The announcement earlier this month that EBR/Erik Buell Racing is discontinuing operations is pretty sad. EBR was probably the best “all-american-sportbike” effort we have seen in quite a while. While others such as Roehr, Fischer, Motoczysz came and went in a blink, EBR lasted over 6 years and were effectively a continuation of the concepts Erik Buell first began to follow in 1983.
For anyone not familiar with EBR and/or Erik Buell, you really have to start back in 1993. At the time Buell has been building his own sportbikes using Harley Davidson motors for about 10 years and was one of the men behind Harley Davidson’s aborted VR-1000 racing effort. Buell left HD in 1993 and founded his own sportbike motorcycle company, Buell motorcycles, which over its 15 year lifespan produced/sold over 100,000 motorcycles.
Since early Buell motorcycles used Harley Davidson engines, Buell reached a partnership deal with Harley Davidson that allowed Buell to sell bikes within Harley Dealerships. However this same deal seeded control of the brand to Harley and in 2009, struggling to deal with the great recession, Harley shut down the entire Buell lineup. Rather than give up on his dream of building great American sportbikes, Buell took his knowledge and started again and Erik Buell Racing/EBR was the result.
2012 EBR 1190RS for sale on cycletrader USA
The 1190RS was actually EBR’s second bike produced; the first bike was a purely race oriented machine, the 1190RR. The street legal 1190RS version was built to take all the race tech while being street legal (barely). The 1190s was effectively built to go head-to-head with the Ducati 1098R and towards this end came with a 1200 cc V-twin engine that produced 175 hp and lots of track oriented goodies, including titanium rods & valves, a cast-aluminum frame and lots of carbon-fiber bodywork. Like its Ducati competition, production was very limited (only 100 1190RS units were reported to have been made) and prices were set quite high; 40,000 USD.
The 1190RS was followed by less expensive street bikes such as 1190RX and 1190SX which are really good bikes that offer 90% of the 1190RS experience at 50% of the cost. However the RX and SX lack the ultra high end goodies of the limited edition RS and now the Buell is closing up operations, the 1190RS will most likely be the high water mark for EBR bike development/design.
This particular is sitting at a dealership in South Texas and has only 13 miles.
Here is what the seller has to say:
- 2012 EBR 1190RS, bike #92
- Full race exhaust and ECU
- Lithium ion battery
- Titanium rods & valves
- Hydro-formed, cast-aluminum U.S.A.-built frame
- Beryllium Copper Valve seats
- Magnesium alloy wheels & sub-frame
- Carbon-fiber bodywork
Is this bike worth the 40,000 asking price? Probably not; the RX and SX models derived from this are currently available from 10-20k and history has shown just adding carbon fiber and titanium does not make a bike that much better or desirable (just look at the Aprilia Nera). On the other hand, I do think this model will become THE model for collectors who wish to have an EBR. While values will probably not climb anytime soon this bike might be appealing to a serious collector that has a very long term outlook.
-Marty/Dallaslavowner
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This dealer actually has 4 for sale, only one a Carbon Edition. All over-priced at $40k each.
The RS is not simply a carbon kit. Even the non carbon bodied RSs have carbon bits. Lots of structural carbon fiber. Those wheels are expensive, and not found on the RX or SX. The magnesium parts have been replaced by aluminum on the RX and SX. The forks are top shelf. The parts list is more than the selling price. They only sold for so little because there’s a price cap in the class they were built it to race in.
Long term DUST COLLECTOR…