For all you Erik Buell fans

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The economic downturn was the catalyst but HD could of still continued with Buell if they wanted to. Buell's M/C sales were on the up and continuing to grow. Sales were small in comparison to HD but still profitable.

The real reason behind the sale is that the big boss at HD feels that the ROI on the Harley-Davidson brand is greater then it is with the Buell brand. Its not really hard to understand that logic as HD guys will buy the bike and will then typically mount it with all sorts of "Genuine" HD accessories. Buell/Sport bike guys aren't the same as they will likely shop in the aftermarket and won't really spend a whole lot of genuine P&A.

The timing of the Buell shutdown really hurt Erik in the sense that he was starting to get some momentum and HD killed it. The 1125 with its rotax motor really had no familial links with HD motorcycles at all, unlike the previous Lightning/Uly/Firebolts. The 1125's are great bikes. Furthermore, Buell killed off the Blast because that little bike apparently confused people about what Buell M/C's were all about. Erik was trying to reshape the image of the company so that they would be known more clearly for building american race-oriented motorcycles.. He was on his way until he got the chop.

In the long run, he is better off having full control and on his own.
 
The part I never understood is why HD would not sell Buell to Bombardier? My understanding is they made a solid offer and HD said no, instead they paid out a "8 figure" penalty shutting Buell down as part of the Rotax deal.
 
TYBALT71 said:
Interesting and yet HD went out and bought MV Augusta-Ty
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Actually, they sold it at the same time they shut Buell down. Bought it for a ton of money, did nothing with it, sold it back to the family who they bought it from for just about nothing (IIRC, they paid the family to take it back - memory could be wrong, and I'm too lazy to google it right now).

Then, Bombardier had an offer on the table to buy Buell (at least the 1125 platform) for over 100 million dollars, but HD claimed that Buell is too integrated into their company to sell. Ended up costing something like 120 million dollars to close Buell, after paying Rotax their contract breakage fees etc (which would have been avoided if they sold to Bombardier, 'cause Bombardier owns Rotax).

Welcome to HD money wasting 101...

Oh yeah, HD got a huge government bailout too - 2.3 BILLION dollars (http://www.businessinsider.com/the-...eds-emergency-loans-2010-12#harley-davidson-3)
 
Rob MacLennan said:
Actually the B-Last and 1125R both had Rotax engines. I don't remember if there were others.
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Nope. Blast had a modified Sportster engine - they basically cut off one of the cylinders and called it a day. HD didn't want the Blast with a HD name tag, as it didn't fit their bling-bling chromatorium image, so the farmed it over to Buell.

The only Buells with Rotax mills were the 1125r and 1125cr series. Nothing else.

The V-Rod basically stole an engine commissioned from Porsche by Buell. It was going be used in a race/supersport bike. HD decided they wanted a liquid cooled bike, but didn't like the shape of the motor, as it didn't flow with the typical HD lines. So, they boxed areas out and made it look more like the typical HD 1950's lump. This added over 70 pounds to the engine. Needless to say, 70+ pounds of useless dead weight totally wrecked the whole idea of Buell ever using the engine...
 
Bigevildoer said:
Nope. Blast had a modified Sportster engine - they basically cut off one of the cylinders and called it a day. HD didn't want the Blast with a HD name tag, as it didn't fit their bling-bling chromatorium image, so the farmed it over to Buell.

The only Buells with Rotax mills were the 1125r and 1125cr series. Nothing else.

The V-Rod basically stole an engine commissioned from Porsche by Buell. It was going be used in a race/supersport bike. HD decided they wanted a liquid cooled bike, but didn't like the shape of the motor, as it didn't flow with the typical HD lines. So, they boxed areas out and made it look more like the typical HD 1950's lump. This added over 70 pounds to the engine. Needless to say, 70+ pounds of useless dead weight totally wrecked the whole idea of Buell ever using the engine...
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Incorrect. The Blast used a 500cc engine, specifically made for it by Rotax. The original concept was designed around a single Sportster cylinder engine, but they tossed that out early on. IIRC the 1125's engine was designed around 2 bored-out Blast engine cylinders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buell_Motorcycle_Company#Blast_.282000.E2.80.932009.29
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