Posted on 10/15/2009 11:06:45 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Harley-Davidson USA today announced that they are discontinuing the Buell line of motorcycles. This news comes as Harley-Davidson reported a third quarter earnings that was down 21.3% from the same period in 2008.
All remaining in-stock Buell motorcycles and accessories will be sold by authorized dealers, but no additional Buell motorcycles will be manufactured. Existing warranty coverage for Buell motorcycles will be honored and Harley-Davidson will continue to provide replacement parts and service through their dealerships.
Over time, the discontinuing of the Buell line is expected to eliminate 80 hourly productions positions and approximately 100 salaried positions at Buell. According to Harley-Davidson's statement, employment for the majority of these Buell employees will end on December 18, 2009.
On the Buell Motorcycle website, in a large main-page video titled "An Important Announcement From Erik Buell" a worn-out and defeated looking Erik Buell also announced the end of the Buell brand. Erik Buell is the founder and designer of Buell motorcycles.
According to Wikipedia, Buell Motorcycles were based in Troy, Wisonsin. Buell's partnership with Harley-Davidson began in 1993 and Buell had become a subsidiary of Harley-Davidson by 2003.
Yeesh.
Another article on the subject: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2363030/posts
Thanks. I pinged them, too.
Few have the money for stuff like new motorcycles...RVs, boats etc...
I know I sure don’t.
Crap....the only american bike built to compete with rice burners...
A sad day...
While more American jobs are lost, Obama plays games with healthcare, distracting folks from the real issue.
Welcome to the new screwed by Democrat America.
pling.........
Strange.
Odd months - HD is the hallmark of “American manufacturing” and has “avoided the pitfalls of the recession economyh”
Even months - HD is closing shops, laying off workers and outsourcing components to China.
So, which is the real HD?
OMG, that’s incredibly sad. Everyone in the M/C industry has been rooting for Buell’s success, and it looked good for them until late last year when rumors started floating.
This should have been their year. Winning race after race against the mighty and many teams of the Japanese manufacturers. And this with a race team of 5 and no more than 200 in the entire company.
Harley should have had a separate marketing model in the EU than here, which would have allowed Buell to capitalize on the huge market of Buell fans over there. However, that’s a very complex issue, but still, I think Buell might still be viable if it had.
R.I.P. to a great brand, and best wishes to Erik and crew.
You’re right. We’re seeing some parallels with the old AMF come to light lately. None of this bodes well for Harley.
I wonder if this will have an impact on the Harley plant in York,Pa
My husband won’t be happy about this. He always said once the truck is paid off he wants to buy a Buell.
Guess he’ll have to settle for a used one.
Word on the street is that it’s going to close, at which point York will extinguish it’s last light and move lock, stock and barrel to Lancaster...
Really don't know much about motorcycles do you?
What Japanese motorcycle does/did the Buell compete with? Their Rotax sourced 1130cc had to go head to head with 600cc bikes to even be competitive on the race track and that old XL engine models were pig toad slow and too fragile to even be on a race track. As for sales, Do you really think Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha & Kawasaki even knew Buell was on the planet?
The Buell is really just poor competition for BMW, Aprilia and MV Augusta (and HD owns MV.) Ducati? Not in this lifetime. No, The Buell was nothing more than a boutique brand and boutique brands just ain't gonna make it in today's market.
“I wonder if this will have an impact on the Harley plant in York,Pa”
I doubt this will have any impact on the York plant, since Harley has decided t close it. They are looking in right to work states to build a new plant. This comes from Motorcycle Dealer News.
HD is also dumping their ownership in the Italian manufacturer.
They’re talking about moving to Indiana.
There’s been discussions with the state economic development folks. Also Ky and Tn.
Frankly I’m shocked this hadn’t happened years ago.
PA is so rediculously confiscatory, I am amazed there is any manufacturing left at all in this state that is not local in nature.
Probably not. But they sure know *Harley Davidson* is on the planet.
Harley sells 50% of the heavyweight motorcycles in the US and 30% in the world. (heavyweight = 750 cc and greater, not actual weight of motorcycle)
So Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki have to share that other 50% in the US with BMW, Triumph, KTM, Ducati, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Polaris/Victory, etc.
Yeah I’ve only been riding for 33 years...what would I know about Motorcycles...
PA is a right to work state (commonwealth)
********************************
The HD XR-1200 is supposed to be pretty darned good ,, comparable to a sporty Japanese "standard" motorcycle,, my HD dealer had new 2009's at $1,500 off and under market financing rates back in July.
Thats the euro sporty right?
Shame it needed twice the displacement to be competitive with the Japanese offering and has the usual HD lack-of-build-quality....
They only won because they were allowed to have twice the engine displacement of the other racers. Surprise, they won... oh wait, it’s not a surprise.
Having ridden and worked on both Buells and "rice burners", I can tell you that Buell was NO threat to ANY import. While the frame/suspension wasn't all that bad, the XL-based engine was a boat-anchor that severely handicapped the marque. Even worse was the Blast (half the cylinders, twice as bad).
Furthermore, if you knew how many of the bits and pieces of the bikes were "imported", then that "American bike" marketing ploy wears very thin.
Well...I’m not going to sit here and piss on buell’s grave...
Buell WAS the only american bike to offer an “alternative” to the japanese sport bikes....how’s that...
Heres the XR
Wow, you have been riding about as long as I have. Actually I love the old Indians and Harleys that had the old flat head engines. The torque they had far out weighted any acceleration that over head valves gave them. I recently gave away(I know)enough old Indian parts to build a full Indian Chief. Too old to ride now but wish I could!
I recently stopped to assist a stranded Buell XB12R rider.
The bolts that held one of his front calipers on had sheared off. When discussing the matter with him, he revealed that despite the fact that his bike was less than two years old and had less than 20K on the clock, it had a long history of build quality failures. The immediately prior incident, I was told, was that the electrical system had pretty much had a total meltdown while he was riding.
Forgetting Triumph, Aprilia, Ducati and BMW, are we?
Er, hit send too soon. Those are alternatives to the Japanese bikes, though not American made.
if you want American made, there are any number of custom builders who can give you what you want, that’ll actually perform, with a Harley-pattern engine that wasn’t a boat anchor (because it’d been heavily modified), for about the same money or less.
Sorry, not buying it. To be an "alternative", it would have to be in the same league as other sport bikes. Buell was not even in the same Sport, much less the same League.
I still contend it had too many import parts to be a "true" American-made bike. Perhaps we are jaded with all the Toyotas, et. al., that are "made in America". (/soapbox)
No thanks...I’ll stick with my $700 650 nighthawk for the time being...
I’ll bide my time and wait for a used S3T some day...
Twins are allowed that to compensate for the multi-cylinder motors’ inherent advantage. That goes back quite a few years now. But, by the same token, all must weigh the same.
Back when we raced two stroke against four, fours were allowed additional engine capacity, as well.
IN OTHER NEWS: Harley ALSO is shedding MV Augusta (which included Cagiva), which they just bought a year ago!
Boy, does this remind me of AMF (1969-1981), and the “Management Group” buyout circa 1981-1986. No more Holiday Ramblers, and more importantly, no more practice bombs or bomb targets, Harley’s fallback cash cow. No more investment in Aermacchi.
Life is beginning to suck...hard! LOL
That’s total BS, and everyone knows that.
Besides which, that only lasts until the Japanese get annoyed and make a V-twin of their own, at which point it slaughters everyone. See the Honda RC51 and what it did to the Ducatis in its first year of World Superbike. In fact, it was so much of a walkover, that most of the money and top talent left WSB and moved to MotoGP.
Sweet.cant beat a $500 nighthawk!
I never have figured out how to post a pic on here..if someone wants to give me a clue I’ll post a pic.
1. Complain to admins about lame HTML only board that is difficult to use, driving off users, not with the current standards, easily exploited and a security risk and tell them to adopt proper BBCode before you'll donate. A proper search engine THAT ACTUALLY WORKS would also be an incentive to donate.
2. Then read this: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/575774/posts
*snicker*
What’s total bs?
And the move to Moto GP had nothing to do with Honda beating Ducati in it’s first year out (Ducati beat them the following year). That was what, 2000? Then Bayliss (I think) on a Ducati won in 01, then there was the famous Imola, where it all came down to that race for the championship, either could have won, but a crash cost Bayliss the race, and Colin took it home.
The switch to Moto GP was motivated by money, Superbike made an absolute 1000cc rule for all entrants, which meant heavy investment for those on twins, Moto Gp made some new rules that made in financially more advantageous to race.
BTW, IIRC, Honda did race in 03 and got their clock cleaned by Ducati...again. That was the ONE race where the Petronas actually beat all the Honda’s. LOL (poor KR)
Compensating for twins’ lameness by giving them double the displacement.
You also remember incorrectly. Honda mopped the floor with Ducati in 2000. Ducati barely squeaked out their overall win in 2001, with Honda being more reliable with better speed and power but not quite as good riders. In 2002, Honda mopped the floor with Ducati again and captured the AMA Superbike title as well.
Having made their point, Honda stopped campaigning the RC51 in WSB after they levelled the playing field with the 1000cc limit for all.
As for the 03 Ducati win, that would be the factory Ducati team beating up a privateer Honda effort. One does not expect a privateer to beat a factory team and usually they don’t.
I’ve never liked it either, but, that’s racing.
OK, I was by a year it was 2000 H, 2001D, 2002H, 2003D.
BTW, Hitoyasu Izutsu was factory Honda rider. Not a privateer.
Gott’a go, wifey’s home...
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