Will EBR make an air-cooled?

[GregoXB]

Even Ducati has switched over to liquid cooling for their Monster 1200, but they still have air-cooled options in the stable. Do you think EBR will package an air-cooled motor? If so what motor could they use?

 

[rah7777777]

Highly doubt it.

 

[onelogue]

Erik Buell RACING, they are really trying to focus on performance now and power is very limited on the air-cooled motors so i doubt they will go back to old school performance.
That being said, I WISH!! I love my XB

 

[RossLH]

I don't see that happening any time soon.

 

[tyler]

Hopefully they making a better water pump..[smirk]

 

[anrkizm95]

nope

 

[jetlee]

Erik was forced to do air-cooled by Harley-Davidson. He was developing the liquid-cooled V-Rod motor before H-D took it and left him with air-cooled V-twins again.

Air-cooled is nice from a maintenance point of view, but from the performance aspect he needs to stay with liquid-cooled and I'm sure he knows that and plans on it.

 

[dmp0001]

Buell was using 750 and 1000cc aircooled motors before harley had anything to say about it. I think he will fit the 1125/1190 in as many bikes as possible first. Plus hero may suppy him with some smaller motors for less expensive bikes.

 

[jetlee]

Buell was using 750 and 1000cc aircooled motors before harley had anything to say about it.

The 750 was bought from a failed company. Everything after that was using Harley Sportster motors, including the 1000cc in the Battletwins.

Being owned by Harley, Erik had the funds to properly develop his own engine, which he immediately went to liquid-cooling, that was slated for the XB chassis. That project was yanked from him and became the V-Rod motor leaving Erik to muster up a cheap engine (since funds were expended on the now-V-Rod engine) for the chassis to meet production deadlines, enter the air-cooled v-twin XB.

Erik finally got to get his feet wet with the 1125-series engines, but again the lack of adequate funding, by a company that didn't fully support his vision, didn't let him get all the kinks worked out before it went to market. H-D saw the Buell sales numbers rising and the H-D sales numbers falling, so they gave him the axe.

Now that he has gobs of funding and no leash (like H-D had and kept taught), it's foolish to think an engineer of his caliber would go back to air-cooled engines.

 

[go cytocis]

Even Ducati...still have air-cooled options in the stable.

Those air-cooled Ducs are just using remnant motors first developed generations ago so the toolings don't owe the company anything anymore.

If you're in the performance game like EBR, developing a new motor which has to be powerful and meet emission requirements, you just couldn't justify starting from scratch with an air-cooled design.

You gotta love Porsche for developing that sweet air-cooled flat six of theirs for as long as they did (up until ~2000) but I don't think you'd ever see them develop a new one from scratch again for the same reasons I don't think EBR ever will either.

 

[nicholas900]

I agree with most, I doubt it but wish they would. I love high performance, don't get me wrong.... but I also enjoy a hundred or so HP air cooled bike for zipping around town and in traffic. Just something about modest powered air cooled bikes that I really like...... maybe it's the fact that I tend to stay out of the licence loosing speeds easier.

 

[brumbear]

I think we have seen the last air cooled engines unless they are thumper one lungers. Maybe who knows?

 

[Tbone]

It was the old air cooled VW's: beetles, buses, karmann ghia's, that ruled the winters back in the day, 1970's. I just wished they had a decent heater, they would always start and get you through the snow, felt like you had frost bite when you got there though. I have seen Air Cooled VW's start in weather so cold that you could not pour motor oil out of a can. also when the battery was frozen solid you could still push start it. I have not been able to push start a Buell successfully but I sure have push started a dozen VW's and or other cars in the winter. 2 or 3 quick sprays of either in the air filter, fuel line anti-freeze in the gas tank, a stick shift driver, 2 people to push, preferably downhill and you were guaranteed about 95% of the time to start. Don't think you can do that anymore with any newer vehicle?

 

[Lando]

BMW just released another air cooled model, the NineT, if they can do it, so can EBR.

 

[go cytocis]

BMW just released another air cooled model, the NineT

That's not an entirely newly-developed engine though. That's just the existing 1170 motor out of the previous generation GS. The Nine-T is also more of a retro-standard than a full-on performance bike where an air-cooled motor makes sense. EBR has no existing (read: cheap) aircooled motor designs to use, nor have I read anything Erik Buell has ever said to the press about wanting to get into the nostalgia market.

 

[Lando]

I thought I heard somewhere that EBR has plans to release a cafe-racer in the future... That would be a good reason to develop/source a air cooled motor.
I love my xb because of the character the air cooled motor gives it, and that is why I also like the retro BMW, but don't like the retro Duc as much.

 

[go cytocis]

I love my xb because of the character the air cooled motor gives it, and that is why I also like the retro BMW

Hey, as an owner of a Beemer Airhead, you don't have to convince me; I love air-cooled motors too.

It's just that in a marketplace of bikes making 200hp off the showroom floor, and stricter emissions regulations, it'd be real tough for a small manufacturer like EBR to justify the massive expense of developing, or even sourcing & adapting, a new air-cooled motor. Especially when it's not core to their identity as a performance manufacturer.

That new Thunder Stroke 111 in the Indians would have required big bucks from Polaris to develop, but because the nostalgia cruiser market is soooo particular about having fins, there was really no other choice.

 

[Lando]

Completely agree... Just wishful thinking for the future. One day Erik will make a retro model, and I hope he has the funds by then to do an air cooled. Might only happen for the 50th aniversary though, if we're not banned from having internal combustion engines by then.

 

[AK Addict]

Don't forget EBR is also helping Hero develop bikes for other markets where air cooled engines make sense. I could see a EBR designed air cooled bike in the future, though it would probably be branded a Hero and made overseas.

 

[go cytocis]

Don't forget EBR is also helping Hero develop bikes for other markets where air cooled engines make sense. I could see a EBR designed air cooled bike in the future, though it would probably be branded a Hero and made overseas.

I agree, but as long as it's a bike that's being badged "EBR" (the "R" standing for "racing"), and as long as there isn't some some weird rule in some racing class somewhere giving an advantage to air-cooled bikes, I still don't see it happening.