Snobs Custom Motorcycles for sale Harley-Davidson Parts Servicing

Now, your Buell is a very different kind of American motorcycle. It’s not as conventionally good-looking as its contemporaries and it’s not built on the same scale, but at its centre is a heartbeat that is not found anywhere else. That is the basic reason why a lot of them share a garage/shed/front room with a bigger, bolder, brasher motorcycle from Milwaukee. It is a heartbeat that will find instant appeal with a lot of people, if you can only get them to swing a leg over the saddle and take it for a spin, and that is Buell’s primary mission.

Until they break down the prejudices of the mass market, however, their biggest customer base is going to be existing or former Harley owners. People who need no convincing of the merits of an over-engineered motor, and who are looking for a new experience or a second bike.

I love the irony of a modern sports bike market that is generally scared or dismissive of the technology of a Buell, while the relatively conservative, traditional Harley-Davidson market embraces that cutting edge thinking. The only explanation is that the power characteristics are those of a Harley-Davidson; and that people who like fast Harleys appreciate just how good the Buell interpretation of the classic XL really is.

One such lover of fast Harleys is Snob of Snob’s Ultimate Customs on the North Circular Road. A self-confessed self-publicist, raconteur, gourmet, excellent host and friend to many. If you have an inkling that you’ve heard the name before, it might just be from the extensive newspaper and television coverage he received, after the palace requested he organise and lead a pack of motorcycles down The Mall to Buckingham Palace, to celebrate the Queen’s golden jubilee – and apparently almost sparking a security alert: it was meant to be a gentle canter more than a reconstruction of Sebastopol. He’s also a long-time member of a very old club that is synonymous with Harley-Davidsons: the Hells Angels. At the time of the press cuttings, I did wonder why a member of an American-based club, riding an American bike, was leading a pack of bikes representing the British motorcycle industry on that most British of occasions. Having met him since, I’m not in the least surprised. Now I’m surprised the rest of the pack kept up with his unscheduled charge, because he doesn’t hang around.

Snob had been spannering Buells for a number of years, and when the offer of a crashed Buell presented itself at the end of a Bulldog Bash it was too good to pass up, and Snob now had the beginnings of his new project. As a builder of customs as well as high performance Harleys, it was never going to be a stocker – and the more you look at the bike he’s put together, the more you realise that it’s more than the simple and reserved paint job and a trick swing-arm.

Despite obvious cues, the base bike is an early Cyclone, which effectively means the first generation frame. These are identified quickly and easily by cleaner, straighter lines and by the lack of a brace on the primary drive side between the front engine mount and the main frame, while the rest of the bike is recognised by a narrow dual seat: the S1 Lightning seat has the appearance of barely enough seat for a solo rider, and the Mk2 Cyclone’s is almost a touring seat by comparison. And then there’s always the snaking exhaust that runs outboard of the close-fitting frame rails, in case of doubt.

Don’t be fooled by the tank, which is off a later Cyclone and gives a much greater range, or by the upside-down forks, still bearing the WP (White Power) logo, and so will be from an S1 Lightning, polished and connected to the frame by a set of beautifully finished, one-off billet yokes. The asymmetrical fly screen is Lightning, too, designed for a Speedo and rev counter but it just masks the Cyclone’s single clock for now, soon to be replaced by a trick Dakota digital speedo and rev-counter.

You can miss most of the subtleties, because your eye is invariably drawn repeatedly to the single-sided Metmachex swing-arm, complete with its Brembo disc and caliper. Ordinarily there would be a conventional-looking, steel box-section swing arm living there. A substantial lump of aluminium with plenty of bracing and a trick removable section to accommodate belt removal, it no longer features in the Metmachex catalogue so don’t go getting too excited, although Snob reckons that if you’re not faint hearted about costs, he can still organise production of a limited supply.

One major area where Harleys and Buells differ wildly is their braking, and that’s largely due to their different weight distribution. Rear brakes on sport bikes are to be used with caution at speed, because they carry little weight and therefore lock-up remarkably easily. That powerful Brembo Gold caliper at the back is produced for a market where such knowledge can be safely assumed, but the stock Buell offering is a relatively crude device requiring alot of input to get a lot out of it. It will, however, take some locking-up, and is probably more sensible for riders used to relying on rear wheel braking. By contrast the stock six-pot single rotor front brake is a diamond ... but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon. There isn’t a brake on a mass produced bike on the planet that can’t be improved upon. As it happens, all tube frame Buells, while equipped with just the one big disc – in keeping with Eric Buell’s low unsprung weight design philosophy – are fully prepared to take a second without changes to forks or wheels. Buell even produced a kit, comprising a second Nissin 6-pot caliper, floating rotor and higher output master cylinder, but if something is worth doing, it’s worth over doing and a pair of Harrison Billet 6-pots grip a pair of 340mm Harrison fully floating rotors on Snob’s Cyclone.

Fortunately, the people who make the wheels for Ducati also make Buell wheels, so a back wheel for a Ducati single-side swing-arm that matched the original front wasn’t too hard to come by. A three spoke cast wheel, with just enough relief to make a two-colour scheme not just possible, but too good to pass up. Picking out that that simple line in paint has a slimming effect on the width of the spokes, and picks out a shark-fin shape, continuing a motif that is started by the shape of the bellypan, and reinforced by gills picked out on the rear bodywork. You probably won’t have noticed before, but you’ll see them every time you look now. It also, with the front wheel being orange with black highlights and the back being the opposite, completes an orange to black fade through the length of the bike. Simple stuff, but very effective.

But if the cosmetics are subtle, the internals of the engine aren’t … well they’re not when The Shark rips past you at speed. As a pre-1999 Buell motor it is not blessed with the mythical Thunderstorm heads, but that’s not necessarily important if you know what you’re doing with a motor. In fact, it is a positive advantage because there’s an element of development work that needs to be undone, if you want to go your own way rather than following Eric’s route.

The first casualty would have been the air-box – it always is, unless you want a picnic table for Sunday outings. Damn clever though it is at keeping induction roar down for the authorities, with the minimum of detrimental effect on breathing, there’s no substitute for a free-breathing filter and minimal disruption to the airflow – in this case a K&N highflow filter on a Screamin’ Eagle backplate. Ditto the under-slung lorry exhaust, which would have been the second casualty, and whose less restrictive replacement – a fully-re-buildable Titanium ART race-can,with the statement “Not for road use” proudly stamped on the end– now drowns out any increased induction noises. Tube frame Buells are known to be tough on exhausts, as they are mounted directly to the motor and as such are subjected to the full-on undamped ferocity of a relatively high revving XL motor – as the remains of my own Yoshi and countless V&Hs will testify – but the ART seems to be standing up well.It is undoubtedly benefits from the later damped front silencer mount, while gas flow is helped by the US-spec, two-inch exhaust headers.

And yes, that is a carburettor lurking behind the carbon racetrack filter – of the tube frame models, only the X1 Lightning runs EFI, and there are those who say that the best performance modification for an X1 is to retro-fit a Mikuni HSR42 – and it is one-such carburettor used here. But it is inside the motor where the serious work has been done; notably two major changes.

Eric Buell knew that he could improve on his original modified XL heads, which is where the high compression Thunderstorm heads came from. Snob knew he could improve matters too, and the ports in the stock heads have been re-profiled and polished, a second spark plug added – a trick that Harley themselves did with the XL1200S Sportster– for a cleaner, more complete burn and more power from the resulting bang. There’s little point shelling out for porting work and then trusting to the stock ignition module, and the original coil was a pair of plug leads short for the task, so a Trojan single fire computerised ignition management system, allied to a Dyna twin-circuit four-plug coil, has replaced them. Two sets of Magnacor leads – which Snob describes as the best on the market – complete the picture.

Secondly, the cases have been modified using an old drag racing technique to reduce the amount of oil drag on the flywheels – which can give up to 10%. Once the oil has been pumped through the bearings and journals or the motor, from top to bottom, it drains back down to the bottom of the crankcase where it slops around waiting for the scavenger part of the oil pump to return it to its rightful place: the oil tank, in these dry sump engines. While it’s slopping around it is absorbing some of the heat, which it will take away with it, so its presence is not entirely wasted, but any contact between the flywheel and the oil creates drag, and that’s not good. That drag is reduced with synthetic oils but not eliminated, so a combination of a windage trap and flowed cases control the flow of the oil, keeping it out of harm’s way. Just to pep it up that little bit further, the stock Buell cams were replaced by a set of Andrews race cams, and a racing clutch was drafted in to keep the power under control.

I passed up the invitation to follow Snob through the streets of his native London, as I’ve made the mistake before of trying to keep up with him on his tweaked Electra Glide before now, and I’m guessing that the width of the dresser might act as a dampener to his throttle hand.

I know it’s going to be quick because that’s the way he builds them, but the only way I’m going to attempt to find out how quick is by taking my own staged Thunderstorm Cyclone down and switching saddles. I reckon that’ll be the best way to guarantee surviving long enough to write about the experience.

Words & Pics: Andy Hornsby ( American V Magazine )

Bike: Snob’s Mk1 M2 Buell Cyclone

Engine: 1200cc Buell, running 10.5:1 Wiseco pistons, twin plug heads, Andrews race cams, flowed crankcases and welded windage trap ands racing clutch.
Ignition: Trojan single-fire computerised ignition management system. Dyna twin-circuit 4-plugcoil and Magnacor leads.
Fuel System: Mikuni HSR42 Carburettor with K&N high flow filter on SE backplate
Exhaust: US-spec 2-inch headers with ART Titanium silencer
Brakes:
Front: Twin 6 pot Harrison brake calipers on 340mm fully floating rotors.
Rear: Brembo Gold on Ducati rotor
Suspension:
Front: WP Polished USD forks fitted to polished one-off billet yokes.
Rear: Stock shock on Metmachex single sided swing-arm
Wheels:
Front: Buell
Rear: Ducati single-sided
Other: Stainless steel lines and fittings throughout. Snobs own thermostatically controlled oil-cooling system.