No more Buell.

Things are tough all over.

 

Double Damn!!

 

That really is too bad, particularly since they were such an innovative and passionate company.

 

hmmm,, oh boy,, sort of a "who's next" thing.

 

I feel bad for Buell's employees. HD never let the company do its own thing.

I never seriously considered buying a Buell, but I do like a couple of their designs.

 

I am afraid that EB might have sold the rights to the company name and technology to HD, in which case he can't use them even if he gets more financing; unless he buys the rights back from HD at a premium...

While I agree this sucks, especially for such a passionate motorcycle person, at the same time, his bikes didn't really appeal to the masses, or they would've sold better.

His innovation, which is cool, wasn't all it cracked up to be; if the belt drive, brakes and fuel in frame was so effective, everyone would be doing it, and it would be used in racing. Even with DMG's slanted rules, the Buell racing team was having issues with their brakes, so the design wasn't the best.

I do feel for the guy and his people however.

 

That's sad.

 

EB's always been a "made in America" kinda guy, so don't think he'd take it overseas, unless it was that or make lawnmowers.


As for MVA; SACRILEGIOUS! How could you even think of letting something that is a work of art get hit by EB's ugly stick?

 

All the man had to do was make a decent looking motorcycle. If the 1125R looked like the Ducati 1198R, he'd probably still have his company today. Then again, MV made some pretty badass looking motorcycles and still couldn't get it done.:noidea:

 

I have to agree that HD did not like it when buell went to Rotax.
HD had the chance to produce a better motor when it went to Porsche to design a new motor, too bad HD held back and limited Porsche to another push rod motor. We shall never know what kind of motor they could have produced w/o the limitations.

 

I never liked how you lean-steer a buell, but all other bikes you countersteer. I think that was one innovation they should have left out.

 

+1. I wish a couple of those innovations were on mainstream bikes, esp. the front brake discs. It doesn't help that most Harley/Buell dealers didn't like or respect Buells and didn't know how to sell them.

As for racing, this was really the first year for Buell in AMA, wasn't it? I think it usually takes 2-3 years to become competitive, tho as Echo said they were given a big 'wink/nod' by DMG.

 

please a 1250 competing with 600s? these things were dinosaurs the day the pen hit the page. get over it, if they were even partially great they would have sold better. Ugly, 1920s technology engines (until last year), and "technology with no clear purpose or advantage" does not a good bike make.

 

Soup :: Expletive Deleted: The Broken Man :: 10-16-2009

couldnt agree more:

xpletive Deleted: The Broken Man
by dean adams
Friday, October 16, 2009

I suppose Buell's announcement that they will cease operations was, for a lot of people, shocking. I'm not among them, frankly. I'm saddened for anyone who works at Buell and for Buell's small, but vocal, group of passionate customers and evangelists. Sad, but not shocked; not at all.

Since the beginning, the addition of Buell to the Harley-Davidson company has been an odd mix, both in Milwaukee and on the dealership floor. Inside Harley, Buell has always been a weird stepchild few at "The Motor Company" embraced. For many years, and it still may be true today, if you wanted to get your jaw wired in place for six weeks, a great way to have that done was to walk into any bar near a Harley-Davidson assembly plant and proclaim that Buells were Harleys because they share the same powerplant. Pow! Inside the Motor Company, there were Harley people and then there were the Buell outcasts. To say that it was any other way is simply not truthful. On the dealer floor, dealers that I know who carried both brands were confused; many times the Buell models just sat and seemed to gather dust as a parade of Harleys were sold and serviced.

Harley stuck a fortune into Buell, in buying it and in fixing all the early recalls and then trying to build it into a brand--although I always wondered what that brand would be, or could be, with such a dominant parent company. Most expected that at some point Buell would become Harley but it never did. When times were good at Harley and quarter after quarter of record profits rolled in, the money that Buell cost them was just a blip, a few sentences worth of mention on an investor conference call. Those days, I'm afraid, are gone.

The video on the Buell Web site of Eric with a K telling the tale that Buell was finished was sobering to watch even for me, someone who wasn't Erik's biggest disciple in the press corp--Lord knows there were enough of those. Buell, broken, ashen-faced, and seemingly at times on the verge of tears, spelled out that the company that he'd spent a lifetime building would be no more.

Just because he's gutted, it didn't stop Buell from spinning his company's saddest accomplishment. In the video, Buell says that, in 2009 "... in competition at the highest level, the Rossmeyer Geico team took the AMA Pro SportBike championship, competing against the much larger, factory-backed teams from Japan and Europe, proving to all that (Buell) innovation and technology is world class."

There was, of course, no mention of the fact that the Buell is 1200cc while the Japanese brands entered anemic 600s, bikes so slow that one factory rider termed his 600 not just the slowest 600 he'd ever ridden, or the slowest race bike he'd ever ridden, but, in fact, the slowest motorcycle he'd ever ridden. Let's be real, the bias in the DMG Daytona Sport Bike rules destroyed any chance Buell had at racing credibility in 2009.

I've said this privately for a long time: Buell Motorcycles would have been more successful if Erik had retired and left the company in the hands of someone else. The PR spin on Erik is that he was focused and passionate, the great defender of the Buell crest. Another perspective might see it differently: Erik could also be divisive, and on a personal level, you were either with him or against him, it seemed. Anybody who didn't join Erik's special little club "had an agenda" and was frozen out.

That method of dealing with people is tolerable if your products are absolutely kicking ass in the marketplace. You can be as mercurial as Steve Jobs when your products fly off the shelves. You can re-wire an entire industry when the re-wiring results in business success. But, for whatever reason, Erik's bikes remained machines with a small and cult-ish following. The technological tangents that Erik became so passionate about--fuel in the frame, goofy brakes, and all the rest--were they the best use of Buell's resources?

I understand that Erik wanted to solidify his legacy in the motorcycle industry. But in all honestly, just because you use your own press releases call yourself a "visionary" doesn't make it so.

I think, if Erik had left the company and ten more years passed-- enough time to see the retirement of most of the old guard at Harley who didn't like it when The Motor Company acquired a stake in Buell in the early 1990s--and a newer generation of people who only knew Harley as being attached to Buell came on board, then Buell might have seen some real success.

In a wider scope, Buell folding up shop signals another bad business decision by DMG. Here is where they sit after sticking their index finger into the eyeballs of the Japanese manufacturers. All that conflict, all that turmoil, while they stood shoulder to shoulder with Erik Buell against those "Japanese factories' barely disguised race bikes".

DMG sacrificed all remaining credibility when they allowed the clearly illegal Buell 1125 Superbike into the Superbike class and bristled at the suggestion that it was anything but legal. All that skullduggery, and for what? All for the champion in Daytona SportBike, DMG's star class to now be riding a motorcycle made by a defunct company. All those relationships burned willingly, almost gleefully, by DMG so they could pledge allegiance to their pace bike, the Buell, which is as of today, no longer being produced.

Daytona Sport Bike champion and Buell hero Danny Eslick told Cycle News that he expects to go racing in 2010, to defend his title, on a Buell. Would anything more profoundly describe DMG's efforts at running a series into the ground than to have the number one plate in the "Daytona" class be running on a motorcycle made by a defunct manufacturer?

Will Buell's demise be the shockwave that forces DMG to mediate a peace with Honda and the rest? Please. With the press conference at Laguna Seca fresh in my mind, I feel that this is not how DMG operates; there is no admission of mistakes made and a plea for forgiveness. There are more companies to use as a pivot against the Japanese--Aprilia, BMW, etc.--and more double-the-displacement-against-glorified-vacuum-cleaner rules and enemies lists to compile.

Supposedly, there are no second acts in America. And, while Erik Buell looked like a broken man in the video, I have a hard time believing that the closing of Buell Motor Company will finally silence Erik Buell.

 

to late for honda they pulled out of racing in the states for 2010.
DMG will be a 2 bike show next year it seems yamaha vs kawasaki.
HYOSUNG anyone???

 

Age of the privateer baby. And all the decent US riders who have been making loot campared to WSBK, are going to be forced out into the world racing sceen. Finally, more Americans racing internationally, and in the absence of factory support, we'll see who comes to the top now. We've had the same group of racers for what, the last 8 years, with some roll over. Time for them to move on. As far as Buell in the Daytona class, they let an aprillia 1000cc in as well. Rules can be changed and adjusted. It was the first season. I think the Aprillia needs to uncorked a bit, and the Buell leashed a tad, but really Eslick was the only one going fast on that thing. What hit home to me about that class was not how way bigger bikes were let in, but who damn fast 600s are. What intelligent person after watching that race is not going to buy a 600 after watching these big twins get trounced, except for the one dirt tracker in the front most of the time. How embarrassing was it for Buell to be competing against 600cc beginner bikes (though they really aren't)? But this is an American series, and one of their responsibilities is to promote American bikes, and give start up companies an opportunity to develop their bikes so it can become competitive against the big established companies. I'm pretty sure Triumph in the UK, and Italian companies in Italy get similar treatment. How do you think they got so good and fast? And all that brew-ha-ha over the XBRR a few years back and what happened? Did they even finish the race?

 

Yes now America has Harley as its only motorcycle right? What a shame. Don't they make more money on their shirts a crap than on motorcycles?

 

There must be a clause in the buyer's contract when you buy a Harley that says you have to buy all kinds of crap with their name on it, and wear it everyday. I've always said I could probably afford to buy a Harley, but couldn't afford to buy the bike AND all the crap you have to buy when you own one. :wink:

T-shirts, belt buckles, shot glasses, beer mugs, bandanas, coasters, wallets, clocks, keychains, hats, stationary...HD shops are filled with that junk. But of course they have room for it since they don't have needless stuff like helmets and armored riding gear taking up that valuable floor space.

If Harley riders spent as much money on gas as they do on 'accessories' and bling for their bikes they'd be able to put a lot more miles on their toys.

(Rant off.)

 

So this is all blamed on HD ? ........just one more reason i hate those f#%*king machines.