| Author | Message | ||
     Rocketman |
Back in the day we discussed the VR but never to this extent. Fascinating story of its development including those involved and the bikes which came before during and after with a heavy Buell connection. https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.o dd-bike.com%2F2016%2F03%2Fharley-davidson-vr1000-g ods-own-voice.html%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1KWgDPyF0v0gGpcA -dW8yLD0h58sIZIHCjU50_EAyRn8CJekJ4DrI_SAw&h=AT1SDe s7g_dF4pcmHQyKKpM_kSNrsX7ktXEe3eTx6qysJKKJ_yzkelBJ rf_Jl31B8iGNxWtgBSpFWplvaj_lESvnCGSpFwXPZFfYVD7Oi9 ArVYJ4Yz58N84g3ADIE0xgzho Rocket in England | ||
| Mnscrounger |
There's one for sale on the showroom floor at St Paul HD. It can be yours for only $149,000. I understand they are willing to offer financing to qualified buyers if you can't swing the whole purchase outright. | ||
| Kmbuell |
Great article, thanks for the link | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Cool read. Learned a bunch. Fascinating story for sure. Thanks for posting the link. | ||
| Crusty |
That was a good read. Thanks for putting it up. | ||
| Court |
That is a GREAT read . . . a study in poor program management and the melding of incongruous personalties. It was great to watch. The reference to the "bungled pit stop" brought a smile to my face. I was standing there as the film crew from "Harleywood" (HD film media group) was preparing to film the imminent pit stop and rear tire change. I was standing with Dan Lang, Buell R&D Mechanic, and we thought it'd be so cool to be standing there, in the video, as the bike approached the pits. Things started poorly and quickly got worse. It was the high stakes version of what many of us have experienced with bicycles and motorcycles. During the rear wheel change the chain became jammed between the sprocket and the wheel. Just like my Sting-Ray bicycle when I was a kid, the more they tried to free it, and with the application of as much force as they could apply, it only got worse. We, in the first seconds following what a "normal" pit stop would take, got the heck out of the photo frame . . . .even then, with all the fumbling, bumbling and confusion . . . we quickly realized that the video could serve as evidence and anything employees in it would appear to be "part of the problem" It was ugly. I don't recall how long this all went on but, at the time, it seemed an eternity . . . I'm thinking 15-20 minutes. I lack the intimate knowledge of the VR program but do recall that some of the key players had a very genuine and deep seated disdain for each other which pretty much guaranteed if would her a long, costly exercise in futility. It you don't start with a TEAM . . . a true melding of talent and commitment . . . the project rapidly devolves. Thanks for posting Rocket . . .nice to see Buell content. Best to all. | ||
| Tootal |
Holy crap!! Court actually told a story instead of having us remind him sometime!!  | ||
| Zac4mac |
Sure glad I caught this before Court deleted his story….  Z | ||
| Zac4mac |
Just finished the linked article, great read… Thanks Sean!! Z | ||
| Court |
>>>>Court actually told a story instead of having us remind him sometime!! Hahahaha . . . . toying with doing all the . . . and there are MANY . . . stories of "Buell from 2009 . . . Closed but not forgotten". Some of the funniest stories in Buell history occurred during the time HD was trying to get rid of Buell. | ||
| Mnscrounger |
".....but not forgotten" None of us are getting any younger, and that would include you Court. Better put those stories to paper before they're lost forever. | ||
| 1313 |
Finally finished reading the article. Disappointed I missed Court's story - maybe the Email's of thread updates would've allowed me to read it, if they were working... When I first interviewed, in April of 1991, the tour included viewing the VR-engined bike and was told that 'H-D would have motors ready by Daytona' which the article provides excellent information on why that did not happen. Reading through the article, I had a few revelations. When I went to York with some others from Buell, a guy introduced himself to me and when I told him I worked at Buell, he replied that he was just out there. But when I asked why he visited he was tight-lipped and I almost want to remember he said "I can't tell you". I was irked at the time, but it now makes sense as that fellows name was Mike Eatough. And I think I may have FINALLY figured out the meaning behind the codename "Mikey 2"... Seeing the sweeping blue with white central racing stripe painted, RR 1000/RR 1200 inspired bodyworked bike at townhall meetings towards the end of my time at Buell would turn out to be yet another epic machine that would end up not being realized under H-D's 'vision'. But I digress. | ||
| Court |
B: The entire text of what I shared is above. I'm betting we could combine notes to close some gaps. One that still makes me laugh is when the Real Estate guy cam got deal with the properties on Buell Drive. Let's just say that Harley-Davidson gave EBR a VERY good deal . . . HD didn't know about it . . but they did. When it came time to clean out the building . . . they had a lot of help. Classic was the Griffin. Youngster from the Motor Company came to audit their property (they owned the R&D work product) and is looking for everyone thing. Under a sheet was the Griffin with a smattering of Honda (or whatever it was) dirt bike stickers all over it. They,. in spite of the fact that the timing cover had BUELL cast into it . . . ignored the bike. Many, many such stories. | ||
| Rick_a |
I remember those days. It was always a gorgeous machine...and what a run of bad luck. It was an impressive effort, considering. | ||
| Court |
>>>>It was an impressive effort, considering. It was the rolling incarnation of what happens when a genius is pushed aside and replaced with a committee. | ||
| Crusty |
Committee: The only form of life with 16 bellies and no brain. | ||
| Rick_a |
To their credit, Harley wanted a Harley superbike and they got it their way. A Buell with a Harley badge is not something I feel they would have ever deemed acceptable. | ||
| Court |
I agree with that but the team, within Harley-Davidson, pretty much insured the VR would never realize it's pot3ential. At the time . . . HD's "performance metric" was pretty much that it be orange and black and loud. | ||
| Rocketman |
Great to see so many comments. This VR story has joined a lot of dots to my favourite bikes and now I finally own an XR1000 alongside my S1WL and my Brutale it's a great feeling to own three iconic bikes all linked together in a very long running story. Rocket in England | ||
| Screamer |
I always thought the timing of the announced withdrawal from Superbike racing was interesting - mostly because of a meeting that was held only two months previously. In late June of 2001, a meeting was coordinated to discuss a VR-like product. John Baker led the meeting with Mike Eataugh, Buell and H-D project leads, and Service and Parts attending. The product discussed was to have three variations of a bike using an all new power plant with 200+hp. One was to be a race-only version. Despite how fast of a development cycle was being promised - the project was dead less than two months later. Six years later, the race-only Destroyer and XBRR projects made it to production, but also lived pretty short lives. | ||
| Court |
If memory serves . . . a less and less reliable metric . . . that was the off-site meeting . . . . I saved the Competitive Analysis and Program book somewhere . . . . It was marked CONFIDENTIAL across the front so I never shared any of it. Ideas kinda tended to get clogged as more and more opinions were brought to the table. Two projects that I thought were particularly interesting were the M2 Cyclone . . . mostly due to the fact that Marty pretty much had free rein as the S1WL White Lightning was drawing all the attention. The other was the BLAST project when Lisa Forthoffer (spelling . . Screamer can correct) was brought is as program lead. She was really smart and brought some formalized project management principles. It was a really well sorted bike upon release. Rog . . thoughts? Mine may be skewed from the perspective I was seeing from . . . | ||
| Rocketman |
"The other was the BLAST project when Lisa Forthoffer (spelling . . Screamer can correct) was brought is as program lead. She was really smart and brought some formalized project management principles. It was a really well sorted bike upon release." Perhaps I should make a confession here. An apology to Erik even. I slated the Blast as a cash cow infamously clashing heads with Erik on BadWeB over it not being the vision and direction I expected for Buell, the company who built cool streetfighters. I look back now 61 years old with the wisdom of years and regret how my beliefs were offensive to Erik. I didn't stop there either. I disliked the ugliness of the 1125. Those hideous side pods. How they looked so ridiculously out of place on a motorbike. Here's the thing though. Two decades later I love the 1125 and if time permits I'll have one to complement my small collection of favourite bikes. Weird how time's a great healer. My humble apologies Erik. Rocket in England |
