Why the Buells went...

[gammaguy]

Marketing and sentimentality are often mutually exclusive

I personally loved the Buells,but the marketing disaster they ultimately were for Harleys bottom line is hard to defend.

They had to go and I can see why they will keep paring back the range in the future if it means survival.

The future for our industry is a challenging one,and throw in the Chinese and Taiwanese to the mix and we have interesting times ahead,the old way is not going to cut it any more.

[leeroy996]

EBR is Eric Buell. Pretty hard to find a better off the shelf race bike.

[Drew]

EBR is Eric Buell. Pretty hard to find a better off the shelf race bike.

What shelf? For what class?

You want a superbike off the shelf, the BMW S1000R is the unbeatable option.

[scumdog]

What shelf? For what class?

You want a superbike off the shelf, the BMW S1000R is the unbeatable option.

Now? or years ago?

[leeroy996]

Now? or years ago?

Eric made 100 last year, he plans to build a more affordable street version in the future.
The 1190RS is 40kUSD but its completely setup to race.

[Drew]

The 1190RS is 40kUSD but its completely setup to race.

What class, and where though.

And nothing is completely set up to race, unless they build one off bikes for each customer to tune suspension and engine mapping to each ones riding style. In which case, it's the cheapest custom bike on the planet.

Currently, for the same money, a punter could simply not go past the BMW S1000RR. In order to be as competitive as they possibly could.

[Drew]

Now? or years ago?

I don't understand the question sorry. I thought the conversation was about current bikes...Even though it's a tad off topic to the original post.

[imdying]

I'm simply not interested in any racing that lets people cheat on engine size because they chopse to use an inferior engine configuration... WSBK et all can suck my balls.

[westie]

Of all my bikes I miss the buell the most. Such a good ride.

[Big Dave]

Of all my bikes I miss the buell the most. Such a good ride.

Agree much.

[James Deuce]

I wouldn't know I didn't get to ride my Buell long enough to bond with it. I do know though that the only bike to give me the same wobbly-tummy-feelings of late is the new Ducati Hyperstrada.

There was nothing disastrous about Buell. HD didn't invest in the brand enough so the return never eventuated. By the time it started to go right for Buell in terms of engineering and product, the world's money, real and otherwise, was swirling down a virtual plughole.

Personally I think motorcycles are changing faster than HD will ever be able to keep up with and they are liable to be left high and dry despite a recent return to profitability. The best Harley I've ridden was a Street Rod. Don't get me wrong, they're all fun. But if they don't start developing ABS, TCS, and start working on extending fuel range they are liable to be legislated out of existence by default, not malice.

[Crasherfromwayback]

. But if they don't start developing ABS, TCS, and start working on extending fuel range they are liable to be legislated out of existence by default, not malice.

Ummmmm...cept every single Big Block and the complete V-Rod family already have a very good ABS system.

[James Deuce]

Ummmmm...cept every single Big Block and the complete V-Rod family already have a very good ABS system.

You could be less patronising, but that would defeat the purpose of winding me up, wouldn't it?

I wouldn't know. I haven't really been bothering to keep up with developments in potato-potato-land, because most of the owners are wankers, and the concept seems dated, irrelevant, and massively overindulgent.

[Crasherfromwayback]

You could be less patronising, but that would defeat the purpose of winding me up, wouldn't it?

.

You're not worth winding up Jim.

[scumdog]

because most of the owners are wankers, and the concept seems dated, irrelevant, and massively overindulgent.

Wow, thanks for the ego boost citizen!