Harley Davidson Strategy. As I see it.

[1stxb9r]

the whole idea of the iron and some of the other "lower" priced bikes Harley is coming out with is the reason that Buell is no more. Harley doesn't want you to spend 10k on a new Buell when you can get an iron or Nightster at the same price. The end of Buell is nothing more than business, but for us that own and love Buell it is so much more.

 

[rndrkeagle]

oh... not to change the subject... ok well yes... to change the subject...

This... has got to be the absolute UGLIEST bike I've ever seen!

 

[wokor2wheel]

Ghost I don't care if you do make six figures or live near a beach. What does that prove. Nothing! Fact is your pissed as hell that someone took your Buell away and you blame Harley. Fine blame Harley all you want. If you think your so smart why didn't you see that Buell was going under. Why did you save it. Looking at your in depth thinking I blame you for not call Erik or Willie G and tell them what they should be doing. You ever hear the old saying "hind sight is always 20/20"
Here is a good example. Now are you going to sit there in front of your laptop pissing and moaning that you will never buy a Harley ever again or are you going to do something about it. Some one with your level of income must know someone to get the capital together to buy the company to pay the workers, turn the lights on and make it happen. That's right get the 180 people in E. Troy WI back on the payroll!! It all boils down to this. Who is still in business? Harley not Buell. Should Harley have owned Buell? Maybe. Maybe not. Could things been different? Sure they could have. The Buell I like is the 1125CR.
Sure it was different and weird. But it hauled ass and thats what was great about it. There are different bikes for different people. I don't see any one bike that can make every single person happy. But unless you can raise the dead Buell is no more. You can point the finger at who should take the wrap. Blame the dealers, salesman, tech's, the lady cleaning the floor, HOG, people on Sportsters, the homeless guy you will probably kick when you see he has a HD hat on. But thats ok. the sun will rise in the morning and life will go on.

 

[wokor2wheel]

Here is something to sleep on Ghost. Why did Erik crush the blast?

 

[SylvanSlayer]

I think that Buell is not for sale for 2 reasons Eric Buell would rather shut it down than have H-D sell it, witch could mean that he wouldn't have anything to buell anymore. Also I read on the inertnet that Buells where made in H-D factorys so thier was nothing to sell but the name.

Another thing it wouldn't be the first time H-D went bankrupt, the almost where done 3 times before. Luckly someone saved them each time. I think H-D has no idea what they are doing, they spent a ton of money to buy Buell remake all the bikes in 2003 then in 2008 make 1125 platform, and buy MV Augsta. So they spent all this money on sport bike companys just to sell MV Augsta and shut Buell down. SOUNDS REALLY DUMB to me. That why all these company are in deep **** in the states, thet have no idea how to run a company, they couldn't organize a rock fight in a gravel pit. Don't get me wrong I love my uly.

 

[ghost96b69]

I am pissed, of course, and it's not MY Buell - It's Harley's Buell and I don't have connections in the Motorcycle business - my business is plasma fusion & electricity - the people I deal with know nothing about Motorcycles and don't want to. Harley does know about Motorcycles but what they don't know about is Buell or I should say anything that isn't Harley Davidson.. That is their only goal and it was apparent to me before this ridiculous decision to add 9 new models & cancel Buell?! Sales are down 85% oh, great, let's cut Buell & add 9 new models that don't sell.. that sounds great.. What, were they all drunk in Daytona when they made this decision?! They say now without Buell they can emphasize Harley Davidson?! When did they stop emphasizing Harley Davidson?! When did they even touch on Buell?! My ability to affect change is in the numbers I can generate against Harley Davidson in the defense of Buell. Seems to me even people who work at Harley Davidson & Buell can't get through to Willie G so what possible affect would I have by myself. I need numbers not money, I need support not Capital.. There is no better company to own & distribute Buell and the parts & accessories needed to make them succeed, but Harley Davidson needs to own it and believe in it and they never did that. That is why they are making a Stupid decision to cancel Buell. That's the way I see it.

 

[mpolans]

New Harley mandated ad campaign.

> Here is something to sleep on Ghost. Why did Erik crush the blast?

 

[ghost96b69]

Why should I know or care about the Buell Blast?! I know that Harley was using the blast as their demo bike for the rider training program they do. I have no idea why they cancelled the blast. I completely understand simplifying & down-sizing, but I do not understand cancelling a company & adding 9 tired old same old models with new bells & whistles.. I could care less about the blast..

 

[ghoward]

wow got into this late but my 2$ worth bought my first HD in 83 new it was an 80 with sun faded paint on one side of the tank 4999 if i remember right.[smirk]

 

[stopie20]

You guys are in an awfuly heated debate about nothing[down] [down].

Ghost and work - Do you both own Buells?
Do you both love riding them?
Would you both like to have the opportunity to purchase a new replacement for your Buell when your miles get a little high?

Then we agree, it is ******** that Harley made the cuts where they did, but these descisions are made by bankers NOT bikers therefore I am not capeable of comprehending the whys, you see I myself am not stupid I just see it from a bikers perspective and I am damn proud of that.

Harley has a long history of bad buisness descisons, I think in the long run this may prove to be another to add to that list (once again biker).

I'm just glad that Buell did exist and I am lucky enough to have one in my garage.

 

[taildraggin]

A new low in internet bickering:

...the matter is, I make six figures and live 7 blocks from the Beach in Southern California, you work is a crappy Harley dealership in Michigan.. You do the math. Nothing you can say could take anything away from me or make me feel bad.. sorry.

 

[93fee]

Ok, guys, so many words have been said, let me share my opinion. I'm from Moscow, Russia, so sorry much for mistakes in my english.

First of all, it's sad that all this Buell story is over. IMHO the only Buell is Lightning/Uly, 1125 looks like a mistake for me. Anyhow, Lightning is a great bike (I had xb9s my03 & now have 12stt) & it's sad that HD just stops production. Now I won't sell my stt whatever the price anybody offers ))) By the way, here in Moscow the cost for it was above 14 000$, even more than in Europe. So here it is absolutely exclusive, more than Ducati ))

About Eric Buell. For me it's interesting if he personnaly owns patents for all his technical innovations? If not it will be dmn hard for him to invent something new & build a completely new bike whatever will be it's name. In other hand, if he stays in HD they might try to start some new model lineup with more sportier models. Well, ok, as said above xr1200 is the only "sport" (as seen by HD) model. Maybe let them give a chance to build something new. I understand that the only "new" thing will be new side bags for dyna but lets hope for the best.

About HD service. Warranty is a big joke here in Russia, as soon as you can wait for spare for 2 months it's easier to forget all this warranty story. Sounds sad but true ((

Anyhow, I hope Eric will find an opportunity to build something new with all his engeneering skills & maybe not HD engine. Because aside this Buell-HD marriage/divorse, Eric's innovations are truly great. I still think that it's pretty hard to find naked/street bike on the market better than Lightning (and its alterations like Uly & Bolt). Buell's handling is absolutely great, breaks are perfect, belt drive is much better than chain story. Even HD engine gives this bike such a push you simply don't believe. As my friend once said - "is it diesel bike?" meaning that bike's torque at low rpm is making you grin behind your helmet's visor like no other bike.

Best wishes to you guys!
Fedor

 

[fishgutz]

Now you can both zip up your pants. Agree to disagree.
If everyone agreed there would only be one brand, size and color of anything. And how boring a world would that be.

Let's start a whizzing contest on what looks cooler. Translucent Cherry Bomb air box or that opaque Carbon fiber air box.

Woohoo!

 

[buelladdicted]

The cuting of buell and MV was entirely based on protecting the mother ship for the investers.The only thing that is different about this and past decisions ,which worked by the way,is this is not the 80s .The(image) has an ever decreasing market.In the future,there will be less and less fans of easy rider,and future economic polarity will eliminate the supply of yuppies to afford them,mostly to piss off there parents.With this said,I think buell was there best shot at a future,and made a short term fix it decision,with long term problems.

 

[fishgutz]

Addict, I do believe you nailed in fewer words than a Haahvaahd Business school graduate would have.
The consensus does seem to be that Buell did not have much marketing support from HD. AMA racing coverage brought $million in indirect advertising. Even the blurbs with AMA import riders bad mouth Buell, it was "free" publicity. Buell found a privateer hole in the "production" rules big enough to drive an 1125RR through to more than a few winning circles. That started bringing more people calling and coming in to showrooms to see this new comer to the AMA winner's circle.
The dust bin of history is full of great products the fell victim to bad business decision.
In 1989 AT&T's marketing department killed what would have been the first Gigabit network system, at least a decade ahead of any competition simply because it was not developed by the systems division in NJ.
HD will hopefully realize the value of Buell before it is too late.

 

[wokor2wheel]

If Buell were to come back. there had better be some serious planning. We have seen some of the bikes from BMW and Aprilia that are going after WSB. New I-4 and V-4 motors.
If they do come back I hope they leave the tunning thing open. Not being able to play with the ECM really turns people off. Harly has their race tunner that allows us to go right into the ecm and adjust the opp. perameters. Run it on the dyno and adjust and your done. If not that way more of an open source format that lets more people play with it. Hell I would love to see a 72* V-4 with 1100 cc. pushing 190 Hp. at the wheel for WSB racing

 

[bardo688]

I for one and just bought an xb9s and was happy now i am torn apart that buell is going under. I love AMERICAN V-TWIN iam sad that harley has done this but i will remain loyal to american and never a ricer and at 16 an european bike way to expensive. i for one just think harley could have promoted buell more175 in a straight line isnt that fun after the 3rd of 4th time the twisties are a constant andreline rush and buells just stick out i love that

 

[93fee]

Hello guys.

Yesterday had a long talk with my friend about Buell. We both have Buells so for us all this (cancelation of Buell) is kinda strange to hear. So from Europe it looks like those managers in HD decided that they can not sell Buell to whoever will wish to buy it, because (apart from engeneering & HD (even modified) engine) mostly Buell is an American Spirit thing. Can you imagine selling Zippo to SwedishMatch for example? Or Fender guitars to Yamaha Music Instrument? NO WAY. The same thing with Buell. We both sure that Buell was not so unproffitable as HD by itself. Buell is a very popular bike in Europe (Italy & Germany for exmpl) actually more than HD. But as said above, managers count total amount of profit never taking care how it's done. Anyhow, this story is a big ****, either a HUGE pr move (hardly believe in this)

BR
Buell riding Moscowite )

 

[93fee]

about spares - in case HD is a bancrupt - we all should forget about spares for our Buells. if not - for 10 years after production was stoped they are obliged to provide market with spares. it's an international trade rule. so hopefully we all Buellridingpeople will be able to get pads, belts & so on...

 

[fishgutz]

93, if I remember correctly, the XB fuel frame is made in Italy. The decision was made based on the high level of expertise the company has with welding and manufacturing aluminum frames. I don't know if this changed.
But the Buell strike me as a sort of "World Bike." because Eric sought out the best builder for his innovations and did not limit himself just to American companies.