Buell Motorcycle Is Starting Production With Bikes From 2014

Buell Motorcycle resurfaced this year with some big ambitious plans and without Erik Buell, the man that started it all. The company is finally starting production of street bikes once again, beginning with some familiar machines.

Buell has announced that production on its street bikes is starting on November 1 with the Hammerhead 1190 superbike. It’s a motorcycle with striking looks and mouth-watering specs. It’s also a motorcycle that we’ve seen before.

In case you’ve forgotten, the new Buell is the result of Erik Buell’s motorcycle ventures getting scooped up by Liquid Asset Partners, a Michigan-based liquidation company. The firm liquidated Buell when Harley-Davidson killed it in 2009, then again after Erik’s independent Erik Buell Racing went under in 2016. EBR was restarted by Liquid Asset Partners and in late 2020 it bought the Buell Motorcycle name, beginning a brand revival.

That revival has been without Erik Buell, and he continues work on electric bicycles and an electric motorcycle with Fuell.

Buell says that the 2022 Hammerhead 1190 will have a “Grand Rapids, Michigan built and proven 185-horsepower high-performance 72-degree V-Twin engine with 13.4:1 compression, sporting EFI with 4 injectors and exerting 101.6ft-lbs of torque.”

The Hammerhead 1190 appears to be based on the EBR 1190RX that was unveiled in 2013 for the 2014 model year by EBR. This new version appears to have some minor plastic changes and a new exhaust.

Those are the same specs as the 2014 EBR 1190RX right down to the overly specific torque figure. The company also says that the machine will weigh 419 pounds — yep, the same weight as the 1190RX. Here’s a picture of the 1190RX, for comparison.

I didn’t notice it when the new Buell first launched, but even the Hammerhead’s webpage is the same as the old 1190RX’s page with a few cosmetic changes. I’ve reached out to Buell for further details about the Hammerhead 1190.

The good news, then, is that the new Buell’s first street bikes will be motorcycles originally engineered by Erik Buell. And Buell isn’t going to just make a bunch of old designs, either, as it plans on making its own adventure bikes, dual sports, and even cruisers.

As Motorcycle.com reports, Buell has been pretty busy, filing trademark applications for a logo and names like Baja, Blast and Supercruiser. I’d love to see a modern take on Buell’s maligned Blast entry-level thumper.

Pricing on the Hammerhead 1190 hasn’t been announced, but you can reserve one beginning November 1 through a reservation and delivery system that Buell calls Buellvana. It says it’ll provide more information on October 21. If you missed out on buying an EBR, it looks like the new Buell is going to give you another chance.