Street Tracker Buell is a Violent Ride

Prefecture Wrath

Dubbed 'Gladiator,' this custom beast sits at the intersection of exhilaration and terror. Violent by nature and bred for the coliseum, a rare, race-ready Buell XBRR is the foundation of this street legal machine. Reinvented by the creative genius of Hot-Dock Custom Cycles, Gladiator is now poised to unleash its wrath on Tokyo's surrounding prefectures.

Photos courtesy of Hot-Dock

Signature Form

Just over fifty XBRRs were built—fifty-six in total according to Motorcyclist magazine. It was released in 2007, just as Erik Buell neared the end of his troubled tenure with Harley-Davidson. The XBRR was inspired by the XR1000, a mid-1980s, factory-built, Sportster-based street tracker. In its 'stock' form, the XBRR was a fully-faired machine, with its potent motor cradled in Buell's signature aluminum spar frame.

Twins Spirit

The limited-production XBRR was poised to change privateer racing. Buell's intent was to supply a race-ready motorcycle to riders who did not have factory sponsorship. It allowed individual racers to compete at a professional level on a fully-prepped machine. The result was a no-compromises demon machine that channeled the spirit of Harley-Davidson's legendary Battle of the Twins racer, Lucifer's Hammer.

Inspired Warrior

Hot-Dock Custom Cycles was launched in 1984 by Keiji Kawakita—a lifelong Milwaukee enthusiast. The award-winning shop is fittingly located in picturesque Nerima City, a special ward of Tokyo, and is considered to be the creative birthplace of popular Japanese manga and anime comics. Kawakita, himself inspired by the Spanish company, Bottpower, decided to reanimate an XBRR as a monstrous street warrior.

Mill Category

At the heart of Hot-Dock's beastly build lies its potent Thunderstorm motor. Derived from the XB9R Firebolt, Buell conjured up the XBRR mill by boring the Firebolt's 984cc engine to 103.6mm. With a shorter stroke, the resulting 1,339cc or 81.7 cubic-inch motor delivered 150 horsepower at the crank, putting it into the same category as the mighty Ducati 999R.

Face Mounted

Feeding the big motor is a fuel injection system based around two enormous throttle bodies. The largest of any production motorcycle at the time, the intakes measure 62mm and were mounted vertically through the air box masquerading as a fuel tank. Supplying the rider with a face full of induction noise, the XBRR produced a 100 lb-ft of torque at 6400 rpm.

Suspension Deal

To house the mean motor, Hot-Dock built a custom frame that cleverly combines different engineering approaches. Part Sportster design, the hand-built chassis incorporates Buell's rubber-mounting system. It also accommodates a mono-shock suspension and a Ducati single-sided swingarm that was run upside down to deal with the XBRR right-side chain drive.

Unleashed Fun

A custom triple tree holds the inverted Showa front forks. A combination of Tokico and Brembo brakes was fitted for maximum stopping power. Hot-Dock then milled their own rims for the track-approved, Dunlop DT4 tires. Weighing in at less than 400lbs, the stock XBRR was a handful to ride. Unleashed as a street custom, it could be ultra-violent, or ultra-fun—all depending.

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