go. He told me to take it for a ride, didn't ask for my license, a deposit, he didn't even chaperon me. Weird. He only asked that I not run it past 2500 RPM due to engine break-in. I took it for a ride. I was sold immediately on the performance. The sound of the engine, a 1200cc sportster engine with hot cams, high compression heads, and recurved ignition timing was intoxicating and bad to the bone. The torque could move a buffalo. I bought the bike, orange paint and all.
For about two years I was the only orange bike on the road around Sacramento. Then the color creeped into fashion with orange showing up here and there. The bike had a real presence about it. Most people were excited about it. Many were confused as to why it sounded like a hot-rodded Harley Davidson. I simply pointed to the tank badge where it proudly read "Buell- American Motorcycles".
On the evening of mothers day, 2008 I was broad-sided by a speeding dark green Daewoo with it's headlights off. It was dusk and I was waiting at an intersection, heading home from a bookstore. My traffic light changed from red to green and after a quick glance in both directions, I entered the intersection. It was a very wide intersection, six-lanes wide in all directions. I was almost through the intersection, and the next thing I know is a dark speeding car is entering my peripheral vision from the right. I estimated they were doing about 50 mph (the speed limit was 45, so it's not a stretch). The impulse to grab the front brake entered my brain, but the signal didn't have time to reach the fingers on my right hand. The next thing I knew I was smashed between machines and squirted up into the air, twirling and rolling and pirouetting. I had heard crunching and shattering and there were alternating street lights, then darkness, and signal lights coming in and out of view as I was flipping through the air. I knew exactly what had happened and was just along for the ride. I recall a single thought going through my head while uncontrollably airborne- "it's gonna hurt when I hit the ground." By the way, the key to reducing your physical damage in these situations is to just relax. Tensing up only breaks more bones and tears tissue on impact. I think I stayed relaxed.
Well the ground came up at me pretty fast and hard, and yes it did hurt. My back and right shoulder were already broken before I smacked pavement. It didn't help that momentum had me flopping and rolling like a Raggity Andy doll along the ground for a few seconds. I remember how well the open face Bell helmet protected my head and neck. I suffered no neck or head injury at all. My leather jacket prevented any road rash, and the riding boots saved my feet and ankles. The whole right side of my body, however, was immobilized from searing, soul stealing, wrenching pain.
I looked over from where I lay, knowing right away that I couldn't stand or even roll over. I saw my Buell, about 20 feet away, laying in a puddle of her own fuel and shattered parts, headlight still glowing. A wisp of smoke wafted off her hot exhaust as it burned into the asphalt. The night became still and shockingly quiet.
Right, all this is just build-up to why the Buell ended up turning into a freak-machine. I didn't want to get rid of it because I really liked it, but it was never going to be the same. I tried doing something cool with it, but in the end, it wasn't the same bike and I just had to move on.
The day I brought I Buell home. I left the dealer and immediately went on a 200 mile ride to try to get the break-in period over with quickly.
The day she came home from the tow yard. All of the body work was destroyed. The plastic fuel tank has a gaping hole slashed in the right side.
Some parts never made it back to me. Note the missing foot peg. The front brake caliper has ripped away from the fork and the rotor is bent.
When I was strong enough to do so, I began dismantling and cutting away anything bent or broken.
The rear of the frame was bent, it had to go. The forks were destroyed in several ways, they had to go. The bars, all body work, etc, etc...
The engine and transmission were still good. The header was dented and stained now.
The single large disk brake was, in my opinion, the weakest element on the bike. Under extreme use, when pushed to it's limit, it would noticeably pull to the right. I found this inverted fork set-up with twin rotors from a 2006 Kawasaki ZX-11. No more pull. I wish I had done this before having wrecked the bike. I had a friend help me re-machine the ZX-11 triple tree to fit the Buell.
Minimal body work exposes all the sensitive electronic bits under the seat.
It was still very fast, but the clip-on bars gave it too aggressive of a riding position for me. It was a hoot to ride, but it just wasn't the same. I used to enjoy staring at the old Buell. I didn't really want to look at this one so much. I sold it down the road for cheap some time in 2009.