Nerd’s Eye View: Erik Buell Racing 1190RX
Khiem Dinh is an engineer for Honeywell Turbo Technologies at the time of this writing. All statements and opinions expressed by Khiem Dinh are solely those of Khiem Dinh and not reflective of Honeywell Turbo Technologies.
That glimmer is now just the smoldering flame of an extinguished candle as Erik Buell Racing has declared bankruptcy as of yesterday. EBR had emerged just a half decade ago from the remains of Buell Motorcycles and produced perhaps first legitimate American sport bike that can compete with the best the world has to offer. They created a machine that had some flavoring from Japan, Germany, and Italy with a uniquely American taste. So here’s a close-up look at a very impressive machine created by EBR which will hopefully not be the last.
A feature unique to Erik Buell Racing is the single brake disc on the front wheel. Typically twin cross-drilled discs are used on the front wheel of a sport bike. My guess is EBR had to go with a slotted disc as opposed to cross-drilled to prevent cracking as there is now only one disc absorbing all of the braking energy instead of two. As there is only one disc, there is also only one brake caliper and one set of brake pads necessitating the brake cooling ducts.
The brake disc is attached to the front wheel with these joints allowing for the thermal expansion of the disc.
The brake ducts are two pieces of injection molded plastic which appear to snap together. Being designed as a two-piece as opposed to one makes the injection molding process feasible and cheap.
