| Author | Message | ||
     Hughlysses |
I was reading the 1125R microsite this morning, and noticed this statement: "Made in the USA, the new Buell IRC [Intuitive Response Chassis] is the stiffest chassis ever offered by Buell. A new process called ablation casting provides extraordinary solidification rates and exceptionally high mechanical properties, resulting in a frame that is 10 pounds lighter than prior designs." I thought that sounded pretty interesting, so I Googled "ablation casting" and found this in a report from the 8th International Summer School on Aluminum Alloy Technology: "David Weiss from Eck Industries... Mr. Weiss finished with a viewing of "Ablation Casting", a unique and proprietary process being developed and fine-tuned at Eck together with its originator. The process provides extraordinary solidification rates and exceptionally high mechanical properties and also seems suitable for casting hot-short alloys such as the high-strength compositions usually reserved for wrought applications." Based on that, I'd say Eck Industries is making the 1125R frames. Pretty cool to see this major component now being made in the U.S. Eck Industries URL is: http://www.eckindustries.com Interesting, a photo on their website showing some of the items they currently produce includes what appears to be a cylinder head for a flat-head Indian V-twin! | ||
| Court |
The frames are made in Illinois. | ||
| Js_buell |
Will the other frames, for the xb's, be made there too? | ||
| Ducxl |
WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!! Hey Court! Made in U.S.A.!!! Gotta' love BMC for sourcing their frames right here!!  | ||
| Ridrx |
+1! | ||
| Court |
I **think** all Buell frames, Blast included, will be made in Illinois. I do not know for certain. If I find something different, I'll let you know. It seems to make sense. | ||
| Stealthfighter |
imho XB frames are made in italy... up to now... | ||
| Court |
The 1125R is the only frame sourced in the United States. All other frames, XB and the Blast® will continue to come from Italy. Court | ||
| Ducxl |
All other frames, XB and the Blast® will continue to come from Italy Italy is good,i'm half Italian,family in San Giovanni/Carico  | ||
| Court |
I'll be in Tuscany for 3 weeks with a Buell group next year . . . this will keep me from being on anyone's "bad list".  | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
"I **think** all Buell frames, Blast included, will be made in Illinois." Nope. I talked to the 1125r frame builder today at the Design 2 show in Milwaukee, their hope was to build them, but they don't forsee that happening. I have pics of their booth, they had the Rotax in a frame on a stand. Said they worked 9 months on shoe-horning the motor into the frame. | ||
| Anonymous |
More like 18 months, actually! And those guys are good. Very good. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
Super nice guys as well, Anon., they're eager for a crack at the XB frame!      | ||
| Anonymous |
"They" didn't work 9 months on shoehorning the engine in the frame. They made the equipment to weld together the frame we designed, which took us 2 years. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
John said it was a long hard working process that was undertaken by both them and Buell. Said Buell was a "smart" company and easy to work with. | ||
| Ceejay |
If a person doesn't think this site f'ing rocks then thier blood doesn't have any iron...I'm sorry but that s--- is just flat out cool...who'd a thunk motorcycle frames, gaming equipment and office furniture had anything in common? | ||
| M1combat |
Kinda makes sense though . | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
"What can we build for you?" I asked if I could get an engine stand like that, but for an XB. I said I probably wouldn't the only one who'd buy it. | ||
| Ceejay |
I don't play video games, nor sit in office furniture much, but I guess if you combined the fun of one and the comfort of another... So the pods transfer the force to the brackets and then the brackets act as a spring. That's the first time I've seen them. As a related side note, when Buell was throwing thier awesome shindig at Mid-Ohio, I was standing around while the guys were refueling the 1125's. The rad covers looked pretty flimesy-I was pushing them around a bit, and thus started asking questions. Basically I asked how would these things, while shaking them of course, keep the bike from getting damaged. The two doing the fueling laughed and said well you can test it out if you like. Well, being that I'm always up for a challenge, I stepped back and got ready to give her a good kick. We were on concrete, it was the last bike in the row, why the hell not? They looked at me, and stated, no, no, we meant go find out on the track. Push it, while pushing yourself of course. Well, I chickened out after that and took thier word for it... | ||
| Rex |
very cool....thanks | ||
| Reepicheep |
Great pictures, thanks! I smell trouble though... All those other manufactures using those Rotax engines are going to be really &^%%#$ when they find out "Buell" is cast into their cylinders. They may have to start using different oil filters .  | ||
| Zac4mac |
Buellinachinashop - thanks for the photos. I like these better than the cutaways. Could you e-mail me full or higher res of those? esp #2,4,5 zac4mac at mac dot com So the XBs have an Italian frame and an American motor, while the 1125s have an Austrian motor and an American frame. I am fine with that. Z (Message edited by zac4mac on October 12, 2007) | ||
| Blake |
Nice photos. Thanks John (Buellinachinashop) H. | ||
| Metalstorm |
So the XBs have an Italian frame and an American motor, while the 1125s have an Austrian motor and an American frame. I am fine with that. Me too. I like that a lot because it tells me that Buell is willing to go anywhere and everywhere for the best product. Origin takes a back seat to quality because they want to build the best bike they possibly can. They want the best. What's more American than that?  | ||
| Court |
Isn't that a great looking piece of art! | ||
| Court |
Could you e-mail me full or higher res of those? court aht canfield dawht neht | ||
| Ironken |
Just a little opinion here..... What other brand of Cycle can you post a message on an online board and actually get a response from somebody in the know if not, "the man," himself? This is exactly why I buy and believe in Buell. I've heard stories of Erik himself working on owners bikes.....I challenge anybody to tell the same story of Soichiro (sp?) Honda doing the same.....Kenny | ||
| Court |
>>>I've heard stories of Erik himself working on owners bikes The stories are true and let me tell you the best part, in my eyes. It's not that he "does" it, it's that he WANTS to do it and enjoys it. I've seen him get started doing something to a bike and simply blow off an appearance or something he was supposed to be doing. Honda actually has some darned interesting people and it's a tad bit of an unfair comparison. I never met Mr. Honda but I met his son once when he was traveling the United States on a dual sport. He spoke about no English, I spoke about no Japanese. We exchanged lots of hand signals in the parking lot of a convenience store in Iowa. He'd seen my Parkway Blue S-1 in the back of the pickup. When I started it, we both smiled the universal motorcyclist smile. He gave me his business card, both hands, and departed. Since then I've had two good friends who were both Honda execs and they were both amazing folks. I'd call Honda (keep in mind they likely make more lawnmowers in a day than GM makes cars in a year) and entirely different animal. I admire them for completely different reasons and have a great deal of respect for Mr. Honda . . . he changed the world. Cool stuff. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I don't doubt for a second that Soricho (sp?) would have... but the current Honda executives? Yeah. They'd be the ones that took the dirt bikes back from our non profit NYPUM program becuase we wouldn't take references to "Jesus" off the website, and we wouldn't promise to not invite the kids to join with us our faith communities. No complaints from any kids, parents, volunteers, no incidents. They just thought it was a bad idea. Yeah. Those executives. My only beef with Buell executives is that they tend to scare the heck out of less experienced riders on track days | ||
| Court |
>>>>My only beef with Buell executives is that they tend to scare the heck out of less experienced riders on track days . . . . It's 11:00AM . . . do you know what corner the President of YOUR motorcycle company is in? | ||
| Xlcrguy |
Not just the executives! A rather large percentage of the entire development team are current or past podium winners (and some champions) in various venues, from WERA, CCS, AMA, etc. They are all certified bikes nuts! (Message edited by xlcrguy on October 12, 2007) | ||
| Rex |
That is amazing looking. I am always impressed when I go to the factory and see the frames hanging on the assembly line, and then see it attached to the motor. I think it is amazing. Looks no bigger than a regular gas tank, and it is the frame and the gas tank...rex |
