Revenge of the Apocalypse. Custom Buell built to Dominate the Icy Wasteland
The Year is 2040. The Nordic region is apocalyptic and unforgiving. Like the 10mm socket you can never find, the materials and parts to maintain older gasoline powered vehicles are incredibly hard to find. A plucky Blacktop Ranger staffer in Northern Sweden faces a journey to reach Haparanda, a northern town just south of the Finnish border. The 984 kilometer trek has ice roads, snow, dirt with a bit of crumpling pavement. Gasoline is rare too. Reaching her destination will be arduous. She is on a quest to collect the last 11mm belt drive for her bike. Luckily she built the right motorcycle 21 years ago. In 2019 NCCR unveiled a Buell XB9 designed to rule the icy plains. Mad Max may have had his Australian desert and the Interceptor, but Julia Krüper has her Revenge.
Dramatic teaser shots of two new Buell frames (the left for the Ebr/ 1125 platform, the right for the XBs)
The Revenge of the Wasteland (simply Revenge from here out) grew out of the need for a mental break. Julia and her mother Birgit Krüper are a part of NCCR AB. NCCR stands for Northern Classic, Custom & Race. A family owned shop. NCCR has been producing cutting edge parts for Buells, Harleys, Ducatis and other motorcycles since 2006 and before that as Hillbilly Motors. The group have been secretly toiling away on a groundbreaking hyperbike but don’t ask what it is. They are sworn to secrecy. While developing the next big thing, Julia & Birgit felt the need for a break and tossed around the idea of what an apocalypse Buell would look like. Having just finished making a new high strength frame for the XB platform they decided what better way to show off the new kit than with a wild custom machine.
The highlight of the Revenge is the exposed extra strong Docol sheet metal frame. Produced by SSAB aka Svenskt Stål aka Swedish Steel (AB is the Swedish variant of the US Ltd. business nomenclature) Docol steel is a new and impressively capable steel composition allowing for greater strength without brittleness under duress. The material possesses the ability to flex instead of snap. In addition it’s a much easier metal to work with than say, chrome moly. A thinner, stronger metal that does not get brittle under duress or heat is a game changer for Buell as the OEM aluminum frames were a weakness due to their frail rigidity and design.
The unique backbone frame design was built with modularity in mind. According to Julia, “The idea behind the backbone frame is, that it’s like Lego for grownups. People can choose how much they want to fix by themselves. You can just order the frame, or the frame plus engine mountings for the original tie bars, or the foot peg plates” The frame fits right up to the XB engines, front and rear suspension and steering components allowing for custom builds without complete redesign.
Following the Apocalypse theme, the dynamic mother daughter duo decided to convert their menacing machine to run on E85. Disregarding the proven performance boost, the logic behind the swap was the hypothetical rarity of gasoline and the abundance of moonshine. Laws don’t exist in the apocalypse anyhow. The original XB9’s fuel in frame design meant that custom gas tanks had to be added. To keep the frame at the forefront of the design image, the team welded two side tanks that line up surprisingly gracefully with the front fairing. Other than better injectors to handle the E85 the Revenge was left pretty standard engine wise. The Revenge is powered by the Buell XB9 948cc air cooled v twin making somewhere around 90 horsepower and 60ish foot pounds of torque. More than enough to run from the white walkers of the Nordic wasteland.
When it came time to mount tires to their Revenge, the NCCR duo decided upon a special set of tires they had lying around waiting to be used once again. The Studded 17” tires were previously used by the company for a record setting ice speed run of 238 km/h (148 freedom units) on a Buell 1125R. The Rider Craig Jones put the machine to work completing the record run and then stunting on ice to top it off. You can watch the record being set here :
When it was time to showcase the Revenge, NCCR and SSAB collaborated to do a stunning photoshoot in front of the heavy equipment in use to mill the Docol Steel. superheated metal being heated and rolled out into thinner and longer sheets. All while the Revenge sits at rest waiting for the world to end. Waiting to run the Wasteland. Julia can rest assured she will get where she needs to go.
GALLERY
Photos by:Birgitta Krüper, NCCR /Johan Stolpe, Confetti/ Fredrick Källängs, Kallangs Photography
Further info:
About NCCR
NCCR is a family company located in Swedish Hälsingland, 350 km North of Stockholm. The owners work for more than 20 years with Buell and EBR Motorcycles in Trade, Racing and Developments.
Facebook: NCCR (https://www.facebook.com/NCCR-341933735886163/)
Instagram: nccr.julia
NCCR, Northern Classic, Customizing & Race AB, Knaggälve 114, 83473 Delsbo / Sweden
www.nccr.se Tel. 0046-653-41050 Att. Jens Krüper jens.krueper@nccr.se 0046-702973169
About SSAB
SSAB is a Nordic and US-based steel company. SSAB offers value added products and services developed in close cooperation with its customers to create a stronger, lighter and more sustainable world. SSAB has employees in over 50 countries. SSAB has production facilities in Sweden, Finland and the US. SSAB is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm and has a secondary listing on the NASDAQ OMX in Helsinki.