Buell 1190RS gets official, marketing gets officially weird

This whole guerrilla slow-release-marketing-teaser-video thing that bike makers have finally caught on to might be going a bit too far. As usual, there's not a lot to go on, but what we know so far is the Erik Buell Racing 1190RS will be seen in a teaser video of some sort on Tuesday, September 14th. Plus the dude from Queensryche is involved, and is debuting his new band's hot upcoming single. No, seriously.

Update: We've just received a response from Rat Pak Records stating, "The bike won't be avail until next year, but we are selling the merch for it ahead of time. It is the official merch for the bike, we just sell it for Erik as he has no time ship orders all day! Next week there will be some more info posted about the bike!."

We found out thanks to a tip that Erik Buell's record label, Rat Pak Records, is already selling shirts for a bike called the Erik Buell Racing 1190RS on the label's website. What kind of bike is that? According to the site, "The 1190RS will be the new street bike from Erik Buell Racing! The design is currently in the pre-production/testing stage and is not yet available for public sale. Show your support and be the very first to get your new 1190RS and new EBR logo merchandise! Check back here Tuesday, September 14th for the 1190RS "teaser" video featuring music from Wratchet Head the new project from Michael Wilton of Queensryche!"

Amazingly, the site also says, "Note: Side effects of wearing the 1190RS design shirts may cause you to seem extra cool to your friends and neighbors!" We'll be reaching out to Erik Buell and EBR in the morning, so check back for updates.

The 185rwhp Buell 1190RR was supposed to be the race version of the 157bhp Buell Barracuda 2; basically it was the Buell we no longer needed to make excuses for. If all this plays out into an actual street-legal bike we'll finally be seeing an American sportsbike that's fully competitive with other 1200cc v-twins on both power and weight, that Barracuda 2 would have been 22lbs lighter than a Ducati 1198.

Erik has a non-compete with Harley effective until February, 2011. Don't look for official details, or official acknowledgement, until then.

Thanks, you anonymous tipper!