It's just a nose, but this spy photo of the new Erik Buell Racing (EBR) 1190RS sports bike marks a big milestone for the company - it's first street-legal motorcycle as a private company.
Erik Buell was gutted when Harley-Davidson shut down his company during the darkest depths of the global financial crisis in 2009, and though things looked dire EBR kept on supporting its race technology while secretly developing a new road bike, the 1190RS that you see here.
After disbanding of the Buell brand, founder Erik Buell signed a non-competitive contract with Harley-Davidson, ensuring that he wouldn't start building and selling Buell motorcycles so that H-D could clear its remaining stock. Well, that non-competitive contract is expected to conclude this month (February 2011) which means we could see the whole bike very soon.
Indeed, the new 1200cc V-twin sports bike has been teased in teased in various forms, and now it's almost showtime.
It is not yet known if the EBR 1190RS will be offered for sale outside of North America, and will likely be produced in limited numbers to begin with. However, it will based around the EBR 1190RR race bike's architecture and as the photo shows, the hand-made bike features a central-mount projector beam headlamp and indicators integrated into the mirror stalks.
There's also clear sign of an oversized single perimeter brake disc, no doubt a tip of the hat to the Buell motorcycles that were once one of America's most respected sports bike companies.
Watch this space.
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