Buell

Buh-by

To bad. It sure sounds like that dude was personally committed. Hate to see anyone have to give up on their calling.
He mentions some very cool Buel innovations. It really seems like they could have copied Japanese technology a lot closer and added some of their own. They were trying to "reinvent the wheel." Too bad, it was cool having an American sportbike company but they should have made bikes that were fast so sportbike riders would want to ride them. It really doesn't seem a whole lot more complicated than that.

There are only a few Buels left in showrooms. Hurry and go buy them while they are available. Not for all the tea in China!

Poor guy was committed I hate see someone’s dream crushed. Now for the funny stuff, the AMA title they won was with there race 1125 with a very fast jockey racing Japanese 600s. They have like a 53% displacement advantage. LOL…… on top of that they were not even that competitive through most of that year. Oh and Buell outsourced the motors to Rotax and the Chassis to someone else also.

* Last updated by: willidx4 on 10/15/2009 @ 10:24 AM *

^^following the Harley tradition of outsourcing, no doubt.

So that eliminates a couple hundred more jobs in WI.

Going Rotax was a big gamble that didn't pay off. If I had a garage with 50 bikes one of them would be a Buell, but not 25. I've always admired Erik Buell, but if he were 'Native American' his name might be Little Fish That Swims Upstream. Sorry to see ANY motorcycle company fold.

263,000 jobs lost in Sept.

wonder what this months total will be

wall street rebounds

but jobs continue rolling down hill like a snowball headed for hell

Harley profit down 84% but at least there still was a profit

My business is down about 60 % thru the summer and thats our boom time

say a little prayer for the good ole USA before you go to sleep tonight

Buell was headed into a huge controversy if they raced in 2010, the 2010 Buell Superbike cannot be homologated. Even if Buell stayed in business, and was making a good profit, it could not be homologated.

They might have been competing against giants, but they were willing to cheat to be competitive, too. Sure, same charges made towards Ducati and others, but the 2010 Buell race bike is way over the top, and would have cost possibly more than US$60,000 each to sell street legal copies necessary to homologate the bike.

The 2010 Ultra Classic high-end touring HD costs over $36,000 out the door. Who are they kidding when companies have laid off entire workforces and replaced them with temps so they don't have to provide benefits and training?

Sure thing, sold my 97 Buell S3T Dec. of 07 with just 7000 miles. Was I lucky or did I sell a "classic"?
Back in 1981 I sold my 1969 BSA Rocket Three with only 12,000 miles and its now a "classic". I'll be dead by the time the Buell becomes a "classic" if ever.

^^^They're all classics now, I guess.

I had a 2001 buell S3t. I enjoyed it and put 15k miles on it but the engine was a peice of garbage compared to the japanese. It did handle well and was comfortable. Buell would have been fine if it didnt use harley engines in it from the beginning. Harley never supported Buell properly anyways. It was doomed from the start.

The engine was made by Rotax, they could never get a HD engine to work well enough for a sportbike.

Harley-Davidson didn't support Buell because they don't have a clue about sportbikes. HD thinks a V-Rod is a sportbike.

* Last updated by: privateer on 10/19/2009 @ 4:14 AM *

The Buell 1125 was made by rotax but the rest of the buells had the sportster 1200 or 883 version with higher compression pistons in it. If they would have used Rotax motors from the start they may have been able to be competitve but then it isnt a real american sportbike anymore.

The VR1000 engine should have gone to Buell in 94 when H-D quit Superbike racing. You are all right about going into one of the HD dealers, they have NO interest in Buells if they even had them at all. F H-D, I will never go there again. I will buy a Star Raider before a H-D, maybe a Victory.

the victory's are beautiful but still pricey for a polaris

I think I'd buy an M109 If i was gonna buy a cruiser