I was talking to my brother about this (he is a massive bike fan) and he was saying the story on a forum he uses is that Erik Buell worked for HD but quit when they wouldn't listen to his ideas about making a sports Harley. He then made them on his own (the Buell) and somehow HD managed to buy a controlling share of his company and shut it down. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> He doesn't know how true that is, just what he read. If it is true, that's nasty <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

It is too bad the Vrod engine never went into the Buell.

I also find it interesting HD chose not to sell off the company. We need to see what price they Get for MV Agusta when it sells. Think VW will be the buyer?

Many of Buells innovations, Mass centralization, outside mounted rotors, fuel in frame were all tried and cast off in the past. Buell latched onto these cast off ideas and went with them. Neat in some ways but as my friend that owns the nations largest selling BMW motorcycle dealerships says of his bikes. "They develop answers to questions nobody asks". I think Buell took that a few steps further than BMW does.

It will be interesting to see if the company will come back, the name may get crushed by HD but the spirit continues.
I expect the company can make money but maybe not as much as bean counters say is enough.

I really like sport bikes but for me a Vtwin comes from Italy.

Personally, I'd way rather have a BMW than anything produced in America. In fact, I've fallen in love with the R1200GS Adventure. At least with BMW bikes, you can be reasonably assured it'll still be there in 20 years and 250,000 miles.

When I test ride the big GS I take the seat off and sit on the frame rails. Little Englishmen aren't long legged enough for big German bikes <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Well, I've never seen a 454 in a Miata either. Lots of reasons why the V-rod engine would never be a good sportbike choice. There was a great tech article in one of my bike magazines I remember reading, but I don't have it anymore.

Now that home equity and vehicle loans are no longer a dime a dozen, it looks like babyboomers can't afford toy bikes anymore.

Cool, maybe I'll be able to pick up a Harley dirt cheap next year, huh? :-D

Perhaps, but why would you want one?

Harley is not a status symbol anymore. It is now fully and completely a symbol of debt.

Not only that, but the build quality is still lower than that of most European and Japanese machines. They say Harley's build quality is equal, but it's a lot like saying that Ford Taurus cars are equal in quality to Japanese cars (which was actually claimed by Ford in the 80's and 90's over and over, with straight faces).

I've heard Buells were nothing but trouble by a few different 'bike guys'. From those comments it does not surprise me that they are out. There is only room for one unreliable motorcycle company in the US and thats HD... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />


A friend of mine had a shirt that had mock HD wings and said "if it were an airplane, would you fly in it". <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Decades ago a few of us road racer types ran a few Poker runs down in FLA. I rode my 1975 Ducati Sport so at least I was on a twin. One of us riding a Kawi 1000 drew the winning hand. I thought we would be killed. It was no issue.
The second run we rode one of the Harleys had a little Japanese pit bike strapped on the back of his bike joking about reliability.
In this run on a sweet twisty section I was leading our group and when carving a turn knee to the pavement we encountered a group of the Harleys. I could not slow down and cut between them at speed. All of us did. Turns out we were a mile from one of the pups we had to stop at. Again I thought we were going to die. That group came in just behind us laughing and thought it was cool. Sure they were startled but the lead guy said he was riding what he thought was fast. As fast as he could and we just sliced through between them. My friend on the Kawi drew the winning hand again. I did not ride the third run that year.

The Buells are intriguing but nothing I would buy. I wonder what their market value will be twenty years from now. I know what my Ducati is worth <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I wounder if Buell was on their own with the Rotax power if they could live in this world?