It had to happen. Six months after the debut of the EBR 1190RX V-twin fully faired Superbike, Erik Buell’s Wisconsin-based EBR has now introduced the stripped-down Streetfighter version of that motorcycle. And it doing so mounts a potent (literally!) challenge to the Aprilia Tuono V4R, KTM 1290 Super Duke R, BMW S1000R and Ducati Monster 1200 for supremacy in this crowded but ever expanding real-world riding category. For the SuperNaked class has now supplanted the sportbike sector as the key battleground for performance-derived profitability for all manufacturers, hence Suzuki’s decision to enter it next year with the GSX-S1000. Others will follow.
Earlier this year EBR, which Erik Buell kickstarted in 2010 with just four employees compared to the 155 people currently working for him in the former Buell Motorcycle Co. plant in East Troy, Wisconsin, debuted a production version of its World Superbike contender under the 1190RX label, costing $18,995. But this was always intended to be the first of three models sharing the same water-cooled DOHC 72-degree V-twin engine, with the just launched SX streetfighter next up, and an AX adventure tourer planned for 2015.
Buell is himself no stranger to streetfighter-style sportbikes, having helped define the category with the introduction of the Buell S1 Lightning in 1995.
“The streetfighter classification is now being used by marketing people for all sorts of motorcycles, including some thinly-disguised standard bikes that have detuned or obsolete powertrains,” says Buell. “So perhaps the appropriate new name for a bike like the 1190SX is, ‘Superfighter.’“
But in creating the SX at a cost of $16,995, Buell’s boys didn’t intend to leave behind any of the performance they’d delivered to the marketplace with the RX model, as Dane Hoechst, a 13-year veteran of the Buell Motorcycle Company who’s been heading the small five-man V-twin streetbike R&D team since joining EBR in January 2013 as Platform Director for all its models, explains.
“We decided from the start that the SX wouldn’t be a dumbed-down version of our Superbike racer, like most other streetfighters are,” he says. “It has exactly the same engine specification, the same fuel-injection mapping and the same chassis package as the RX, only with the fairing removed and a one-piece taper-section aluminum handlebar providing a more upright and relaxed riding position.”
To read more of our EBR 1190SX first ride in this week’s Cycle News, click here
For more Cycle News Sport Bike motorcycle reviews, click HERE.
For more Buell motorcycle reviews, click HERE.
