Fuell Fllow Is Your Ride Into the Future, Erik Buell Is Excited About It

You might remember Ferris Bueller's famous catchphrase: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." After the Smart, I drove an electric Renault Twizzy and the Zoe. In the beginning, electrification seemed like a distant trend, and I wonder how many people realized that it would completely reshape the automotive industry.

The ICE age is coming to an end

But ten years have gone by really fast, and 12 months ago, I found myself riding an electric motorcycle for the first time in my life. The Horwin CR6 Pro was small for me, but it was still fun and good to experience. Most motorcycle riders today wouldn't even consider owning a machine without an internal combustion engine. But I wouldn't say no to having an Energica Ego or Experia as a secondary ride in the garage.

But as the automotive industry is changing, so are people. I've seen kids these days who can't wait for self-driving cars, as they're not interested in sitting behind the steering wheel for hours in a row. Others can't stand the smell of gasoline and oil nor the inherent sound of an internal combustion engine. International organizations are lobbying to cut emissions, and the automotive industry is subject to change.

Kawasaki has just presented its first all-electric Ninja and Z models, and others are following in their steps. Energica and Lightning have been on the market for years, and Ducati has become the sole supplier of motorcycles for the MotoE series. With all these changes, I am tremendously happy to see people light Brian Crighton working on decade-long dreams of building the ultimate rotary engine-powered motorcycle. But I am equally as excited to see other motorcycle icons walk down the path of electrification.

Erik Buell founded Buell Motorcycles 40 years ago, and you could easily write an entire book on this man's adventures on two wheels during his life. I'd love to ride an EBR 1190RX one day, provided I get enough practice on other big bikes by that moment. As mentioned, Mr. Buell has embarked on a new journey, which some of you may already know. It all started with the FUELL Flluid E-Bikes, and I'm sure my colleague Cristian Curmei would love to get his hands on one for a review. But I am more interested in the upcoming Fllow electric commuter.

Ride into the future

FUELL introduced the project a few years ago, opening up a pre-order session to raise enough money to set things in motion. And this electric motorcycle should start coming out of the factory by 2024. So, this was a great time to sit down and talk to Mr. Buell about the past and his plans for the future. Born in 1950, he became a Harley-Davidson engineer in 1979. I asked about some of the critical things he had learned during his years at H-D:

"Well, I initially worked for H-D for 3.5 years and left to start Buell because I wanted to focus on building sports bikes. My short time there convinced me I could do what was needed to design complete motorcycles." Racing has been a big part of his life, and Mr. Buell has had experience with both motocross and road racing before focusing on the latter. Naturally, I was curious to learn about some of his greatest moments during that period.

"Wins are always great, but one of the best memories was my first Daytona 200 on an F1 bike (Yamaha TZ750). That was when Daytona was a huge deal, and 120 riders from around the world showed up to qualify for an 80-bike grid. I broke but was battling for 9th late in the race - my first time on an F1 bike. So I realized I was pretty capable." I know you can't ask a parent to tell you which one of his children is his favorite. But I still asked Mr. Buell which one of the motorcycles he had built these past 40 years he thought was closest to his heart.

" I don't really have a favorite. The one that kind of stands out is the EBR 1190RS because it was my fourth attempt to get a water-cooled, world-class American Superbike into production. Finally!" Knowing how stubborn some bikers are whenever I bring up electric motorcycles in the discussion, my next question was related to Mr. Buell's transition to a new wave of machines that don't rely on fossil fuels to get from A to B.

It's a very interesting challenge

"I like motorcycles in general and have designed ICE motorcycles from 100cc up through superbikes. Some of the best ICE designs sadly never made it to production. Electric is a very interesting challenge and certainly represents the future. So I'm enjoying it. I'd enjoy designing a motorcycle for Mars or private performance transports for the asteroids. Probably won't get those chances!" It's easy to tell that Mr. Buell has invested all his experience into developing the Fllow and is passionate about the whole process.

It makes me all the more excited about the idea of testing this motorcycle once it comes out. After so many years of building race-ready machines, FUELL will be heading down a different path. "FUELL is focused very much on higher volume products. The goal is to encourage and enable many people to use e two-wheelers daily. The market for racing and super high-performance two-wheelers is very small. Need volume products to move the global use meter! Racing has been a brand name recognition builder, so maybe for that purpose, but it really doesn't fit FUELL’s mission to have racing e-motors as a product line."

Regarding future developments, Mr. Buell is confident that electric motorcycles will only improve, with more range and faster recharge. With progress and increased competition, costs should also drop, and there's a good chance more people will turn to a two-wheeler instead of a car. You can already see this approach in cities that are suffocated by traffic, where using a scooter or motorcycle is the only way to get to work on time and find a parking spot immediately.

That being said, I wanted to learn more about how many Fllows we will be able to see on public roads starting in 2024. "I just do engineering. I can say the Fllow is designed for high volume production, and sales volumes are projected in thousands with adoption in the US/Canada, EU, UK, Australia, and maybe even Asia!" I guess we have to be patient for a few more months, but at least there are a few videos we can gawk at before riding one.

I had one last question for Mr. Buell: I wanted to learn about FUELL's development plans. I was particularly curious to learn if a second, more advanced motorcycle is already in the works: "We are looking at add-on enhancements for Fllow. But basically, I believe Fllow will be in production for a long time. Also, we have already been designing other products for other markets/price points and have some good ones. But they really are not more advanced, just different."

"The elephant in the room (in more colors than red and blue) is government action. That is big in the alternative energy transport world, and their regulations and investments affect possible products. For example, a really well-done serial hybrid can be amazingly fuel-efficient with very low emissions. However, some governments only provide buyer subsidies for pure electric vehicles. So, that affects what products get designed or marketed." That said, I will watch for the first phase of Fllow deliveries. And I will report once I can ride one for at least two or three days. Let's hope that will happen sooner rather than later.