Ultimately I think Erik Buell's innovations don't apply as well to racing as they do to the street. Racing has advanced to the point it has sooo very little in common with the street that any innovations in either area are transferring less & less to either area. Buell's own XBRRs didn't use a belt drive which is a great example of what I'm saying. Buell's innovations are VERY effective for street racing which usually only lasts a few seconds. AMA races lasts 1/2hr+. No street race or run from the police on a motorcycle lasts 1/2hr+.
Racing still very much has to do with street bikes. Even more so today. You can buy a new sport bike like a Ninja 400 for $6k, that has ABS.
But now that the 'recipe' for building a fast 2 wheeled machine is pretty perfected, you need to focus a bit. You won't see the 1/2* of rake change in the new MT-09, but you'll feel it. Wings, and other aero are obvious but racing innovation now comes mostly in the form of electronics and tire tech. Things like slide control, rear lift mitigation, wheelie control, lean angle sensitive ABS, and the fact that you can drag a knee, on the street, in the rain on your street bike.
The belt thing was not any "innovation" by Erik Buell. It was mandated by Buells parent company, to make them more 'relatable' to the H-D crowd. Including the 1125's.
Buells weren't sold out of dealers as racing bikes. The solutions to getting a racing motorcycle to go faster around a track do
not always apply to a street motorcycle. If you want a racing motorcycle for the street, it's not gonna be a Buell. Ducati Desmodici, BMW HP2, HP4, Kawasaki H2RR. The BMW maintenance manual for the HP2 says the 5000 mile service requires a new engine. A
new engine. See what I mean about assuming racing is better?
). I wonder how they figured out how to get that much power out of a relatively small motorcycle engine? Hmmm....:indecisiveness:
