Sad Day - Buell

[wiedemab]

http://www.buell.com/en_us/

I owned a XB9S for several years and it was by far the most fun motorcycle I've ever owned.

No more American made sportbikes.

[dropit69]

wow that sucks ..some guys i work with own them..very nice bikes !!

[scogin918]

That was really tough to watch. I came close a couple of years ago to buying a bike and would have been a Buell. I hope things change and they can make a comeback.

[Mkelcy]

Another bad decision by American manufacturers.

[6'9"Witha69]

Buells are great bkes. I rode a lighting a few times. made my R1 feel like a sled in the turns. It is truly disappointing that they can't get any funding to continue on.

[wiedemab]

I hear ya! My XB was a cornering beast and pretty torquey, but any other 600cc sportbike would smoke it on top end. It was a fun bike to ride on the country roads.

I also liked their innovations, the ZTL front brake, fuel in frame, oil in swing arm, underslung exhaust. They were just cool bikes.

[BIGX69]

they will be back

[Bigblue73]

A sad day and another hit to southern Wisconsin. My question is will Harley Davidson endure the recession?

[BRIAN]

Those were some kick ass bikes problem was and is their association with HD. Kept sport bike die hards away. Not that that was deserved.

F' Harley they allowed their dealers to rip off buyers with price gouging for years. They are well aware of dealers outright ripping customers off charging not hundreds but thousands above retail pricing. When you charge $5k over sticker for a product that is already priced in the upper range for the technology you are selling it is bound to catch up to you.

What does a Screamin whatever dresser go for after all the up charges $30k??? Come one, that is just crazy!!! A lot of money to pay to become instant tough guy.



Sorry Wisconsin.

[NOPANTS-68]

I'm amazed they made it this long honestly.

[67 ls1 vert]

wow, that's really sad. Poor guy really seems bummed out as I would be too. Hope that they can save the equipment for the future and start it up again when things get better.

[twosaturns]

Those were some kick ass bikes problem was and is their association with HD. Kept sport bike die hards away. Not that that was deserved.

F' Harley they allowed their dealers to rip off buyers with price gouging for years. They are well aware of dealers outright ripping customers off charging not hundreds but thousands above retail pricing. When you charge $5k over sticker for a product that is already priced in the upper range for the technology you are selling it is bound to catch up to you.

What does a Screamin whatever dresser go for after all the up charges $30k??? Come one, that is just crazy!!! A lot of money to pay to become instant tough guy.


Sorry Wisconsin.

I've never bought a harley or been in a dealer so I can't comment on the gouging. however, a manufacturer cannot control dealer pricing. they can only publish an MSRP. and no one is forced to buy a high priced harley; if you don't like the price, then walk. where I'm at, I can hit at least 4-5 different dealers within an hour drive, so I would never need to pay more than I wanted.
if you know the history of Buell, Eric always had problems getting his bikes to marrket. the only reason he lasted this long is because of harley. the problem now is that HD is publicy traded, and shareholders and boards of directors don't give a $hyt about bikes; they are all about the money. if buell was losing money, well then it was bound to happen. Eric didn't have ultimate control over his company.

sad.

[moreHP]

Thats a shame. A lot of good engineering and new ideas came from Buell.

[WS6]

DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, this blows. Look. I ride the hell out of my SV650. I love the thing. I'm at 37k miles now and will be over 40k by spring. I intend to sell it because I intend to move where ever I have to for work when I graduate next spring and don't want to deal with moving the bike too. I want more and different in my next bike though. The new Buells, since they had Rotax engines and not weak HD engines, where right on my list along with the new Duc Monsters. Sure, HD will continue to support Buell for now. The closing of Buell came as a surprise though. How long til they decide they don't want to make parts any more either?

Understandable decision if they were losing too much money but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck

[blown9746]

Different bikes with some great innovations, but plagued with reliability issues and harley engines until recently. They should have went to rotax motors a long time ago. Price gouging was never an issue with buell and they were actually priced very competitively.

there are still some american sportbike companies left, but they are smaller boutique builders w/ high $$ bikes.

[cmanf]

I was big in to the bike scene for years. Had r1, rc51 & last was a zx10r.
Saw a few Buels but they had the typical Harley woes. The same kinda things that always were part of that brand.
Good idea great design but no factory support.

By that I saw thru one of my H.D. friends he had the the speech that was given to the board members answering the complaints from the dealers.
Problem was the dealer was fixing A LOT of problems and never getting paid back by the factory.
The parts were getting used up they had to pay the factory to get in the 1st place. And the techs had to tie up time and get paid.

Basically the head of H.D. stated that we sell H.D. brand the fact we make motorcycles is secondary. Merchandise and parts out sells
the motor cycles by a huge margin.
Theres were we need to focus the resources and worry about the brand not the bike.

That didnt sit well with quite a few stockholders not sure what happened after that. I liked the design of the Buel, performance was not near the competition and hopefuly it will come back and have some updates to get it back in the game.

[WS6]

I liked the design of the Buel, performance was not near the competition and hopefuly it will come back and have some updates to get it back in the game.

The crappy HD motors like you said were holding it back. The bikes themselves handled like they were on rails and could be upgraded to work even better. The bikes were just more gutless than my SV. Sound sweet thought :D

[vanzuuk1]

I met Eric buell twice,once when I had an early prototype at a bike show and years later when my buddy raced a buell in the pro thunder ama series.He came to laguna seca to see my friend Mike gage race a bike we built overnight from a frame in box to a running race bike. Ater twelve hours of thrashing the motor puked apart three laps after the start...

Eric is a sharp guy and as nice as can be, lets see what he does next.


Way to go Harley...(sarcasm)