Buell no more

[red900]

Excuse my language.   THIS FUCKING SUCKS!!!!   Buell is a kickass company, I met and worked with many of the Buell people through the relationship with Pirelli and I can say that you will not find a finer group of people with more heart and love for a copany than those fine people at Buell motorcycles.  I also had the great opportunity to sit with Erik and talk with him about the engineering aspects of the business, he truly is one of the great inspirations of this sport.  I guarantee he will be up to something, and it will amaze us all again. 

Good Luck to you Erik. 

Dustin Boyd
Cyclepath Racing LLC
Pirelli Midwest

[xb12racerX]

Bombardier, I believe is in no position to do that. They have a plant in Wisconsin that is laying people off as we speak.

[hernan52]

Evidently the Buell brand doesn't fit in HD's current marketing strategy.  I don't know there exact marketing strategy, but an unscientific observation of their ridership would suggest that 55 year old, un-skilled, over-paid, tough-guy posers that couldn't turn a bike to save their life are not interested in riding a Buell.  Erik made a turd fly... and HD can't even sell it!

Hopefully HD will sell the brand and Bombardier will buy them... considering they're already supplying the powertrain for the 1125R (like anybody ever believed HD had the competency to design a motor that good)

You were doing fine until the "55 year old" comment...... 

Hernan

[skiandclimb]

Yeah- I agree.  Someone will pick up the brand. Love them or hate them- Buell has been good for racing. Personally, I think the brand would prosper by getting as far away as possible from HD.

I still think Penske would be a great route for Buell to consider.  I wonder if Erik retained rights to the name/brand when HD dropped it???  Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

[Doctor]

This is really a sad day. Erik is such a great person as well as an innovator. I hope that somehow he is able to resurrect the mark in the near future. They were definitely on a better path once they started using the Rotax engines.

[George_Linhart]

I am deeply saddend by this definitely agree that this is unfortunate and a bad thing for the racing community.  However, being a finance guy I can certainly understand why this happened from the HD Corporate perspective.  The Buell model's just don't fit with the core HD customer desires and unless there was a lot of allocated corporate overhead or high transfer prices on the HD motors in the Buell's then a capitalistic market dictates that management at HD needs to do what is in the interest of their shareholders and as a result they can not carry a non-viable loss making product line forever.  I'm sure that they looked at cross-over shopping and sales from HD to Buell as well as from Buell to HD and just figured out that they were not acheiving what they wanted as well.

I suspect that the warranty issues prevent HD from doing anything else to dispose of Buell immediately.  After some time or with the appropriate structuring of financial or insurance contracts they just may be able to do something to allow the name and certain designs to continue.

The real interesting question becomes - could  Buell be a viable company on a stand alone basis and could it generate profits and cash flows if it was not subject to the financial structure, overheads and beaurocracy of a large corporate parent?  Could it make sense as part of something other than HD given that the 1125 did get them away from solely being based on HD powerplants? 

I deeply respect what Eric has done in the past and agree that he has come up with some very cool products.  I wish him all of the best and sincerly hope that something gets resurected here.

George

[123user]

Bombardier, I believe is in no position to do that. They have a plant in Wisconsin that is laying people off as we speak.

Just because they're laying off, doesn't mean anything.  Bombardier is HUGE, Buell is tiny...  if Bombardier stopped buying toilet paper for year, they could afford it.  (they could use pages out of the AMA advertisement... oops! I meant magazine, instead) Buell would fill a hole in the Victory/Polaris lineup nicely... including the "american made" thing they love to spout.  I would imagine that it would be a great "image" brand for them... and considering the times, I suspect Canadian Gov. might subsidize the purchase.

Nothing against our senior racers... but the stereotype of the old fart on a chrome harley just fits.  I see these guys going down the Interstate at 60mph and wonder how any of them are still alive. 

[Super Dave]

There's a reason why this happened...government.
http://www.foxpolitics.net/printerfriendly.iml?ID=35175

The state of Wisconsin decided that it was in the interest of the state to develop a new tax program called combined reporting.  You'll notice from the article that it cost the Motor Company over $20,000,000 in this current economy.  This is why this course of action came about.

It sucks a big shit pile. 

[Rick Beggs]

this is bad news indeed, I just discovered that Buell racing was not just  gang members on the race track. The Buell comunity is first rate, and the race support, (and contingency) is the best I have ever experienced. I have raced for 18 years, racing Buell for the past 2 years. I should have started sooner, Now the hard decisions, do I keep racing a Buell? or go back to Kawasaki?

[George_Linhart]

There's a reason why this happened...government.
http://www.foxpolitics.net/printerfriendly.iml?ID=35175

OK Dave - 2 question for you.

1) How is this tax change a cause to shut down Buell - I would think that a more appropriate action is to consider moving the HQ to a non-combined reporting state or, alternatively, to relocate the Buell factory if Buell somehow uniquely affected the Wisconsin tax issues.

2)  What should the state be doing in order to continue to operate and provide public services in this environment?  Tax revenues are down so they need to raise tax rates to make up for the deficit in the state budget - right?

Since you are pointing to this single issue as a causie for today's announcment on the closure of Buell I think its a fair question

George

[xb12racerX]

from all reports, H-D  is flat out closing Buell down and taking all of it's idea's and  patents  with it.
Doesn't sound like Buell has an option of being purchased by others.

[Super Dave]

OK Dave - 2 question for you.

1) How is this tax change a cause to shut down Buell - I would think that a more appropriate action is to consider moving the HQ to a non-combined reporting state or, alternatively, to relocate the Buell factory if Buell somehow uniquely affected the Wisconsin tax issues.

2)  What should the state be doing in order to continue to operate and provide public services in this environment?  Tax revenues are down so they need to raise tax rates to make up for the deficit in the state budget - right?

Since you are pointing to this single issue as a causie for today's announcment on the closure of Buell I think its a fair question

George

Actually, good questions.  I don't have all the answers, but...

Moving Buell would not change the tax situation.  It's part of the Motor Company.

Move Harley-Davidson's HQ?  Well, Harley-Davidson has been here for a long, long, long time.  Milwaukee is an integral part of the Motor Company's history.  Having spent some time in the motorcycle industry, they just sell a whole lot of Milwaukee Iron in the state.  Would a change like that dramatically affect their sales?  I think it might.

Now, public services?  There are too many.  There is corruption.  There is monopolization of services that could be provided by non government entities that would be more cost effective.  Really brings up a whole number of issues.  Wisconsin is right behind California in nearing collapse.  It's from over spending and a host of issues.  Meanwhile, Harley-Davidson has to make serious decision to entice voluntary investors and buyers of product in addition to maintaining their production with voluntary employees. 

Buell, in the real scope, is small.  Along with MV.  Harley-Davidson continues to exist.  They've cut out their trucking program and other things.  I'm sure there are other people that know more about that.  I think they also had to renegotiate the H-D union contracts.  Again, Buell is small.  What comes next with this climate?