| Author | Message | ||
     Ebear |
First time EVER on a track for an AMA race was in Daytona.I was there,my experiences were documented on a different thread.This time they have ONE race behind them.The fledgling Buell wants to play again......Lets see....First time out,all 4 RRs go out on minor problems...Hmmmm.What can we expect?Maybe another learning experience?...Most of the practices and the qualifying sessions are rained out.Friday was a wet,fruitless day and alot of time was spent cooling our heels,awaiting some break in that dismal overhead mass of grey cotton.Saturday comes and lots of scrambling going on...pits are alive and parts sharing and setup info being shared.Two seperate teams with the same outcome hoped for.Practice goes off.My favorite view of the track,Turn 2,is a mad scramble up the hill. Who knows how long this weather will hold out?Better get what shots I can now and someone I've barely met helps me out a lot.Thanks for the view.You know who you are.I owe you!First time around Jeremy and Shawn go Blasting by.Cool..NO...REALLY COOL...The bikes look great!Only problem is there just TOO Quiet!. Very few laps,practice ends,head back to pits...watch the next scramble and things are alive!Covers come flying off the bikes and the setup changes are made.Only ONE practice in 2 days and every concern is priortized and attacked full force.These guys don't have much time between this practice and the race.Every moment is precious...so I excuse myself from the hub-bub and go off in search for those Umbrella girls....didn't WE have girls...where were they???...did they leave all those girls in Daytona???....darn.....! (You may have to turn up the brightness on your monitor if these seem dark....setup monitor was hot.)  The Inimitable Steve Anderson,Platform Director and former Cycle World Editor,Buys lunch for the Team.  The Vallejo XB-RR staying warm during the murky weather.  Notice the tire rub....  CRGs  Dual RRs..!!  Shawn  Jeremy  Jeremy and Jason Disalvo  McWilliams  Jeremy and Jason  Jeremy  Jeremy  You Know...  Whaaat?? We forgot a KICKSTAND????  Just Kidding!!  Debriefing.  For those of you awaiting the XB Exhaust Shootout....American Sport Bike Al was on that laptop 20 hours a day preparing data....so believe me,when this thing is ready it will BLOW your SOCKS OFF!! I now respect this mans devotion to our sport that much MORE! (Message edited by ebear on May 26, 2006) | ||
| Buellgirlie |
GREAT pics ebear. i really like the dual RR one! D | ||
| Al_lighton |
Great Pictures, as usual, Eric. He exaggerates a bit. But I was working on it a LOT all weekend long any time I had a free minute, and it did zonk me out late at night staring into the laptop screen for hours on end. Oh well, at least they didn't use magic marker on my face first.  | ||
| Diablobrian |
Wow, great PICS! I'd rather sweat than bleed, wouldn't you? White is definitely the FASTEST color Buell. | ||
| Anonymous |
i love the pictures...steve anderson is my dad so i was glad to c a pic of him } | ||
| Blake |
Anony, Your Dad rocks! I know he thinks that of you too. Feel free to embarrass the heck out of him here as you wish.  Blake | ||
| Blake |
Hey EBear! | ||
| Outrider |
I'm thinkin' that is the best "Anonymous" post I have ever read!!! Life's a roller coaster. Enjoy the ride! | ||
| Ebear |
I have some other pictures of Mr.Anderson ,Anonymous.....But they might make others on this sight give him a hard time!!!I am sending a DVD to Steve tomorrow....ask him to let you see them!  | ||
| Jimidan |
What I wanna know is where can we buy one of these photos? | ||
| Pupu |
on that photo of the crgs, what is that little knob there? | ||
| Al_lighton |
Remote brake lever position adjustment. | ||
| Jon |
Awesome photos. Can I steal these (temporarily) for ASBN meeting 6/5? Too cool not to pass on. | ||
| Ebear |
Jon...sorry ,I didn't post an answer.I didn't see this 'till now...You may show ANY of my Pics at your meetings and if you like I can send a CD or DVD or download a few at a time.All I ask is that you display credits to me(Eric Barrows or EbearImages) with the pictures....Thanks!! | ||
| M1combat |
Eric... Can you send me the hi-res version of this one? http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/158664/200913.jpg I may only be able to accept about 3MB though so if you could pretty please size it down to that for me I would be grateful. Thanks a bunch. | ||
| Jimidan |
Can you sell me a high res. CD with all but the first 4 (beginning withe two Buells coming over the rise, and ending with the "You know" shot (the one before the kickstand search shot). These are for my personal use only and I will be making some enlargement photos from them for my room and shop. Jimidan | ||
| Jimidan |
Does anyone know if McWilliams plans to do any more FX events this year? I have not been able to pull up his internet web site lately...maybe he dropped it. Jimidan | ||
| Diablobrian |
Rumor has it he'll be at Mid-Ohio, and Laguna Seca, and possibly one more. | ||
| Ebear |
That's what Rumour says(sic)When I asked him at Sonoma what it would take to get him at more of these races he said "It's up to Erik....If you and your friends talk to him it would help"...... So , not to overflow Erik's e-mail , but any way either public or private to get this message to him should help. I have no way to contact Erik directly and wouldn't infer I did but believing he reads this BWB board on occasion I would hope that he's seen the thread about contributing money to help get Jeremy out here for more races says alot about our intense desire to see the XBRR succeed.(really Loong sentence huh!).If you've met Erik you know of his incredible enthusiasm for doing this anyways,and actually his enthusiasm for everything he does.To think he wouldn't know all already is silly,we just have to show him how much WE'RE behind him.....and if writing to the Mothership or anyone else, would help then let us KNOW!!!We (as in the Badweb members) should be a considerable force in this venture...We should use that to help this succeed!! Whaddya think Blake and All?? Is it time to start adding to our Contingency fund?Maybe something like auctioning off a few signed posters of the XBRR by Jeremy would help?I would contribute mine and a few of the shots I took at Sonoma to help get this going if Blake thinks this could help!  | ||
| Anonymous |
It's up to Erik?! I only wish it were that simple. It takes money to get him here and the teams to the track, and we haven't found any more sponsors for Warr's and Hal's beyond what we hooked them up with, and that money has already been spent by the teams! We'll keep working at it. BTW, did you know Honda sells 10,000,000 motorcycles per year? If we did, you can bet your a** we'd have competitive teams in every class!!! Or if we could find a big pockets sponsor like Proton, or an oil company, or a $3.00 for 6oz soft drink company. Got sponsor? | ||
| Rippin |
Anon, I don't have the $$ to give but I will tell you I would be more than willing to give my every weekend this summer and fall to help them guys(NE XBRR team) in NE way that was possible. I was at a local dealer this weekend and all they wanted to talk about was d/t racing, didn't seam to give a rats *ss about NE roadracing. If they needed help at Mid-Ohio I'd leave from work Friday and drive straight there. I realize this does not help pay for fuel,tires, oil, parts but its the sweat off my back that I can give! Well sorry to rant. Ryan | ||
| Ebear |
Cool Ryan...If there was anything I could help with at the track I too would be willing to sweat for them....however as "Anonymous" said it costs alot of money and that means ALOT more money than most people think I'd bet!On my way back from Daytona I sat near the fellow that arranges Sponsership for Buell and others.He was headed home for one day and then was turning around to head for Asia the NEXT day .He said something to the extent that this was a very tough job and key to the existence for quite a few groups in the Industry.I could only hope that some "Major American Companies" see the exposure this affords them and considers sponsorship deals with Buell as an avenue to winning over our hard earned dollars we'de willingly spend to advance this sport. For now I'll just keep making every race I can and do my thing with a camera! | ||
| Jimidan |
Anony sez: "It's up to Erik?! I only wish it were that simple. It takes money to get him here and the teams to the track, and we haven't found any more sponsors for Warr's and Hal's beyond what we hooked them up with, and that money has already been spent by the teams! We'll keep working at it. BTW, did you know Honda sells 10,000,000 motorcycles per year? If we did, you can bet your a** we'd have competitive teams in every class!!! Or if we could find a big pockets sponsor like Proton, or an oil company, or a $3.00 for 6oz soft drink company. Got sponsor?" Geez, as I remember, the sponsors for the McWilliams bike was Warr's, Syn3 engine, transmission, crankcase oil, Fluidyne High Performance, Harley-Davidson Financial Services, Perelli, Harley-Davidson VISA, Sentry Insurance. All but Perelli (supply the tires?), Fluidyne (oil cooler?) and Sentry Insurance are all HD. The major sponsor is the MoCo, so why has the money dried up? I could be wrong, but it would seem that it would be up to Erik to get more from the MoCo. Were the MoCo's commitments only good for two races? Did they dry up because of the DNF's? As for the second part of your post, I think you may find it a bit difficult to enter into every class with a Buell, regardless of if you sell 10 billion bikes. That is unless you start making IL4 Superbikes. Actually, here are Honda's 2005 sales figures: (All time record in each product area) Motorcycles: 12.5 million units (up 16% from 2004) Automobiles: 3.35 million units (up 5% from 2004) Power Products: 5.60 million units (up 6% from 2004) Maybe the reason Honda sells so many bikes is because they do make a wide variety of machines...plus they have a reputation as being pretty good machines at that. Maybe Buell should emulate the Honda business model (or at least the Ducati model). Not bad for a company that in the 60's was known for little more than being able to copy all of the USA great ideas...huh? Speaking of Ducati, it IS a pretty small company (not near what the Jap daddies are selling) that seems to get into all kinds of racing, including MotoGP. How do they do it? Their top executives and board of directors (just a bunch of rich Texans, so I hear) are totally committed to racing at many levels. I wish the MoCo had any where near that kind of commitment. I hear that it used to but I was just a child back then. jimidan (Message edited by jimidan on June 14, 2006) | ||
| Mutation_racer |
JIMIDAN you don't win races over night . IT took me the better part of 4 yrs year to win my first race on my buell, and for the record i can't what till my sponsor gets our RR. look for liberty hd buell at VIR | ||
| M1combat |
"Maybe the reason Honda sells so many bikes is because they do make a wide variety of machines...plus they have a reputation as being pretty good machines at that. Maybe Buell should emulate the Honda business model, or at least the Ducati model. Not bad for a company that in the 60's was known for little more than being able to copy all of the USA great ideas...huh? Speaking of Ducati, it IS a pretty small company (not near what the Jap daddies are selling) that seems to get into all kinds of racing, including MotoGP. How do they do it? Their top executives and board of directors (just a bunch of rich Texans, so I hear) are totally committed to racing at many levels. " Ummm.... Honda has had a good deal longer to do business. Ducati? Are you kidding? They've been around for a while sure... but they're always in financial trouble due to racing. Buell needs to be a viable and stable business so that racing is chump change to THEM as opposed to it coming from HD. HD spends tons of money in other forms of racing, and Buell will do the same as soon as they can. I'm sure they get some money from the mothership...} | ||
| Jimidan |
MR sez: "JIMIDAN you don't win races over night." That is not what I said. My point isn't that the Warr's Buell has failed to win races. I know that it takes time to shake the bugs out and that it is getting better every time it goes out. You don't have to try to convince me, I am not the sponsors bailing out on McWilliams after just two races. But if the sponsor money is already gone (and the major sponsors are various divisions of the MoCo), then that doesn't really give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about HD's commitment to Buell racing. Plus, it would seem to give some credence to what McWilliams said, and Anony poo-pooed. Mutation Racer, I can't wait for you to get your XBRR too, so you can race it in CCS/ASRA! But that isn't really what I was talking about...it was racing with big boys (er ah, make that little guys...DiSalvo isn't exactly a big guy...but you know what I mean) and the McWilliams' AMA FX effort. True, Honda has had a good deal longer to do business than Buell...but not HD, by a long shot. Honda has diversified its line of bikes much more than HD, and it shows on the bottom line. Plus, can you imagine Honda allowing its dealers to decide whether or not they want to sell the RC51, since it is so different than its other bikes, being a v-twin and all. That would never happen, but that is essentially what HD has done with its Buell line. What a great showing of commitment. Not! That is what I'm talking about... Since most of the sponsor money for the Warr's XBRR was coming from the MoCo, and Anony reports that that has dried up already (after what, two races?), I think that speaks volumes to the resolve of HD towards Buell racing. I don't know how I am going to defend this to all of those guys on Speedzilla.  True, Ducati is always getting into financial trouble with its racing...and they STILL do it. Now THAT is commitment! That is my point, and thanks M1 for making it more clear than my first clumsy attempt. I would have thought that by HD/Buell jumping into the AMA's FX series with a top level guy like McWilliams, that the commitment to the program would have been there for the season. Now it seems that after somewhat of a rocky start, which was not totally unexpected by yours truly, that there is no money after just two races. It would appear that those guys way up in the MoCo (with the money) are much more fair weather than some of the critics. I wonder if it was that shot of McWilliams one-legged peddling the XBRR down the track? Sure HD spends a lot of money on other forms of racing...like drag racing. You know, what those guys do who are afraid of going around curves! And they do that on the same day and some track with cars. What kind of fan base does that have? I cannot remember the last time that they showed bikes drag racing on SPEED...but they show road racing nearly every weekend. I am talking about real racing with guys who have balls of steel the size of watermelons! My commitment as a fan has not waned, but it seems that the MoCo's has. And that is the point, my friends. They are not going to have much success racing XBRR's in FX with club racers...the competition is just too damn good for that. It is going to take a committed effort. "No money"...that is embarrassing. Are they (HD) really trying to make Buell look like a rag tag bunch? Is this part of the internal plot to ditch Buell from the MoCo, as it seems? If not, HD is acting like a bunch of Democrats! (Pick Kerry, he can shoot himself in the foot better than anybody!) It was bad enough when HD pulled the funding a couple of years ago two month before Daytona and left Cronwrath and Hals in the lurch...and after Cycle World had the Hals bike on the cover, begging the question, "Is this Erik Buell's bike that wins Daytona?", or some such verbiage. What kind of message does this send to the children? My Gawd, man, think of the children! jimidan (Message edited by jimidan on June 14, 2006) | ||
| Mutation_racer |
point taken | ||
| Anonymous |
Speedzilla has been shown to be a bunch of liars, so why do you want to defend anything there? And how does anything you say match with "it's up to Erik"? "Up to the Motor Company" definitely does not equate to "up to Erik", that's for sure! | ||
| M1combat |
If I had some pockets full of cash I'd most likely wait for the '07 season as well. Let Buell do everything they can this year and then get into it next year. That said... We need some real sponsors... Playboy is sponsoring Daytona Prototypes. True Value seems to have survived Home Depot so far. Starbucks might work... What about a Wiseco/Mellenium/Cometic deal? Tiger Woods? USMC?????? Catarpillar sponsorship would RULE Mack trucks? Magnetti Marelli or Delphi? (can't remember which) SOMEONE needs to approach these companies... | ||
| Jscott |
How about Microsoft? Imagine the financial backigng of Bill Gates. Plus the XBRR is more reliable than Windows!!!  | ||
| M1combat |
Compaq/HP sponsor F1... So do AMD and Intel. I think an AMA season would be peanuts compared to that... | ||
| Chadhargis |
I'd like to see Buell win some races, but in a way, a Buell race bike goes against the very principles Erik himself espouses. He claims the "V-Twin is the engine you want for the street". I agree. I also agree that an inline 4 is the engine you want at the track. Anything else is pointless, piles of cash or not. Just look at Ducati in AMA. Even with a talented rider like Neil Hodgson, they can't win. They just don't have the bike. I can't explain World SBK where Troy Bayless is cleaning house on his Duc while Corser on the Zuk is sucking his exhaust. Maybe Ducati employed some Oompa Loompas to build some magic in Troy's bike. I think the real value of the XBRR is development and testing. Racing technology always filters down to the street where we can use it. | ||
| Jimidan |
Anony sez: "Speedzilla has been shown to be a bunch of liars, so why do you want to defend anything there? And how does anything you say match with "it's up to Erik"? "Up to the Motor Company" definitely does not equate to "up to Erik", that's for sure!" In the grand scheme of things I don't care what "they" think really. Although it does get my ire up a bit when they bandy their lies about like they are Buell insiders with the truth. They are entitled to their opinion on pages that were designed for them to express such thoughts in an open format. They are just having fun on these web sites, like the rest of us. What I said was, "I could be wrong, but it would seem that it would be up to Erik to get more from the MoCo. Were the MoCo's commitments only good for two races? Did they dry up because of the DNF's?". Jeremy obviously knows that Erik the Accessible would be the contact man for any and all of the money that could be coming from the deep pockets of the MoCo. Who else would anybody talk to about it? Who else could Jeremy McWilliams ask someone to talk to about it? Henry can't do it. Steve Anderson can't do it. Have you ever tried to talk to Willie G...I mean realllly talk to him? Erik Buell, the man, that's who. I think we are kinda missing the point of Jeremy's statement though, IMHO. I think he was letting the guy know that he still had faith in the project and enjoyed riding the bike enough to want to come to America and do it. He was saying that the decision to race the XBRR in FX was Erik's and the companies' and not his...he was in! After reading his diary pages and interviews, I don't get the feeling that it is really about the money as much as the bike. All of his public statements have been extremely positive, in spite of his understandable frustration. He is a seasoned veteran, and he probably has been through this development process before. I think he really likes it. That's all. jimidan | ||
| Jimidan |
Chadhargis sez: "Just look at Ducati in AMA. Even with a talented rider like Neil Hodgson, they can't win. They just don't have the bike. I can't explain World SBK where Troy Bayless is cleaning house on his Duc while Corser on the Zuk is sucking his exhaust. Maybe Ducati employed some Oompa Loompas to build some magic in Troy's bike." World Superbike (SBK) allows Ducati to employ different modifications (sorry, it ain't magic) to its bikes because of the inherent mechanical efficiencies of the IL4 over the V-twin, with the same displacement. They get to use a different ignition system too. AMA has hard and fast rules that make the IL4s and V-twins make the same mods across the board. They Ducatis are different bikes in the AMA and SBK. Look for SBK to allow Ducati to go to 1200 cc for its Superbikes in the 2007 year. We may also see that happening in AMA. Damn, image a 1200 cc Ducati...she hit. jimidan (Message edited by jimidan on June 15, 2006) | ||
| José_quiñones |
WSBK does allow the twins more modifications than IL4's, the AMA does also, just not as many as WSBK does. However, Ducati uses traction control systems on their World SBK race bikes. They are not allowed to use it in the AMA. There are rumours that Yoshimura Suzuki is using it in AMA. The AMA is on the case.... | ||
| Ebear |
"I think we are kinda missing the point of Jeremy's statement though, IMHO. I think he was letting the guy know that he still had faith in the project and enjoyed riding the bike enough to want to come to America and do it. He was saying that the decision to race the XBRR in FX was Erik's and the companies' and not his...he was in! After reading his diary pages and interviews, I don't get the feeling that it is really about the money as much as the bike. All of his public statements have been extremely positive, in spite of his understandable frustration. He is a seasoned veteran, and he probably has been through this development process before. I think he really likes it. " Exactly Jimidan...Thats the way I took it...and I praise your prose..!! |
