Ok, so, this bike is a 100hp 1200cc two-cylinder; it has twin-lens headlights, a half-naked look, a tall seat and long travel suspension that’s tuned for rough conditions or offroading; alloy wheels, slightly knobbly tyres, and an enormous “beak” that projects out from under the headlights in a pseudo-mudguard role.

Oh yes, and the flagship colour scheme is a sort of deep yellow against black.

It’s a BMW R1200GS, right?

Nope, wrong, it’s a Harley.

Or more specifically, it’s a Ulysses XB12X from Buell, the sportsbike division of Harley Davidson.

Somebody at Buell must be on the ball and has noticed the way that the 1200GS is selling like hotcakes over here in Europe; the result is an almost embarassing clone – though I must admit it has some twists that make it interesting. That its final transmission is a belt-drive – like all other Buells – would not attract me; they have a reputation in the UK for picking up grit that accelerates belt-wear leading to sudden failure, which does not sound good in a soft-roader.

Only 16.6 litres of fuel, though.

Reading the blurb it sounds like they’ve taken all the usual Buell quirks – rim-mounted brakes, fuel-in-frame, belt-drive, low centre-of-gravity – and decided to stretch the suspension a bit.

I will reserve judgement on how well it works, until they land in Europe, but the Germans will be hard to convince – apart from the ones who ride Harleys and wear tassled leather because they think it makes them look cool.

Can Harley make a better BMW, than BMW?

Perhaps the funniest thing is Eric Buell’s video saying:

“Not only is it a great motorcycle, it’s a whole new type of motorcycle, it’s something that hasn’t been done before. […] There was nothing else out there, it’s an Adventure-Sport Bike, there’s no other way to describe it.”

Yeah Eric, suuuuure… and I’d love to pit the “sporty” Buell brakes against the BMW stoppers, USD-forks or no.

Interesting Pictures:

Thanks to [www.bmbikes.co.uk], [www.r1200gs.info], and of course [www.buell.com] for the image resource.