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History of Erik Buell Racing: Who is Erik Buell?
History of Erik Buell Racing: Who is Erik Buell?
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Never heard of him? Erik Buell is the man with some of the most advanced motorcycle technologies to his credit and the founder of the only American sportsbike company, Erik Buel Racing
Hero MotoCorp's MD & CEO, Pawan Munjal (left) with Erik Buell (right) of Erik Buell Racing
Born in the town of Pittsburgh, Erik Buell, the founder of the Buell Motorcycle Company and Erik Buell Racing outfit, has a long history to him. Raised on a farm in Gibsonia and cutting his teeth on machinery in his early years of growing up, Erik Buell was quick to get fascinated by the world of motorcycles and soon started racing them in his early 20s.
Starting on a moped, Buell was quick to upgrade to a basket-case Harley-Davidson that, in his own words, "To be exact, it was a '57 Panhead in a '52 frame with KHK front end. Red metal flake paint and those crazy two-piece ape hanger handlebars, which would come loose and swing back and forth. I'd shove wads of steel wool into the mufflers to quiet it down for the cops, but when I was really hauling, it would shoot these glowing balls of flame out the back. Man, that's cool stuff when you're a kid!"
Even as he pursued road-racing making regular appearances in AMA Superbike class and ‘Formula One’ racing series, on the side the man also worked as a motorcycle mechanic by the day while pursuing night class for his engineering degree at the University of Pittsburgh. After successfully completing his engineering in 1979, Buell got placed into Harley-Davidson – a big break for an ambitious engineer. When working at Harley-Davidson’s factory at Milwaukee, Buell looked after the concept motorcycles, the Porsche-designed "Nova" V-four program as well as the stability and refinements to the chassis design of the FXR series of cruisers, known for their rubber-mounted engines.
Loyal to his American roots, while Harley-Davidson suffered through turbulent times in the eighties, Buell’s participation in road-racing slowed down and he wasn’t very keen on racing Japanese or American machines while working for an American marquee. In 1981, Buell came across The Barton, a small privately owned engine developer in UK. He bought one of the Barton machines and raced it with mild success in some of the popular racing events of that era. Within a year, Barton decided to shut shop and Buell was handed the option to buy the entire Barton setup including the spare engines, parts, drawings and rights to produce and sell the machinery.
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