| Author | Message | ||
     Rd3501 |
Angry, Mad, FU’s seems to be casted at HD these past few days. What is going? It’s not 2012 yet…or is it in the heart of America…Lets step back and try to figure out what is going on. The name is Buell….not many can say the name right…and even fewer know it just won the AMA. That is some serious street creed if you are looking to sell some motorcycles. Wow it just seemed to look like Buell had all the stars in align. Winning races, almost all the gremlins’ of past pulling the bikes parts were gone, warranties down. Bikes looked good and were starting to sell than the big HD pulled the rug out from underneath it. Or should I say drove this bus right over the cliff with no hands on the wheel and an empty bottle on the passenger seat….why…… How could this be? No more Buell. I was on the 3rd Buell and was getting ready to buy a 2010 XB12R in yellow and was waiting for them to make them so I could buy one. But nnnnooo….. What I got was a shock like that time I tried to use a potato to pull the broken light bulb out of the ceiling. Then I got mad like so many others before me at the poor management of the higher powers. I can’t wonder who was driving the bus and fell a sleep at the wheel at HD. Yes, I like buses. It brings back bad flash, backs to the days of The Home Depot and Bob Nardumby running the company into the ground with all his cost cutting and firing good workers to make the bottom end look good. He ruined the good name that took years to build only within a few years. All because someone didn’t understand the business. We won’t even go into how he ran his GE division into the ground before coming on at The Home Depot. And I wonder how the hell do these guys move from one company to another and run it into the ground is just amazing. Seems we have another one of these guys again running HD. So here we are again. Rumors flying around about monster losses, the economy and poor management. From what I have gathered since numbers are hard to find, that HD put Buell and MV together to show losses. They didn’t break them apart. In fact is seems that the great commander at HD didn’t even see the numbers or look into to see if Buell was loosing money before pulling the plug. That is got to be one of the dumbest moves in the history of business. That’s like having a gold mine and deciding to close it. Yes, Buell was a gold mined to HD. I guess the saying goes you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. What could have been done better for Buell and HD name at stake? Yes, HD didn’t just drop Buell it also killed its own name at the same time. I will get to that in a minute. But first here are some ideas that seemed to not even be considered at the time. 1.) You could have just cut back on a few employees put Buell on a build to order program. Much like how the car companies do things when things get slow. And when things are slow you move the employees over to work on other Buell and HD stuff. It’s called cross training... 2.) If you really had to pay over 100 million to shut down the operation. Wouldn’t it be better to use that money to float Buell for 2 more years with cost cutting and slowing shutting down production if you couldn’t get things to work out? After all you are already spending the money and 2 years is a long time to see if the economy would turn around. Why not try and make it work for you with the interest you could make on the money for the next two years. Either way you would be ahead. 3.) Why not sell off the brand and try to make some money. Drop the XB motors and let someone take over the water cooled lines. Since all the parts on the new bike are no longer being used in HD. 4.) Why not do what Triumph did years ago and just burn the business to the ground? Take the insurance money and pay some things off. 5.) Force the dealers to sells Buell’s in a more professional way or no more franchise of HD stores. Meaning its all or nothing. I can keep going and going on ideas…why didn’t anyone at the top come up with anything? Or is there something else going on behind the doors? Here are my final thoughts on of one of the largest fiasco's of all time. The biggest mistake that no one at HD even thought about is the back lash about dropping Buell in such a disgrace. Yes, there are some diehard Buell guys mad and fired up. But there are also a lot of other people out there who are not Buell guys who are really upset at how things were handled. You just don’t drop a company after it wins the AMA finally gets on track and things are going well only to pull the plug. It’s not the American way. And you especially don’t do it to an American motorcycle company. This isn’t China my friends. This is America. We don’t just quit it’s not in us to quit. And we especially don’t like it when a great American company gets the shaft. Mark my words, HD is done. There are just too many people mad at HD on how they handle this fiasco. I guess if you are going to fail you might as well fail big….I can here it now at the big parties….hey…aren’t you that guy drove that bus named Buell drunk off the cliff..... | ||
| Ourdee |
""Bob Nardumby"" The guy that then went to Chrysler? | ||
| 4cammer |
Wow. Point #4 is an interesting statement. | ||
| Limitedx1 |
in the big picture of the country though, how many actuall buell fans are out there compared to hd riders, and how many of those buell riders would never own an hd anyways. small peanuts when sheer numbers rule. so basically you have made a bunch of HD haters more mad thats all. do you realize how many people dont even have a clue what buell is...and ive heard that from more than a few hd riders------who cant tell what a sportster engine looks like in a different frame | ||
| Midknyte |
how many actuall buell fans are out there compared to hd riders I would suspect that we are fewer in number than even the wannabe, no bike, tshirt wearing factor of HD. Damn shame... | ||
| Triumph900 |
I would venture that #4 boarders on libel. | ||
| Teddagreek |
Corporate Ass-holes killing a motorcycle company doesn't sit well with motorcycle enthusiasts... It's not just us People every where are pissed..... | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
I would venture that #4 boarders on libel. No, it's called freedom of speech, in this country. | ||
| Jaimec |
Uh... no. Libel is libel and is punishable by law. You just can't publicly make a declaration like that and expect the corporation smeared by that allegation to sit back and do nothing? On the other hand, he is free to post what he wants as long as he is prepared to face the consequences. The libeled party also has EVERY right to sue him for everything he has (and would likely win unless he could PROVE his allegation). If you state something as fact, you damned well better be prepared to back it up. | ||
| Alchemy |
It may be that the Buell product line was a placeholder. Buell could be purchased reasonably and used to test the sportbike water all the while developing their own homegrown product done the true HD way. V-Rod did not do well but now that the XR-1200 seems to have some traction with a similar demographic, the need for Buell is diminished. Why would you waste a cent on an XR-1200 design if you owned Buell? Buell was probably always fighting for survival. Think of MSFT and Stacker. Stacker was a friend of MSFT right up until MSFT copied the guts of the storage compression algorithm and came out with their own product integrated into the OS (I think it was Double Space or such). MSFT lost the inevitable court case (about 120 million if memory serves) but Stacker was never to be seen again. Another MSFT cast off. http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/intellectual-prop erty-patent/420989-1.html | ||
| Xl1200r |
Why would you waste a cent on an XR-1200 design if you owned Buell? Buell was probably always fighting for survival. Why would anyone wanting a sportbike even consider an XR which is down on power and WAY heavier than anything in the Buell lineup? | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
"Why would anyone wanting a sportbike even consider an XR which is down on power and WAY heavier than anything in the Buell lineup?" When Harley offers even the smallest cookie, somebody is bound to eat it. | ||
| Brumbear |
somebody not everybody and not nearly as many as last cookie call. The cookies are very expensive and cash flow is down proof is in the pudding or should I say cookie dough http://quote.morningstar.com/Stock/s.aspx?t=HOG at least for now anyway | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
27.72 a share? wow, that's come up a bit since june. | ||
| Sparky |
Rd3501, thanks for the rant. Good points all. But you're preaching to the choir here. Why not summarize your points, correct the spellling and grammatical gaffs, put it in a letter and send it to H-D brass and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel? Doerman did and got his letter published. The more the general public is aware of H-D's actions, maybe something positive will result. | ||
| Brumbear |
thats cause they sold all the buells I say 6$ buy next june | ||
| Whatever |
I am wondering about the potato thing... Yeah, HD should have extricated themselves over the next three years, but they didn't... I have lots of friends who feel HD sold out years ago, so they removed the logo from thier bikes... I think there is enough ignorance about Buell this won't hurt them a bit... (Message edited by Whatever on October 23, 2009) | ||
| Hex |
Weenies always like to see weenies 'take control' that's why they're considered weenies. The stock rise is just a blip. Money's going to be tight for a long time. Those big expensive bikes will not sell. HD is doomed and without a future IMO. | ||
| Xb1200rick |
Why would anyone wanting a sportbike even consider an XR which is down on power and WAY heavier than anything in the Buell lineup When the XR first came out I wanted one bad , long before they even came to the US. I was a Harley guy, but I wanted a sporty bike and the sportster wasn't cuttin it . I ran across a XB12 deal a thought I would ride it till the XR came to the states. Long story short, I test rode the highly acclaimed Harley XR1200 back to back with my XB12 and the Harley XR won't hold a candle to the Buell XB . Maybe "somebody" realized that and got scared. The "best handling harley ever" sucked compared to the buell xb . | ||
| Diablobrian |
Harley really shot themselves in the foot by giving Buell the axe. Buell has been their de-facto r-d facility for a long time with innovations like improved heads and bottom ends finding their way into Harley products after proving them at Buell. I also thought that Buell was running in the "black". Am I correct in thinking this? | ||
| Indy_bueller |
From what I have seen they haven't offered any concrete numbers to show that Buell was operating in the red. They lumped Buell and MV Agusta together to show that they were both losing money combined. They hinted that Buell was running a deficit but the numbers they quote don't seem to add up. | ||
| Gregtonn |
"In addition, we believe the firm must carefully broaden the appeal of its brand to secure its long-term success." Hmmm. Is anyone listening? G http://quote.morningstar.com/Stock/s.aspx?t=HOG | ||
| Ourdee |
Chromosexuals.  It just keeps going through my mind.. For a successful libel suit, doesn't defamation of character have to be proven, and a monetary loss shown? I don't know and am just asking. | ||
| Doerman |
... I have lots of friends who feel HD sold out years ago, so they removed the logo from thier bikes... And I have a wife that did more than that. When the news hit last week, she was as upset as I. She went as far as "removing" the Superglide altogether and trade it on a Triumph Bonnie. She took delivery of it yesterday: http://www.talesofamagpie.typepad.com/ | ||
| 46champ |
Doerman what kind of seat bag is on your XB 9? | ||
| Doerman |
The XB9R in the background? That is a stock seat with the stock cowling that hides the passenger seat. (Message edited by doerman on October 24, 2009) | ||
| 46champ |
The XB 9R pictured on your profile page. The bag you have straped to the passenger seat. (Message edited by 46champ on October 24, 2009) | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Have to say, everybody I know in Europe who rides, when they heard about Buell getting the axe, said "why? it makes no sense" or words to that effect. It all stinks of personal vendetta to me, but I've no hard data to base that on, just gut feeling. I doubt we'll ever know all the ins & outs of the situation. If EB feels he has enough in the tank to keep going & come back with different partners, well that'd be great. That said, nobody could blame him if he took a golden handshake after all these shenanigins & opted for a stress reduced early retirement. | ||
| Doerman |
Yes 46Chap... That's a Chase Harper bag I had a while back. It didn't work that well.. Chafed up the tail a bit. I've switched to CoreTech. | ||
| Sayitaintso |
If EB feels he has enough in the tank to keep going & come back with different partners, well that'd be great. That said, nobody could blame him if he took a golden handshake after all these shenanigins & opted for a stress reduced early retirement. My thoughts exactly. The stock rise is just a blip. Money's going to be tight for a long time. Those big expensive bikes will not sell. HD is doomed and without a future IMO. Unless they change something....... the market of middle aged, middle class white guys, with 2nd mortgages is just about saturated. | ||
| Stevewauk |
I was in a Harly dealership looking at an XR 1200 a few weeks ago. A guy and his wife (a bagger couple) walk up, and she says "What is that?" with a hint of disdain. He says, "That's just a Buell". I had to point out to them that it was far from a Buell, and was in fact the new Sportster model. The guy looked at me with a screwed up face like I was trying to pick up his wife. | ||
| Crusty |
Chromosexuals dressed like gay pirates... All I can think of is the Harley ad with all the thousands of "individual" black sheep flocking to Sturgis. |
