Before Harley-Davidson unceremoniously shuttered Buell, the all-American marque produced some of the most interesting motorcycles on the market. The late-2000s Buell XB series is a prime example. Combining aggressive streetfighter styling with bold engineering, it featured a Sportster engine with a downdraught intake, a sculpted fuel-in-frame chassis, and perimeter disc brakes.

David Shrader is a bigger Buell fan than most. An aircraft technician by trade, he bought his first Buell (an M2 Cyclone) new in 1999 and has been enamored with the brand since. For the past decade, he’s also run Revision Moto out of Boynton Beach, Florida, specializing in Buell tuning via a proprietary wireless interface called ‘Buelltooth.’

Now he’s upping the ante by offering a made-to-order Buell custom, dubbed ‘V-Speed.’ This is the prototype, which was built on the bones of a 2007-model Buell XB12S Lightning. Sitting somewhere between a café racer and a street tracker, it features a minimalistic silhouette—but there’s a lot going on under the hood.

The project started several years ago when David purchased a Buell XB-specific café racer frame and kit. Built by Ludwigson Motor Co. in North Carolina, the kit is designed for carbureted Buells and uses a Honda CX500 Custom fuel tank. David wanted to add fuel injection though, and that presented some challenges.

“The CX500 tank doesn’t have much space [for the fuel pump] due to the wide tunnel required for the 2” backbone frame,” he explains. “Also, a Buell XB throttle body can’t be used, because those are downdraft. My solutions involved turning the frame into an additional fuel cell that houses the fuel pump, and using a modified Sportster throttle body still controlled by a Buell ECM with the necessary settings changes.”

David made a few more changes to the Ludwigson design, adding a café racer-style seat and rewiring the bike around a set of Motogadget goodies. Happy with the result, he decided to develop the concept further and offer it to others—but he soon realized that more work was required. “The seat height was a bit high, and cramming a fuel system into a frame that wasn’t meant to have one was not viable from a production standpoint,” he adds.

Work commitments in the aircraft industry kept David occupied for the next couple of years, leaving the Buell project shelved. Then he connected with Dave Cutler—a professional stunt man and fabricator who had built a Buell XB stunt bike. “I brought my bike to his home near Atlanta to see if he could build something that solved the problems,” David tells us.

“We did some brainstorming, and I ended up leaving it there and giving him creative license. In a few months, he built the first version of the frame design used today, while I went to work modifying a Honda CX500 fuel tank, which was used to make molds for a carbon fiber version.”

Hammer Performance supplied a full performance package, including reworked heads, 1,275 cc cylinders and pistons, upgraded cams, and more, while R&D Motorsports rebuilt the transmission. The bike was performing well, but it would take another five years before Revision Moto would be ready to offer it to the public.

The final prototype uses a refined version of the Cutler frame that borrows some elements from the original Ludwigson design, but with an utterly unique result. The chunky cross brace at the center of the chassis houses the fuel pump, while the triple-tubed backbone shares fuel-carrying duties with the carbon kevlar fuel tank.

Other carbon details include the front fender and the seat pan, which supports a bespoke saddle from Tuffside. The engine breathes easy thanks to a K&N filter, a Revision Moto large-bore intake manifold and throttle body, and a two-into-one exhaust with a classic reverse-cone muffler. There are custom details galore—from the front belt cover and rear-set controls to the drilled subframe gussets.

As a nod to the bike’s originals, the V-Speed still wears its OEM forks, wheels, and a Buell ZTL2 front brake caliper. The latter’s been upgraded with a cooling duct, and the rear shock’s been swapped out for an updated unit from K-Tech.

A super-sano cockpit rounds out the package, built around a Revision Moto headlight bucket featuring an integrated Motogadget speedo. The switches, bar-end turn signals, and mirrors are also Motogadget bits, and David’s revised Motogadget-centric wiring loom still lurks beneath the surface.

Now that it’s finally done, Revision Moto is ready to offer the V-Speed as a built-to-order custom bike (or as a conversion kit), complete with a manufacturer’s certificate of origin for the frame and a range of engine performance options. Are you as tempted as we are?

Revision Moto | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Minnerly Media