Buell Motorcycles is back, in case you missed the news. The American brand is in new hands new, merging back with its offshoot of Erik Buell Racing, under the leadership of Bill Melvin from Liquid Asset Partners.
For their resurgence, Buell aims to have 10 motorcycles on the market by 2024 – a grand ambition by any standard.
To help them reach that goal though, Buell will leverage three of the known models from the EBR days: the 1190RX superbike, the 1190SX streetfighter, and the less-known-about 1190AX.
The EBR 1190AX was to be the company’s adventure-touring model, and powered by the same 1190cc, 72º degree v-twin engine that powered the other two “1190” models.
Considering that the Erik Buell Racing, didn’t retune its 1190 platform for the SX model, the AX was expected also to be a 180hp fire-breather, and definitely on the sportier side of the ADV equation.
Of course, we never caught a glimpse of the EBR 1190AX after its name was teased, as Erik Buell Racing went under as a business operation and its assets sold to LAP.
We get our first look of the machine now though, as Buell Motorcycles is showing some of the concept renders of the 1190AX motorcycle (surely these are straight from the work EBR originally produced) on its website.
From looking at the photos here, we can see the basic 1190 platform, with Buell’s trademark ZTL perimeter disc brake showing on the front wheel, and the same fuel-in-frame chassis that we have seen on the other bikes.
Love it or hate it, the overall aesthetic looks very much like an updated Buell Ulysses – the brand’s last attempt at an adventure-type bike – with two headlights, side-by-side, at the front of the machine.
Buell Motorcycles is now calling this a “Super Tourer” instead of the ADV moniker used by most brands, which is perhaps a better way of describing the Buell Ulysses.
The wheels look like 17″ hoops, with the rear tire looking especially fat, though knobby. Presumably, the frame retains its sport dimensions, with only luggage mounts changing things up on the chassis subframe.
This makes the Buell 1190AX a bit of crossover machine, that is somewhere between a sporty tourer and an adventure capable heavy dual-sport. That in its own right should make this an interesting machine.
There is no word yet on when the bike could debut, but presumably the 1190AX was well-along at EBR when the company was still in business, so a debut in the next model year or two wouldn’t surprise us. Until then.
Source: Buell Motorcycles
