Long live EFB Designs, at least the 'Evil Empire' won't get their grasping corporate hands on them

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

I'm sure you were, I'd probably have been the same.

I'd love to own that bike, but I'd be doing my level best to put back the way it really should be. To me, as a historic Buell RR1000 one of 52 ever built , it's been ruined, but it's a free world. I don't know much about XR1000 motors but, yes, some parts of it are obviously not right.

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Try doing this to yer fueller...........

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Try doing this to yer fueller...........

OK, I'm at risk of becoming a bit caught up with this, but here's a shot of LH2's XR1000 motor.



Compared to the one in Adam's shot there's some glaring differences. What appears to be the clutch release push rod going through the gearbox output shaft is one, but there's any number of others (oil pump for example).

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Try doing this to yer fueller...........

I think you're right there. The more I look at the Stafford bike, the more I'm convinced the motor's a hybrid XR/XL. A bit like a 'Shovester' I suppose
The XR clutch release mechanism on the XR looks a lot better (and probably lighter pull) that the XL ramp

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

Whatever it is, he has read your How To on cutting down the cam cover...

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08 Specialized Langster

I am a newby to this site and have just been reading through the string of emails regarding the RR1000 race bike.

Thought i would add my bit, The engine is definately XR1000 and not a hybrid which would be almost impossible to do as the XR cases are different to sportster cases in so many ways. The timing case on this XR engine has been modified to allow easy access to to oil pump and unions which often weep oil on all XR engines at race speeds. This was a common mod, Storz Buell and others all did this mod in the race days of the XR1000 so nthing new here.

The primary cases look to be early evo and is a common modification for race XR1000 as the evo cases are narrower and tend to hold the oil better.

There were two versions of the XR1000 engine the later version made in the last two years of production diffrences between both versions are very subtle, that said you can't uses early barrels on the later engine, likewise pistons etc etc.

The XR750 and XR1000 engines are very different looking however some parts are interchangable. This is confirmed by HD parts book.

I also took a look at the photograph of LH2. The is engine a hybrid. Bottom end is XR750 and top end is XR1000 however the barrels are alloy and not stock XR1000 which should be iron. I understand the early version of LH2 used iron barrels.

Tonnup

There's a 3 page feature on Steve Ledsham's RR1000 'R' in the forthcoming issue of American Thunder. This should be available as a download in the next few days.

In the meantime, Steve wishes to reply to some of the comments made about his Buell on this topic:

Hi Chris

I have tried to get a log-on to your website but have failed, no one has responded to my request for a log-on.

I read with interest some of the comments on your web site regarding my bike.

It seems some of your readers don't know very much at all about XR engines, Manx Norton's, alloy oil tanks or indeed welding, or LH2 or its whereabouts or its specification.

I would appreciate the opportunity to comment if at all possible!

1st the engine is XR1000 and not a hybrid, the chain cases are early Evo and a common modification on XR race bikes. The only other difference is that the lower timing chest has been machined away to give access to the oil pump and unions. Also the engine is black. Engine was supplied by Erik Buell I have the original confirmation of sale signed by Erik. The original LH2 engine was XR750 bottom end with XR1000 top and therefore does look very different. Your reader obviously don't know the difference between XR1000 and Sportster. The photograph of the LH2 engine on your website is a later version of LH2 with alloy cylinders the original engine used iron as per the road bikes. The reason for swapping to alloy was for two reasons 1. weight 2. the later versions of LH2 ran various CC's and manufacture of billet alloy cylinders is easier than iron.

Norton oil tanks pre 1961 (big foot oil tanks) had cutaways in two places, the top cutaway on the timing side is to allow unrestricted air flow to the carb, the square section cutaway in the front of the tank is for clearance to the bottom of the carb. These cutaways had nothing to do with cooling. I own three Manx Norton's.

The oil tank on my bike is alloy and anodised. The beaten appearance was a styling decision made by the original builder. Someone else on your site doesn't now what they are talking about.

LH2 - This bike was broken in 1991/early 1992; I have this confirmed. I also have an email from Tilley HD in which their workshop manager confirmed that have nothing left of LH2. The docs I have regarding my chassis and signed by Erik Buell state that my chassis was their race chassis and these docs are dated early 1992. This is 2/3 months after the last pictures of LH2 were taken in a park in Statesville, North Carolina not far from the old Tilley shop.

Drawings of the swing arm; why are people so cynical. I had a good e-mail relationship with Kim Tordik who managed to get permission to send me drawings of the simplified RR1000 swing arm. Why? because my was cracked and I wanted to make another. The simplified swing arm was designed for the new radial Pirelli tyre. Do you remember 1985/7 when the radial tyres started to turn up and the 16 inch wheel arrived (only because the profile of the radial tyre was very high due to tyre wall design, so to keep the rolling radius reasonable they opted for small dia wheels).

I could go on, CR&S built this bike in Milan, I purchased it via Bonhams with provenance/documentation between Erik Buell and Roberto - need I say more. The problem with bikes like these everyone has an opinion and very few actually know anything but unfortunately these opinions end up in the mix and completely muddy the water; what we end up with is multiple truths or rather one truth and lots of bullshit.

As I have stated before I am happy to be corrected but as know one has produced the original chassis, even a photo of it, and mine has been authenticated as pre-production and therefore must be one of the two, it's either the prototype or the race bike - Erik in his letter to Roberto refers to it as their team race bike. I rest my case.

Steve Ledsham

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Chris & Jane Jessop
Founders of UKBEG April 1998

www.ukbuellgroup.co.uk

that sounds like a great piece of history you have there.
Now where did i put my lottery ticket

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2001 X1 2009 1125CR 2006 Uly X3 2010 Uly a fully Maz'd S1 and a 1991 RS1200 Westwind.

The scallops I was talking about were found on some Manx PETROL tanks during certain years and is mentioned in one of Phil Irvings books. Instead of the tank sections being cut with straight edges, they were cut with a scalloped edge. This allowed more surface area along the brazed edge where they overlap without excess weight penalty. There was no mention of the cutaways on Manx oil tanks or indeed, it being done for cooling . I had a Manx oil tank on a TriTon. Apologies if it read that way. Rudge also adopted this idea on their race bike with the bronze head - I forget the model. You can see this on petrol tanks at the NMM.
I was told this information by a man who made the tanks for the factory(Arnold Wellings), I doubt he was making it up.

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

The scalloping for structural purposes is like you can see along the bottom edge of this pre war Manx petrol tank. Not sure if this an example because of the small photo (it may be purely decorative) but it gives you the idea.

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

Hi Adam

I understand were your coming from now and appoligies for the confussion.

As you state the scallops were structural, well sort of as they provides additional support were the tank pieces were soldered together i.e. over lapping steel. The scallops or as they were more commonly know "Pie Crust Edge" allowed the solder to flow better or rather penetrate the joint better and therefore was a manufactoring aid but not for cooling.

This method was dropped after 1950 as the Norton race frame changed from a plunger type to MacCandless designed swing arm type or Featherbed as Geoff Duke called it. The new frame supported the tank fully along both sides of the frame and as such heavy soldering was not required.

A minor point - the Manx name was only used post war for Racing Norton and only to swing arm models; frames for 350 and 500 engines in rigid and plunger forms were stamped 30 or 40, all swing arm models were stamped 30M or 40M, M=Manx. Model 30 was a 500 and 40 was a 350.

Steve

PS Thanks Chris I have now managed to log in.

I think the confusion was caused by the manner in which I wrote the comments, I should've been clearer. Pie crust edge is an excellent description and as you say, the twin top rails of the Wideline and then the Slimline frames, gave excellent support for a tank.
Whatever that bike is, and I've no reason to believe it's anything other than what you say it is, it's still as horny as Hell. As I said before, I know very little about the early XR series motors.
One of the most gorgeous bikes I've ever seen

Glad you could log on; welcome to UKBEG

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

For those that are interested I have attached a couple of documents that I received when I bought the RR1000.

If there were 50 official RR1000 and two preproduction bikes then mine has to be one of these! Alternatively there were more than 52 RR1000 chassis made. This question has driven me to find out what I have and todate I just have more questions. Recently on another website a contributor to this tale advised that LH2 was broken at the end of 1991 or early 1992 (Note that there were two LH2's one was the buell the second ran an XRTT frame).

Read on.......