mpolans Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I hate that Harley-Davidson is killing the Buell line of motorcycles. Pretty stupid reasoning on their part, too. I don't think I'll ever buy another Harley again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokshwn Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I would have never bought a Harley in the first place! However I am sure glad I didn't buy a Uly two years ago when I was looking at them pretty hard. The fact that I would have to deal with HD for service and support was the deal breaker. I hate that Erik and the rest of the Buell team is no more. Hope they rise again soon as their ideas and engineering are very much ahead of their time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boz1911 Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I've never wanted a Buell, but I always thought it was a great idea for Harley, and a cool scooter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairtrigger Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I alsmost bought one in the 90's just before they got full backing from Harley. The next two years the prices dropped dramatically as the volume increased. On the mass produced ones I could not get over the ugly air intake and muffles they put on the bike In the end the bike cost too much when you consider it could not keep up with a Jap bike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 It was tough to watch that video of Eric Buell making the announcement; he looked as if he was about to cry. I do not think anyone could blame him since he seems to have been told that his life's work is now substantially over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raz-0 Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 It was tough to watch that video of Eric Buell making the announcement; he looked as if he was about to cry. I do not think anyone could blame him since he seems to have been told that his life's work is now substantially over. +1 I found the video really sad. The guy basically ushered in a renaissance in american made bikes through sheer determination. Then spent years fighting for the interest of his customers and employees with HD, and finally has irrevocably lost. I wonder if H-D will now try to replace all the buell blasts at rider ed type courses that they sponsored with sportsters and try to convince everyone they are beginner bikes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halogrinder Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 i bought a 2008 1150R buell. top of the line, most expensive fastest buell ever. what a PILE. mirrors folded in @ 70mph. got less than 30 MPG had to wear my wife like a backpack- thus your wrists took all the weight ALL the time. hottest bike i have EVER ridden on. IR'ed the frame (fuel tank) during the short time i owned it- 135 degrees!!!!! fast. fast. fast. cold start required a MINIMUM of 3 starts to get it to run. VERY cold blooded. killed 2 batteries and left me and the wife stranded out in the middle of BFE. overall drove it 1100 miles in the 30 days it actually was in my garage, and promptly returned it after it being in the shop longer than i owned it. i was stuck @ the dealer now, since they sold my BMW bike to auction ( :( I MISS MY BMW BIKE!!!) and ended up buying a 08 dyna superglide FXR. meh. best thing of the whole bike, is it gets almost 50 MPG. drags pegs and pipes everywhere slow. feels heavy (IT IS HEAVY!) meh once again. i hate seeing american pride and companies going south, but their product needs some serious help. dog eat dog world. its how capitalism should work. the best and best led survive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveZ Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Equally strange was the announcement that they are selling MV Agusta less than a year after buying them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kframe_mike Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Man,I hate hearing about this too.I really liked the Uly and Lightening Long I test rode a while back.The big reason I didn't buy was our local dealer.When I read the first post in this thread,my first thought was that Harley had killed Buell to start importing something from MV Agusta.But now it sounds like they have MV up for sale too?Very strange.I know things are real tough at the MoCo right now.-Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm52 Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Hopefully Eric will end up with an Italian or..heaven forbid a German maker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goneracin Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Im very bummed by this. Ive known Erik for the last couple of years, he is a fellow musician, and a customer of mine. He is a very cool guy, and this is very sad for me to see it hurt my friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goneracin Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 I talked with Erik today. He said they have 180 people that will be effected by this. He also told me that it makes no sense, they were not losing money, and have been successful with the racing side as well. He has 2 weeks to totally disolve Buell, and make it solvent for Harley. Seems like a totally bullshit thing to have happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairtrigger Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 I talked with Erik today. He said they have 180 people that will be effected by this. He also told me that it makes no sense, they were not losing money, and have been successful with the racing side as well. He has 2 weeks to totally disolve Buell, and make it solvent for Harley. Seems like a totally bullshit thing to have happen. Sounds like Erik made a deal with the devil from the start Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scirocco38s Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 I talked with Erik today. He said they have 180 people that will be effected by this. He also told me that it makes no sense, they were not losing money, and have been successful with the racing side as well. He has 2 weeks to totally disolve Buell, and make it solvent for Harley. Seems like a totally bullshit thing to have happen. Sounds like Erik made a deal with the devil from the start You just nailed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanzo Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 (edited) I talked with Erik today. He said they have 180 people that will be effected by this. He also told me that it makes no sense, they were not losing money, and have been successful with the racing side as well. He has 2 weeks to totally disolve Buell, and make it solvent for Harley. Seems like a totally bullshit thing to have happen. Sounds like Erik made a deal with the devil from the start You just nailed it. Not losing money? Maybe not "losing," but Buell was down revenue wise on all fronts. Their stock was down substantially. Buell has made under 200K bikes in it's 26 years of business. HD will make over 200K this year alone. If a company sees a trend and wants to jump ship before they go under can you really blame them? I'm not saying Buell would have gone under (who really knows) and Buell has definately made some cool bikes...they just had one win the AMA Daytona Sportbike Championship...but what we're talking about here is capitalism...which is a good thing. HD owns Buell. HD feels Buell is no longer moving there business forward. HD disolves Buell so it can focus on the brand that actually does grow their business....HD. It does suck....since Buell isn't a stand alone business it can't really be "sold," just disolved. Erik showed that the few and passioned can keep up with the giants as far as engineering goes, but if you're not putting up numbers you're not putting up numbers. HD is doing what they feel they need to do to help achieve the goal of every business...to make more money and grow. How does that make them "the devil?" There are plenty of other situations where this happens. Not everything can be perfect in the world...you win some...you lose some. Sometimes it's bad...sometimes it's good. All you can really do is hope the good outnumbers the bad. My best to Erik and all his future endeavors. --Lanzo Edited October 25, 2009 by Lanzo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 Closing this one down. Please read the rules for the Hate forum, posted at the top of every page in this forum. Rebuttals are not permitted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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