ERIK Buell Racing has uploaded this picture to its Facebook page to give the first glimpse of its next new model.
While there’s no official info, the bike is believed to be the 1190RX – a cheaper, higher-production derivative of the 1190RS that was EBR’s first bike since the firm rose from the ashes of the original Buell company, which was unceremoniously shut down by owner Harley-Davidson in 2009, despite promising sales, as the parent company refocused on its core cruiser market.
EBR long ago revealed that the 1190RS would be followed by three more models, the RX, SX and AX – believed to be a cheaper sports bike (RX), a naked version (SX) and an adventure model (AX). With the Harley link long since gone, all the bikes are to be powered by the Rotax-designed, water-cooled engine that debuted in the 1125R and 1125CR, albeit heavily redesigned and with an increased capacity for its 1190 applications. Although Rotax developed the motor, it’s now built in-house by EBR.
The new picture clearly shows that while the 1190RX shares the 1190R’s sports bike styling and riding position, as well as its fuel-in-the-frame chassis. It also looks like it’s returned to the side-mounted radiators of the older Buell 1125R.
In fact, every visible aspect of the bike, including the two-seat tail, rear light assembly and what can be seen of the tank and radiator, looks identical to the stillborn Buell Barracuda 2 prototype that was under development when Harley closed the original Buell company down. A follow-up to the 1125R (codenamed Barracuda during development) the Barracuda 2 looked ripe to be a big step forward in the firm’s efforts to convincingly challenge established European and Japanese superbike manufacturers.
Presuming the bike’s specs are close to those of the 1190RS, we’ll be looking at around 175bhp and 176kg (wet). Let’s just hope that those 1190RS numbers are carried over, but that the price ($39,999 for the 1190RS in America at the moment) is somewhat lower for the RX version.
