Buell Motorcycle has announced the newest bike coming to its lineup. The 2025 Buell Super Cruiser ditches the company’s rich quirky sportbike heritage for something it hasn’t done before. It’s a cruiser making 175 HP from a 1190cc V-twin and built in collaboration with Roland Sands Design.
On Friday, Buell took the wraps off of the Super Cruiser, which marks a first for the brand. Buell has been known for innovative sportbikes, a quirky adventure bike, streetfighters, and dud of a trainer bike. Yet, despite its off-and-on existence since 1983, Buell hasn’t gotten a cruiser under its name. Erik Buell, being the thrill-seeking racer and engineer that he is, helped Harley-Davidson create a cruiser, but left the style to the bar and shield. Buell is finally getting its own cruiser with the Super Cruiser.
If you’re a bit confused right now, don’t worry, because I have an explanation for you. Back in 2021, Buell Motorcycles came back from the dead. However, the man the brand is named after has nothing to do with the reincarnation of Buell. Erik Buell is currently working on an electric motorcycle with a different company called Fuell. This version of Buell is the work of the company that liquidated Buell when Harley-Davidson killed it and the same company that liquidated Erik Buell Racing when that failed.
Back in 2021, Buell relaunched with warmed-over EBR models, but the company promised 10 new motorcycles by 2024. There have been teasers and unveilings of an adventure bike and a dune racer. The Super Cruiser is a part of that new motorcycle plan.
While this motorcycle wasn’t designed by the man whose name is on the tank, it was designed by another famed motorcycle racer and designer.
Roland Sands is best known for his motorcycle designs and for motorcycle accessories under his Roland Sands Design brand. His company sells a bit of everything from custom motorcycle parts to riding gear. Before he was an award-winning designer, Sands was a professional racer competing on a Yamaha TZ250. The 2025 Buell Super Cruiser is only the latest in his designs that blend choppers with sportbikes. As of right now, it’s a concept, but Buell says it’s in development for a 2025 release.
At the heart of the Super Cruiser is Buell’s 1190cc V-twin. Visually, this engine appears to be the same 1190cc engine that powers Buell’s current offerings, which is an evolution of the Rotax Helicon. Buell has not released a full spec sheet but says that this engine makes 175 HP, so it may be detuned from the 185 horses found in Buell’s current models.
The engine is joined by some Buell traits that have been around for a while like perimeter brakes and Buell’s structural swingarm.
Buell says that Sands engineered his chassis to work with Buell’s rolling kit and as a result, this is supposed to be a cruiser with sportbike attributes. Bill Melvin, CEO of Buell Motorcycle Co, says that this will be the hottest bike on the market at launch. The Kawasaki H2 would question that notion, but at least on paper, it seems like Sands and Buell could be brewing up one of the fastest cruisers to hit the market in this decade. This Super Cruiser concept has more power than a Ducati Diavel or a Triumph Rocket 3 and it weighs just 450 pounds.
As for the Super Cruiser’s looks, it’s no mistake that it looks like a Harley-Davidson. Sands says that he was inspired by the Harley-Davidson FXR, a motorcycle that has a reputation of great handling thanks to work by Erik Buell. The Super Cruiser is supposed to be a nod to that heritage.
Buell hopes that when the Super Cruiser launches, it’ll attract young buyers to the brand:
“Buell is Back and building more than sportbikes. Out of the gate, this cruiser will lead performance in the category. It’s light, nimble, and high torque, incorporating all the main points that connect the rider to the ground, and it’s cracking open another part of the market–a younger crowd craving speed and performance in a cruiser.”
If the production version can keep close to the weight and power figures, the Super Cruiser has the chance to be a wild ride. That 450-pound weight is about 200 pounds lighter than the Triumph Rocket 3 and at least 30 pounds lighter than the dry weight of a Ducati Diavel.
Pricing hasn’t been announced, but I would expect it to start north of $20,000 like Buell’s other models. Further details will be released closer to its launch and Buell is currently accepting pre-orders for the Super Cruiser. That price does make me question how many young riders this will actually attract. Still, even though a cruiser is the last motorcycle I’d expect from Buell, this sounds like some properly ridiculous fun, and I can’t wait to ride one.
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This bike has me STOKED! It’s barely a cruiser, more a standard with cruiser style, which is fitting for the brand. I’m a fan of the high bars, as a tall guy it gives me good control without making me bend over which is nice. The only thing I’d change is to make a bigger front fender, just for visual balance, but personally I think it’s just about perfect!
I doubt it’s de-tuned on purpose. Looks like having an actual gas tank took away from the massive airbox that the EBR has. This may account for the loss on the top end but that’s just my speculation. I’ve got a 2014 ebr 1190sx and it’s ridiculously fast. This bike looks exciting. It still has cable actuated throttle bodies which has that raw instant throttle response. There is no smoothing it out like the bland electronic throttles on everything these days.
But did they even dyno the concept bike? Probably not yet. Curious why they didn’t just advertise the original 185 hp.
I’d call it a sport standard rather than a cruiser. On a cruiser your feet are generally out in front of you. Get rid of the overly-tall bars and the undersized fuel tank and you’d have a Honda CB1100, not an Softail.
Front end definitely looks like a nod to the Buell Cyclone. But wow those are tall handlebars. I get it, but a shorter set would really be more Buell.
Can’t imagine the target market for this though – oldschool Buell fans likely won’t be interested no matter how much power it has, and cruiser fans have a ton of other choices that may fit their bill more.
Reminds me in concept of BMW’s S series sportbikes…made so they can say to the diehards oh yeah we got a BMW sportbike for ya. But with the key difference being: how many Buell marque faithful really want a cruiser?
Nobody cares about the “buell faithful”. Average age is probably 80+ now and they were a niche inside a niche inside a niche.
It’s a 175hp cruiser that handles well designed by Roland Sands. That’s the sell, not Buell.
Hey, we’re not THAT old!
To me, this is similar though with a lot of Buell’s recent mojo even when Erik was still involved – quirky curiosity pieces that achieve their goals, sure, but in a hugely cost-ineffective manner when compared with the competition. It’s hard to find enough buyers to keep that going for any length of time I guess is what I’m trying to say.
I completely agree. My first bike was a Cyclone and this reminded me of it immediately. Calling it a cruiser seems to be a bit of a stretch. My back would love to trade me 1125CR for this. Same bike made comfortable.
Of all the reasons for expecting this to fail, I’ll just point out one…..why on earth put just a big dumb “BUELL” on the side when your horse-head logo is actually not bad?
Looks all kind of wrong and unproportioned. Way to large rear fender, a teeny weeny front fender, a fuel tank that’s slightly off and a logo that doesn’t belong on this bike.
I agree. And it’s not just that the rear fender is too big and the front is too small, it’s also that they are mounted different and seem to come from two different designers.
At the very least, they should have made the front and rear fenders in the same style/size and mounted the same way.
Oh, gross. I’ll admit, I wasn’t looking closely, as if I were interested in buying but hell no, I can’t unsee that now.
Back to shopping for a low miles V-rod to ride this year…
It looks like a parts bin special because that’s likely what it is. I’m curious to see what changes are made if this actually goes into production.
Agree. This is not a good looking bike.
>That price does make me question how many young riders this will actually attract.
understatement of the year right here. no young person is spending $20k on a bike, let alone from a company that they’ve never heard of.
I dunno about HD. This thing looks more like a straight up rip on Keanu Reeve’s Arch Motorcycles than any HD around these days.
I was thinking it looked like a Chinese copy of an Arch.
An EV company called Fuell? Seems rather ironic to me.
That’s very very old news.
A Buell cruiser feels like an oxymoron. 175 hp is both impressive and scary to me since the most powerful bikes I’ve ridden were around 100hp
60-something horsepower in my CB750 is more than enough to scare me, I can’t imagine 1.4 Miatas in a 400 lb bike
Lots of harley dudes would hot rod their bikes with Buell parts. This isn’t a stretch.
I dig the flat-tracker styling, the bike definitely seems more V-Max style muscle-cruiser than your typical cruiser.