| Author | Message | ||
     4speeder |
Is this real? They sold some bikes with the word "motorcycles" spelled wrong? That seems crazy. https://www.ebay.com/itm/174201487433?ssPageName=S TRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 | ||
| Court |
I do not believe that. One person will know for certain. . . . the King of all Graphics . . | ||
| Victory |
  | ||
| Ratbuell |
My .02 (you get what ya pay for!)? I'm 99.9% sure "American Motorcycles" is the same length as "Buell" - they sized it so the margins match. This one, the A sticks out to the left of the B. I'm 95% sure that's a wrong shade of blue. Should be more gray/slate. Part of me wants to say the factory decals on a YJP body were white Buell and GRAY "American motorcycles"...but I could be wrong. Regardless though, I don't remember Buell using a navy blue like that on any of the early tubers. Looks like a repaint to me as well - I've NEVER seen an S2 tank cover bubble. S1W nylon TANKS, sure, but covers? Nope...maybe peel, or have the fiberglass delaminate under the paint (my S2's tail section did that, above the taillight)...but no paint bubbles like that one. Maybe 1313 will chime in here.... | ||
| 4speeder |
Buell Decal  | ||
| 1313 |
I seem to recall the American Motorcycles on the Yellow Jacket Pearl S2's was indeed blue. Looking for references for a 27-29 year old (depending on how you look at it) is a bit taxing.  This shows that white and blue was indeed a color combo offered. So, then I looked for pics from back in the day... The cover of the October 1993 issue of Cycle World:  Albeit preproduction, I wish I could access my framed 8X10 of this image:  Or that I scanned this pic at a higher resolution (yes, that's 2815 Buell Drive going up in the background - although then it as probably still Meyer Lane):  You think you have some embarrassing pics from your younger days? Can you imagine, sneakers?!?!  Again, the same preproduction S2, so it may not be representative. So, what can I find on the web? I found an ad on BadWeB for a YJP S2 that Williamsctoorobertson had for sale in 2020: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/21/868740.html?1588438708 That had a link to a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLp9Hy_VIK0 That I screen-grabbed this image:  But that could have been repainted... So, I stumbled upon the National Motorcycle Museum entry for the Buell Brothers S2 salt flats bike: https://nationalmcmuseum.org/2016/08/05/1995-buell-thunderbolt-buell-brothers-racing/ These images look blue to me:    I'm going to post this, but I have some more to add after, so I can say: BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! | ||
| 1313 |
As Joe mentioned, yes, the width of American Motorcycles should match the width of Buell. But, unlike Joe's surmising, there were paint bubbling/blistering issues early on. Most likely due to trying to build 5-6 times the original estimated first years production. It seemed worse with the 1995 only Polyester resin fiberglass bodywork, but there were still some with the 1996 Epoxy resin fiberglass bodywork - although greatly reduced. But here's the kicker! About this time we were implementing the Harley-Davidson cosmetic standards (along with the GES's - General Engineering Standards - where appropriate...). It defined different zones based on what you could see while riding, when the bike was on the sidestand, etc. The specific details are lost to time - or in all my stuff that I have packed up (or in my Yahoo email account that was deactivated by the bastards at Yahoo), but there was this one instance... Hold the part at arms length and look at it for X seconds. If the 'defect' wasn't noticed, it shipped. I don't know how I got wrangled into this one - maybe just in the wrong place at the wrong time - but there was an S2 tank cover, yellow IIRC, that Dano held about arms length away from me. And, somehow, I was the one who would break the tie and decide if the part would go on a bike or not. For whatever the period of time was, I was not able to make out the defect. But in the years since, I've always remembered that tank cover as saying MOTOTCYCLES. However, once it was pointed out to me, I was ashamed that I couldn't detect it - all I had to do was READ, not just assume what it said. Who knows? Maybe it was actually this tank cover that I 'declared' shippable? If I knew that for certain, this would be an EXCELLENT piece for my Buell 'museum'. My next installment will give you 'the rest of the story' on just how something like this can happen... | ||
| 1313 |
OK, just how does a decal that is manufactured as saying "Buell American Motorcycles" end up saying something different? Each and every letter is separate. Sometimes in putting the decals on before the application of clear, some of the letters might lift or somehow become unusable. It's much easier to add one letter from another 'spare' decal than remove the remaining letters and use a new decal altogether. As long as you use the right letter - reference my memory of MOTOTCYCLES above, where the overall width of American Motorcycles wouldn't be any different as a T and an R are the same width. I'd expect that if a letter was missing, the remaining letters would be spaced out so everything would be even (even thought that would be a slap in the face indicator that something is not correct) - but I wouldn't expect the American Motorcycles width to differ from the width of Buell. But the process steps involved: - Put decals on. - Apply clearcoat. - Wetsand. - Buff. There should have been enough eyes on it that it never even made it out of the bodyshop and into assembly. But assessing it to the corporate quality standards ended up with it going onto a sellable motorcycle! | ||
| Williamscottrobertson |
I had those decals made by a local print shop to the same dimensions and close to the same blue as original. Yes the originals were blue on American motorcycles. | ||
| 1313 |
Yes the originals were blue on American motorcycles.  | ||
| Ratbuell |
Dammit. Now I want a YJP S2. Grrrr. | ||
| Screamer |
I don’t think that replacement body pieces (for warranty or damage replacement) received the same scrutiny that the pieces intended for use on the production line received. I remember sending a “few” new warranty-return body pieces to Henry D to use in race support. Most were returned due to mismatched/missing decals - but there were a few with misspelled decals. | ||
| 1313 |
Thanks for confirming my recollections Roger. I found evidence (see pic below, sorry it's not clean) to completely confirm/resolve 2 things. 1. As others have confirmed, the YJP tank decal had the American Motorcycles in blue. 2. The tank cover on eBay does NOT have OE decals. The shape of the O's in MOTORCYLES is not correct with OE. They did, however, do a fine job of duplicating YJP, and even the paint issues that are also shown in the pic below.  | ||
| Court |
I think I have a package of those stickers some place . . . I miss Steve Somogji. |
