| Author | Message | ||
     Crowley |
.....in the form of MCN (more crap than news) is telling us all that Erik has been released from his contractual obligations to the MoFuCo and will be building road bikes in 2011, claims to be from the horses mouth too. To me, this whiffs of BS but if it's true, I'm going to start saving. My 1125 (first in UK and bought without seeing one - and I'll do it again  ) is a keeper though, as are the other 5 Buells I own. Can any of you shed any facts on this? | ||
| Froggy |
I wonder where they read that.  | ||
| Pilot172 |
Although a little too soon, I think, but it's a matter of time before Erik Buell Racing will produce a streetbike again. Probably only 1125/1190 based because these bikes have little or nothing to do with Harley products (read: "harley secrets") that harley desperately want to keep to themselves. I would bet on a 2012 1125/1190-barracuda-like product. my 2 cts | ||
| Littlebutquick |
got my copy rang them about something and they said they are doing something else on buell in a few weeks | ||
| Usanigel |
If Eric is going to sell to the public then he needs to do some better product development and testing. Most would be put off by the 1125 problems. Charging systems, clutch weep, instruments etc. Biggest problem is the weeks that many are off the road due to these things, often repeated same problems too. Attend to these things or don't bother! I truly wish Eric & co the best with this venture and I am keeping my 1125 for a while yet. But I did take the 7 year warranty to help me relax with it. | ||
| Dktechguy112 |
I think part of the problem was that when at harley, Eric Buell had to use a lot of harley parts. A lot of the parts from the 1125 were pulled from previous bikes. I think now that Eric buell is done with harley we will see some even more insane designs/engineering, as i think harley was really limiting Eric Buell. I read an article that said that buell had a very small budget, they got screwed even when they were with harley. If harley had just invested in buell a little bit, i think buell would have taken off. | ||
| Dirty_john |
well the stator and clutch slave issues are nothing to do with HD, these stem from Buell and Rotax, the fact that HD are not good at resolving these issues is a nail in their coffin. If Erik starts making bikes again and I hope he does no doubt that there will be revised stator cooling and a clutch actuation system that works without failure long term - new owners will have gained from our collective heartache and wallet pounding. | ||
| Jules |
MCN has a habit of making stuff up, and/or re-printing other articles found on the internet and this was strikingly similar.. On the other hand at least they spelt his name right, which is more than can be said for some. Saying the issues aren't HD's fault is a bit short-sighted, cutting the R&D budget to the bone and not allowing time/resources for proper product testing prior to launch is definately their fault. This is supposed to be a positive message, why do some people insist on turning every thread into a dig at Buell? The drawback with that is that people then feel the need to respond. The MCN article had a CGI pic of what they say the road bike will look like as well as the stats for the 1190. It was an 1125R chassis with front mount rad and barracuda-esque rear end. Unfortunately outside of the US it may be a while before we see anything "new" with a Buell badge on as clearly there's the need to establish a dealer network outside of the (crap) one that HD provided. EB reckons it needs about $10M of investment to be a viable prospect.. | ||
| Dannybuell |
Jules - "Saying the issues aren't HD's fault is a bit short-sighted, cutting the R&D budget to the bone and not allowing time/resources for proper product testing prior to launch is definately their fault." exactly. | ||
| Lucky_jim |
Jules, it's difficult for people to think about a new Buell streetbike and at the same time ignore the issues that Erik has created with his last endeavour. Here's hoping that BRP helps him start some sort of sportbike division under their company, with proper funding for R&D and tons of testing, and focus on making ONE bike REALLY good. And then slowly branch from there. It'd be amazing to see Buell come back in full force. | ||
| Ponti1 |
Here's hoping to Erik starting up his own production of street-going motorcycles, independent of the confines of any parent company holding the purse strings. | ||
| Captainkgb |
I could see Erik aligned with the likes of Polaris, which just acquired Swissauto earlier this year, and has a history of funding devisions with an eye toward long term growth and not whether or not it will make a profit this quarter, year, or decade. They also share several design and engineering philosophies with Erik. Swissauto also has a strong tradition of developing top-tier racing engines for World Motorcycle GP. The company’s V4 2-stroke 500 cc engine drove 29 wins, 41 Poles and 3 World Championships during the 1990s. A completely new racing bike was also developed by swissauto and competed aggressively against larger Japanese OEMs during the late 1990s. This bike achieved the pole position twice during it’s first season of racing and ranked in the top ten several times. Also it would be cool to keep Buell, or what ever name it assumes, an American company. Hit me with the flames, after riding my 1125R all summer here in phoenix, I'm used to the heat. Regards, CaptainKGB (Message edited by captainkgb on August 17, 2010) | ||
| Easyrider |
I hope when all go's as we all wish it go's he calls me so that i can make a propper mapping for the european bike with homologation, so everybody have more fun for the money.. | ||
| Alex |
You really think he will call YOU????? | ||
| Trojan |
The picture in MCN wasn't a photoshop or CGi as far as I know, but a bike built by Erik Buell Racing to showcase what they could do with an 1190 road bike. A lot of these press and twitter feeds flying about recently and attributed to the factory will be about trying to get finace to help go ahead with production, and to keep the Buell name in the headlines rather than any fixed plan to build bikes in the near future, as the company as it stands just couldn't do it on their own. In order to get the necessary funding it is more than likely that Buell will once again be 'owned' at least in part by another major manufacturer, but that is the price small companies pay for big plans. Buell really do need the next bike to be fault free and reliable though, as the previous 1125 models suffered from poor press rpeorts and widely reported failures unfortuately. It doesn't matte rif 99% of owners have trouble free bikes if the 1% that do have trouble make the headlines. If they are going to be built in small numbers then they will likely be reasonably expensive 'exotic' bikes, so will need to be 100% reliable from day one. The poor lauch of the 1125 at Laguna shows how bad it can be to launch a bike before it is ready and having a poor press reception and can kill a model before it even starts  | ||
| Easyrider |
Alex, for sure is that you will not make the heads for these bikes (-: | ||
| Alex |
That´s true as I don´t have a casting company for stock production heads. But it may look different on race heads :-) | ||
| Easyrider |
Alex, work harder, then you can do the production heads also (-: |
