Written by Marlon Slack

Bottpower are a Spanish custom shop that make parts for high performance twins. Seriously cool parts. Carbon fibre tanks and seats, perfectly machined triple clamps and even entire frames. Much of their work ended up on their iconic Pikes Hill motorcycle in 2017. It was fast, it handled like a dream and it was gorgeous. But it wasn’t built for the road. So Bottpower decided to build street legal version – a gorgeous 2007 Buell Ulysses they’ve dubbed the XR1R.

We’ll slow it down for a moment in case you’re new to the party and haven’t heard of Buell before. Buell was an offshoot of Harley Davidson that made American twins that actually handled. Most ran up spec versions of Sportster engines with twin spark heads, flash cams and light flywheels.  They also had an innovative chassis design, running fuel in the frame and oil in the swingarm. People loved them. Not everyone. But a certain kind of person.

Today, years after the company was wound up Buell still have their devotees. Nobody more so than the Bottpower, who have made it their life mission to make Buell’s incredible handling twins even better – as exhibited by this XR1R. “We’ve used many cool parts that we’ve been using for a while,” Bottpower’s David Sanchez states, “but also many new items which we’ve tested in a constant quest to improve quality and performance”.

The donor for the XR1R was the Ulysses, the adventure touring model of the Buell line up. Straight away the team swapped out many of the standard parts for their own bespoke factory offerings. That’s the frame, subframe, carbon fibre fuel tank and seat assembly and headlight. It’s all available on their website. Go on. Have a look.

For those Buell owners who will play the ‘spot the aftermarket part’ game you’re in for a bit of a chore. So I’ll help you along. The front end is K-tech KTR2 forks, solidifying a long relationship between the two businesses (K-tech provided suspension for a previous Moto2 build they did). Both the front and rear wheels are slimline BST carbon fibre numbers.

To get that all fitted and working properly the wheel axles were custom-made from titanium. All the braking system is Brembo, the patron saint of stopping. It’s been converted to a chain drive via some clever parts from Free Spirits, while the rear sprocket was even designed by David and the team to resemble the front brake rotors. That’s a custom job done by Supersprox with an aluminium core and steel teeth.

[superquote]“All the braking system is Brembo, the patron saint of stopping.”[/superquote]

The exhaust system utilizes the standard header pipe system, which has now been ceramic coated black and mated with a stubby little Jardine exhaust. To keep the Buell thumping along nicely, it’s mated to a new map on the ECU.

The front is held together with Bottpower triple clamps, with an Easton handlebar and Renthal grips. The front master cylinder, clutch lever and all the buttons are ISR and anodized blac. The speedo and tacho is from Motogadget which connects to the standard wiring loom through an in-house developed interface cable.

Phew. Bottpower’s XR1R is a masterclass in performance motorcycle building. And their work hasn’t gone unnoticed, with the Valencia shop teaming up with a clothing brand, John Doe, to collaborate on some apparel. But the best thing about this build? At the last-minute Bottpower opted not to put mount the XR1R above their mantelpiece but offer it for sale. Get in touch with them if you want to mount it above yours, or, better yet, ride the damn wheels off the thing.

[ Bott Power – Facebook – Twitter | Photos by David Sanchez ]