American engineering.Īfter all the highly regimented Japanese-bike launches I’ve been on, this one was like a family picnic, with Paul James the Buell PR guy showing un-PR-guy speed on the track, and Erik would’ve been out there too if not for a ruptured disc in his back which did not keep him from giggling like a big kid the whole time anyway. It’s kind of like the difference, Erik Buell grins, between a big-block Corvette and a small-block. The end result of all that, Buell says, is 24 percent more torque than the XB9 in a flatter curve, and 103 crankshaft horsepower.

A set of stronger new knife-and-fork connecting rods carry tough new pistons through those elongated strokes.Ī new larger-bore (49mm) intake tract with a pair of revised injectors stoke the intenal combustion proceedings, while 1.75-inch exhaust pipes replace the 1.5-inchers of before and expire into a new muffler with an electronically controlled valve like the ones on Japanese literbikes. Mainly what’s going on with the new XB12 is stroking that loveable old lump of an air-cooled twin from 3.125 inches to 3.812 (leaving bores at 3.5 inches), thereby increasing displacement to 1203cc. As you may have noted in these pages, I was already probably the biggest fan in all of motojournalism re: the XB9S (and to a lesser degree the clip-on equipped R model). It’ll be excellent when Canet and me are in the retirement home. In any case, I’ll take it and in a few years will no doubt even believe it. It could be true, if DC was testing low-rev carburetion during one of those laps where I cut the course. I’ve always been a danger to myself, of course, but on Road America’s tight little “Motorplex” track, which is like a paved version of the 80cc track at Lake Elsinore MX Park and where we rode the S version of the bike, I also took out the correspondent for the Canadian version of “USA Today” (that’s got to be some excellent bedtime reading).Ī nice new longer stroke takes the XB to 1203cc. I’m 43 and no longer on the Up escalator of the ol’ learning curve. Langhorne Clemens, who came in with Halley’s Comet and went out with it, I, JB, had my first racetrack ride on a Buell (RR1000, circa 1990) and maybe my last on one the other day at Road America up in the Great White North upon the new XB12–both R and S versions. Check out what he has to say about it below, and for more pictures of the bike be sure to click on the photo gallery. Hell, he still speaks fondly of it today. A self-proclaimed lover of the XB9S, riding a bigger, better version of the XB-S around Road America left a big smile on his face. Case in point? JB’s review below of the 2004 Buell XB12S. He’s a fan of Erik Buell’s vision and its execution.

The old ones, the new ones, it doesn’t matter. Whenever he gets a chance, John Burns likes to ramble on about how much he likes Buell motorcycles.

Sneaky ninja strikes again