Tech Talks With Jacob Stark: How to Prep a Hammerhead for Track Days

Looking at a Hammerhead and wondering how much you’ll have to put into it to take the thing to the track? We’ve pulled our Engineer Specialist, Jacob Stark, out of Headquarters to ask him about prepping a Hammerhead for Track Day.

Let’s have at it.

Does the Hammerhead leave the production belt with everything it needs for the track?

“100%. The great thing about the 1190 platform is that it's pretty much track-ready out of the box. For a recreational track day, you’d just tweak the basic settings, your air pressure, your suspension (aka your preload compression and your rebound), and tire pressures.

That’s it.

Anything in particular that you recommend as an add-on for the track?

“Oooh, that's a dangerous one… because I chased this question a few years ago with the HH-MR.

Buell HH-MR: An evolved Buell Hammerhead 1190 built for the track

A little while ago, I took a Hammerhead and made the ultimate circuit speed demon. Me and Marketing called it the HH-MR track bike. Your question is dangerous because I built the HH-MR using components that we're not providing anymore, such as Öhlin suspension, magnesium wheels, a full carbon tail section, a smaller lightweight battery, a weight reduction (removing radiators and stuff like that), etc.

We took that build project to the extreme and it was awesome, but you can't get those parts anymore.

However.

Two things we DO currently offer that would work nicely for upgrading the track prep experience on a Hammerhead would be the Öhlins steering stabilizer and our quick-shifter, which you can purchase in standard shift pattern and GP shift pattern (same price either way).

Frequent track riders and racers like the GP shift pattern because you shift up for 1st gear and then push down for 2nd to 6th... in short, you can accelerate out of a curve without trying to tuck your foot under the lever where it could get stuck on a lean.”

What’s something that Buell’s Hammerhead is known for on the track?

“Some bikes DO turn in quicker, and that's one of our claims to fame.

For track riding or course riding (both recreational and racing), there's almost a set group of rules and techniques that everybody follows; after that, it’s a matter of asking, ‘who's a little bit more ballsy?’

On a Hammerhead, you can break later, turn quicker, and recover quicker because we have a lower center of gravity than most bikes. So you could say cornering gives the Hammerhead an edge - and even if we have a horsepower disadvantage, we have a torque advantage (a bit more rare for a big-bore bike), so again, that ability to accelerate out of turns and tight technical tracks gives us additional leverage.

Ultimately, torque and cornering/handling characteristics are our two big advantages over bigger horsepower competition.”

How do Buell’s motorcycles compare to the nearest competition, KTM’s Super Duke 1290?

“Honestly, they're very comparable packages. The 1290 Super Duke is a naked, so we could also compare our naked offering, the 1190SX, against it.

2024 Buell 1190SX - 185 HP, 102, FT-LBS OF TORQUE, 414 LBS DRY WEIGHT

If you take a look at the 1290 Super Duke, it has 180hp and 105ft-lbs of torque, so it has more torque than us but less horsepower. With the 1190, we’ve got 185hp - a little bit more peaky - but 102ft-lbs of torque, so a little less yank.

Ultimately this is splitting hairs between the performance potentials, but yeah, I’d say those two bikes are very comparable.”

Does Buell’s Hammerhead have a better center of gravity than the nearest competition?

“In terms of handling… I wouldn't go and say that the Hammerhead has a better center of gravity, but we ARE probably more maneuverable than a KTM 1290 Super Duke for geometry reasons.

The super Duke is tailored more for the street with its steering angle and its suspension, plus the height… but handling characteristics of a Hammerhead on the track is where the Hammerhead is designed to be.”

Any final bits of advice you can give for the riders reading this?

My advice is this: Embrace the thrill, and get comfortable with your machine, understanding the details of the bike.

Learn the bike, learn to ride. It’s a very forgiving, very well-handling motorcycle and will respond extremely well to your input.

ORDER THE BUELL HAMMERHEAD 1190 HERE

ORDER THE BUELL 1190SX HERE

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