Glad I kept the picture

[Big Dave]

215719

http://www.kiwirider.co.nz/

[Suntoucher]

I think I just vomited a little.

Jesus Christ, that's a monstrosity.

[Mully]

My eyes!! My beautiful blue eyes!!

Ze goggles, zey do nossing......

[Usarka]

It is trying to open but saying "loading, please wait......you are east of a clearing of trees" and theres a funny musical screeching noise emminating from the speakers.

[Big Dave]

It is trying to open but saying "loading, please wait......you are east of a clearing of trees" and theres a funny musical screeching noise emminating from the speakers.

Jump on the box to get the power up.

[Usarka]

Nah bro I'm getting TILT and flashing lights!

Edit: Nooooooooooooooooo it's up. The horror the horror :lol:

[doc]

You have to hand it Claudio Castigligoni. He sold MV to HD with 90 mil debt and buys it back without the debt for 1 euro. :gob:

[MIXONE]

You have to hand it Claudio Castigligoni. He sold MV to HD with 90 mil debt and buys it back without the debt for 1 euro. :gob:

I'll have to invite him around to balance my chequebook.

[doc]

I'll have to invite him around to balance my chequebook.

He sells to Proton for millions and buys it all back for 1 Euro... Sells to HD, they invest another 45 million over the purchase price and he gets it back for a stock swap, not one single cent out of pocket. In the mean time, the debt gets paid off, the parts delivery chain gets modernized and he's got new bikes to sell plus the 675 triple in the wings. On top of the F4 and Brutale.

We need him in Govt here

[jtzzr]

The tassles are a bit over the top , don`t ya reckon ?

[nallac]

The tassles are a bit over the top , don`t ya reckon ?

Yip just a bit....

looks like Doc's perfect bike..bita MV a bita Hd.....



Old Hd has got a lot of business sense, Shut down Buell for 100+mil ,buy MV ,spend heaps then sell for $1.....

[Big Dave]

Old Hd has got a lot of business sense, Shut down Buell for 100+mil ,buy MV ,spend heaps then sell for $1.....

Tragic for the people who have invested their life's savings in shares, and the 1000's of hard working individuals on all those assembly lines and in offices.

The Buell people are still 'incredulous'.

One well connected individual I know says they were 'thrown from the Titanic with life rafts 100 yards before the iceberg'.

I think you have to balance it a little bit, against the GFC happening virtually simultaneously and the current Wandell management isn't the same crew that bought MV prior to the wreckage.

Earnings per share were up slightly last quarter.

[doc]

Yip just a bit....

looks like Doc's perfect bike..bita MV a bita Hd.....



Old Hd has got a lot of business sense, Shut down Buell for 100+mil ,buy MV ,spend heaps then sell for $1.....

Simple jealousy. Least they are still making them. :drinkup:

[pete376403]

HD have also been approached to shift from milwaukee to texas. Unionised $24/hr jobs become non-unionised $14/hr, overseeing illegall immigrant $4/hr production line workers. Meanwhile the directors pocket another million dollar bonus.

[doc]

HD have also been approached to shift from milwaukee to texas. Unionised $24/hr jobs become non-unionised $14/hr, overseeing illegall immigrant $4/hr production line workers. Meanwhile the directors pocket another million dollar bonus.

Typical senior management decision. About 2000 they started manufacturing crank assblys in China. Created a problem with reliability . They now manufacture them back in US. The shareholder must be protected.

[Laava]

Gotta be good for a caption comp surely!
The all new "Tom Cruise edition" bike goes into production!

[Swoop]

Huh?

No saddlebags?:scratch:

[one fast tl1ooo]

:blink::blink::blink::sick:

[Big Dave]

Huh?

No saddlebags?:scratch:

Well there ya go - someone missed it - Not responsible BTW - the pic arrived on email when they first bought MV.

[avgas]

Shut down Buell for 100+mil
Nah Eric did this on his own accord.
I am yet to see another bike company take their 3rd biggest selling bike, not just stop producing it - but public crush it saying it was a horrible bike, slamming all the owners....leaving both the crushed bike and half of the market in the desert.

Imagine if Honda did this with the goldwing......or kawasaki with the er6.........how the Buell investors let this happen to the blast is insane.

[Big Dave]

Nah Eric did this on his own accord.
I am yet to see another bike company take their 3rd biggest selling bike, not just stop producing it - but public crush it saying it was a horrible bike, slamming all the owners....leaving both the crushed bike and half of the market in the desert.

Imagine if Honda did this with the goldwing......or kawasaki with the er6.........how the Buell investors let this happen to the blast is insane.


Erik was unaware of the closure till just before it was announced publicly. Came as a complete shock. Up until that time he was working on the assumption of a new factory that had just received council approval.

Buell only accounted for 3% of Harley's sales at best. They had better market share here because they suit the conditions so well. US owners get a chubby when they see another one they are so rare in some parts.

The company was 100% owned by Harley-Davidson since 1995 when EB sold them the last of his shares. There were no Buell investors other than H-D at the time.

The independent marketing company that devised the 'Book of Buell' and the blast stunt, that whole campaign, has never been called to account, as far as I've seen, for what must be amongst the greatest industry cock-ups of all time.

[doc]

Nah Eric did this on his own accord.
.........how the Buell investors let this happen to the blast is insane.

Those Buell things were just "Mutton dressed as Lamb" :innocent:

[nallac]

Those Buell things were just "Mutton dressed as Lamb" :innocent:

So what does that make a sporty then?....Pork dressed as ..........Mutton?.:shifty:

[avgas]

So what does that make a sporty then?....Pork dressed as ..........Mutton?.:shifty:
Pork dressed as spam

[nallac]

Pork dressed as spam


Or spam dressed as...well,spam?.

[avgas]

The independent marketing company that devised the 'Book of Buell' and the blast stunt, that whole campaign, has never been called to account, as far as I've seen, for what must be amongst the greatest industry cock-ups of all time.
Good to know.......but I do recall that Eric pushed the button on the bike crusher - so he can't wash his hands of it entirely.
Rumor I heard was it was his idea of Viral to boost sales to the 1125CR before he released it.
Certainly got lots of attention. Friend of mine in the US actually had to ask the sales guy if they were going to keep producing the XBS or if that was on the chopping block.
Dumb thing was - there were companies in the market who were trying to buy the blast. Mac Motorcycles had put an offer of exclusive rights.....and were even trying to get cash to buy the lot involved with the blast.
Now Mac's cant even get the left overs off Harley.....

Seriously fucked up.....

[Big Dave]

so he can't wash his hands of it entirely.

The guys ideal is to produce competitive race bikes - he's a racer.

I wouldn't be surprised if he entirely agreed with it.

What is surprising is that the amount of 'focus groups' and market research that the six figure campaign would have bought didn't set off alarm bells - or whether they just chose to ignore them and took the 'no such thing as bad advertising' route.

Still a right royal cock up, as far as I can see, Arthur.

[R-Soul]

You have to hand it Claudio Castigligoni. He sold MV to HD with 90 mil debt and buys it back without the debt for 1 euro. :gob:

Indeed, Harley did exactly that - "hand it" to Claudio

[R-Soul]

Good to know.......but I do recall that Eric pushed the button on the bike crusher - so he can't wash his hands of it entirely.
Rumor I heard was it was his idea of Viral to boost sales to the 1125CR before he released it.
Certainly got lots of attention. Friend of mine in the US actually had to ask the sales guy if they were going to keep producing the XBS or if that was on the chopping block.
Dumb thing was - there were companies in the market who were trying to buy the blast. Mac Motorcycles had put an offer of exclusive rights.....and were even trying to get cash to buy the lot involved with the blast.
Now Mac's cant even get the left overs off Harley.....

Seriously fucked up.....

Well HD's main marketing line has always been "buy american". Prolly cause tehy cant say "buy speed" or "buy reliability" or "buy power", but hey..

If they sell the only other big american bike name to a competitor who could end up producing better bikes than them, they will even lose that payoff line...

[Big Dave]

Faskinatin' Footnote from the Wall St Journal

A footnote: There is a certain element of should-have-known-better in this story. This isn’t the first time Harley-Davidson has had a hard time with an Italian acquisition. In the 1960s it bought a stake in Aermacchi, a maker of small off-road bikes as a way to expand into new markets. Eventually it bought the whole company, but that move also eventually failed and Harley sold Aermacchi in the late 1970s. The sellers and buyers: the Castiglioni brothers.

Article here
http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2010/08/10/did-harley-davidson-have-to-pay-buyer-to-unload-its-sport-bike-unit/

[doc]

Faskinatin' Footnote from the Wall St Journal

A footnote: There is a certain element of should-have-known-better in this story. This isn’t the first time Harley-Davidson has had a hard time with an Italian acquisition. In the 1960s it bought a stake in Aermacchi, a maker of small off-road bikes as a way to expand into new markets. Eventually it bought the whole company, but that move also eventually failed and Harley sold Aermacchi in the late 1970s. The sellers and buyers: the Castiglioni brothers.

Article here
http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2010/08/10/did-harley-davidson-have-to-pay-buyer-to-unload-its-sport-bike-unit/

Wasn't that about the time they considered the sportster was a supabike and had no prob knocking off the brits but the friggen Japs made the CB750 Honda ? So got some sort levy against them to help them catch up jappas just plain cheating IMOA

[Big Dave]

Wasn't that about the time they considered the sportster was a supabike and had no prob knocking off the brits but the friggen Japs made the CB750 Honda ? So got some sort levy against them to help them catch up jappas just plain cheating IMOA

Harley have petitioned the the Government for protection duties on more than one occasion. They tried the same thing with Triumph.

They didn't achieve the same sort of success as Aussie apples though.