Eric Buell S1 White Lightning Street Custom
“This bike is a mixture of Buell, Harley-Davidson, and some serious customising work to make it a unique ride,” said Mick aka ‘The Professor’.
A RARE find came my way about three years ago when I was in a friend’s garage. There was an old bike in the corner leaning up against the wall with lots of junk all over it. I asked him what it was and what he was doing with it. He told me it was a Buell but it had lots of problems. This intrigued me… I removed some of the rubbish from the top only to find out it was a genuine S1 White Lightning. After some negotiations he sold me the bike ‘as is’. The project began!
I put the bike on the bench and just looked at it for three days. I wasn’t sure whether to restore it or to customise it. I started researching about Buell in general, the S1 more specifically. It turns out this particular S1 model received some subtle performance additions. After a couple of months, especially after listening to Eric Buell on what he had to say about the Buell and the S1, I decided to customise it. Eric Buell noted that it was his favourite bike.
Based on photos from the USA where custom fairings were made for racing Buell motorcycles, I decided on a particular shape that I wanted while bringing it up another level from the fairings they actually produced for the bike. Being a fibreglass laminator enabled me to get started constructing the shape and style that I wanted. Keeping in the era of the 1990’s, I started designing the shape which incorporated the twin round headlights. The ram intakes were designed to make sure that plenty of air got into the engine. The challenge was making all three components become a one-piece top-front fairing. It took 15 months to build the fairing and through that time it was actually changed several times until I was completely satisfied.
The frame was not modified at all; the fairing was actually designed to go around it. A lot of custom carbon-fibre components were made to replace the plastic parts that were damaged in several areas.
I then moved onto the mechanical side of the bike and found that several things were damaged or in ill-repair: gearbox, starter motor, brakes, electricals, fork seals, tyres, foot pegs. I quickly realised I was back to square one. It then took another six months to rectify all these issues along with the Sportster 1200 engine.
Finally, I started to think about painting this machine. I tried drawing several designs on the undercoat but could not see what paint job would suit. Then it came to me — there used to be a hydroplane boat called ‘The Wasp’, and when it arrived from the USA to Australia, I was actually there. The paint job was incredible with its white strap running around the boat with a blend of checks at the rear and front of the boat. I decided to draw this onto the primer surface and it started to work out.
I laid the base coat which was called pop red, laid the white band around the fairing and laid the checks within the white using a vinyl mask, and finished the checks in a purple colour. This combination looked amazing and after six days of painting I was very pleased with the outcome.
It was now time to put everything together, which took a few weeks, but it was finally done.
I got the bike registered and could not stop riding it. It’s such an awesome machine, anywhere I park it people cannot work out what it is — a great conversation starter!
- GENERAL
- Make: Street Custom Buell S1 White Lightning
- Builder: Mick
- Owner: Mick
- Frame: Buell
- ENGINE
- Make: H-D
- Capacity: 1200 cc
- Heads: H-D Thunderstorm
- Cams: H-D 28 degrees offset
- Crankshaft: H-D lightened
- Carburetion: H-D CV
- Air cleaner: ram air system
- Exhaust: Buell; heat taped
- Ignition: H-D
- TRANSMISSION
- Type: H-D 5-speed
- Clutch: heavy duty
- Final drive: belt & pulley
- WHEELS
- Front: 17-inch
- Rear: 17-inch
- Front brake: Buell 6-spotter
- Rear brake: Buell 4-spotter
- SUSPENSION
- Front-end: Buell
- Front shockers: White Power
- Rear shockers: White Power
- Seat: custom
- CONTROLS
- Bars/switch gear: GP switch blocks
- Levers: TS; fully adjustable
- Speedo/tacho: Buell
- Headlights: Honda CBR
- Tail light: Ducati
- GUARD & TINWORK
- Fuel tank: Buell
- Oil tank: Buell
- Fairing: custom
- PAINT & FINISH
- Paint: 2-pak
- Graphics: Mick
- Painter: Mick
Words by Knackers & Mick
Related Articles:
