| Author | Message | ||
     Wolfridgerider |
 Wench comes stock w/08 models.... | ||
| Buellerandy |
couldn't have made that pic a little bigger? :P | ||
| Cityxslicker |
I doubt the XR1200 will get the ax, it is only avail in europe, which seems to be their big focus lately. During the strike last year, domestic dealers had a delivery disruption for bikes, it is my understanding from a couple of sources, that European deliveries never hic-cupped at all . | ||
| Swampy |
I think the reason the HD R&D didn't do the engine is because it is alot easier to go to a vendor and say "I want X engine designed to X parameters" then it is to go in house and fight the politics, "But we have never done it that way before" or "But we would have to change A line and that would interfere with suchandsuchs area" I shook the hand of my ignorant fat bitch administrator the other day, I could tell from her pudgy boneless little hand that she had no backbone in her either. People like that only get into the position they are in by communist Canadians with gay husbands. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I think the bigger issue is that few who are not already willing to buy a Buell based upon the current engine would be willing to buy a brand new engine design from HD. Rotax is a known quantity. People would be willing to take a chance on a Buell with a Rotax power plant. Very few would be willing to sample a brand new engine design from HD. | ||
| Court |
>>>there is a dealership in Moscow No there is not. I sent a shipment of Buell parts to Moscow today. There are 2 HD dealers in Russia, St. Petersburg and Moscow. | ||
| Diablobrian |
ummm Court......You mean that there is no dealership in Moscow, But there are 2 dealerships, One in St Petersburg and one in Moscow? Are you sure about that?  | ||
| Court |
There is a Harley-Davdisons dealer in Moscow. There is no Buell dealership in Moscow. | ||
| Naustin |
Ok, I was gone for a week and suddenly no dirt bikes? WTF. I would have never bought one, but still... What's going on here? | ||
| Rick_a |
I don't buy it. There will probably still be many other race venues that will allow the 450's to soldier on, as the change seems geared more towards supercross. The reasoning seems flawed. The complaint is that 450's are tearing up supercross tracks and that only a few riders are "able to handle the power" of the 450's. Well, those few riders have been out riding everyone for years, some before the 4 strokes took over. It hasn't stopped Suzuki from producing an all new '08. | ||
| Diablobrian |
Suzuki can afford to redesign again for 09 if they need to. I know HD could as well, but it would be hard to justify to the Board of Directors. HD shareholders in general do not care about the latest technology, dirt bikes, or racing and ultimately they hold the purse strings. | ||
| Soloyosh |
Upset? Write a letter to these folks. Barry K Allen Richard I Beattie Jeff L Bleustein George H Conrades Judson C Green Donald A James I did... | ||
| Buellshyter |
Why must everything be a secret? I want to know why HD pulled the plug. | ||
| Ceejay |
are you a shareholder? CEO? HD business owner? small business owner supplying HD with parts or service? Then in all honesty they don't owe you or any of us an explanation. They are in business to make money from items they believe will make money. This requires little input from you or us save for a few bucks once a month either in loans, cash for bikes/parts, or service(whether it be maintenance or insurance claims-bigger than you might think) HDI makes money, would like to continue to make money, and despite what many on this board think will make moves to carry forward with that pursuit. | ||
| Jima4media |
Here is my .02, for all its worth... I'd like to see Buell focus on the 1125R platform, and play out all the configurations that are possible with the Helicon motor, and not be distracted by trying to juggle too many balls. Just give me my SuperSport Touring Bike next July.  Jim (Message edited by jima4media on October 01, 2007) | ||
| Mikej |
2008 is going to be an interesting year on many levels. Focus on what's in your garage, let them focus on what's in their's, maybe someday what comes out of their's will end up in your's, in the mean time we have to wait.  | ||
| Rick_a |
Bottom line is, they shouldn't have jumped the gun on announcing something that isn't going to happen as stated. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Bottom line is, they shouldn't have jumped the gun on announcing something that isn't going to happen as stated. You know, a LOT of people here (me included) have complained that they NEVER give us any hints about what's in the works for new models. I hope you weren't one of us. Given how tight-lipped they've been about "upcoming models" up to now, I'd say they were absolutely 100% confident these dirt bikes would be produced at the time the announcement was made, or we would have never heard about them. Who knows? Maybe the money slated for dirt bike development is going to go into somehow correcting the dealership problems. I can't think of anything else that would give them a better payback on their investment. | ||
| Rainman |
I understand it. You've got plans to add staff or product and then the housing market tanks, the loans start failing and people start cutting back or talking about it and you have to perform to a standard set three months to a year ago. You have a choice of continuing your ways, missing profit and sending your stock down or you can cut programs that haven't reached production and protect the next TWO quarters at least. I've had to make cuts in personal planned expenses because I've had unexpected vehicle repairs and unexpected cuts in pay. That's economics. It stinks, yes, but it's economics. | ||
| Buellshyter |
2008 is going to be an interesting year on many levels. This phrase keeps being repeated. I surmise we haven't heard the last of the dirt bike project. Furthermore, there must be more in the works for 08 then just the 1125. | ||
| Buellshyter |
Oh, and while we are speculating, I am guessing the big news for 08 will have nothing to do with motorcycles but with the business itself. Someone buying or selling someone else. | ||
| Ducxl |
That's economics. It stinks, yes, but it's economics. Then why don't they just "Spec" them out like the Helicon and have Hyosung make them.It'd be a foot in the door of a good Chinese manufacturer.Then.....When BMC sees the exhorbitant rates of American labor,they can move the whole kit&Kaboodle there and have a greater profit margin.Why manufacture in USA anyway,it's a global economy | ||
| Rainman |
It's not a bad idea for business. But what happens when all of the good paying jobs go elsewhere and all we have are low-paying service jobs and McBurger jobs? Who's going to be buying $12,000 Buell when all they can afford is a $1,000 Beemer scooter? | ||
| Rex |
Two possible scenarios. 1. It was just a cover for the 1125r. or 2. They were going to do dirt bikes, but...... a. Saw everyone jumping on the band wagon, BMW buying Husky, etc. and thought not a good time to jump into the market. If you cannot be competitive, don't come out with a product not competitive. b. Maybe HD ad to do some hard looking at profit and loss bottom lines. Some times you sit around and see sales are down, or costs have gone up, and you are not going to be making the bottom line on your wall street reports. So you start looking into areas you can cut back or cut completely, without hurting the big part of the business. HD may have seen how much it was going to cost bring the dirt bikes out, and be competitive, and decided to pull the plug. c. and at the same time saw how much excitement the new 11215r is getting and how much work and money it took to bring it out, and decided to put all of Buells efforts into it and other new models from the platform. Just a thought. Too bad. I think they would have sold the first large wave of bikes to current HD and Buell owners. Then if they were sucessfull, start selling to other bike owners. REX | ||
| Glitch |
They could have just counted their chickens before they were hatched | ||
| Naustin |
Maybe it was as simple as this: They announced the plans for a dirt bike and the overall response was overwhelmingly flaccid. I, for one, do not now, nor do I ever anticipate owning a dedicated dirt bike. I could definitely see owning some kind of road legal dual-sport, a KLR650 maybe, but never an off-road only dirt bike; just not my thing. So, personally, I'm not broken up about it at all. If they expected huge excitement from dealers and owners but all they saw was a lot of people going limp-dick for the whole idea, that would definitely make them reconsider. I don’t buy the economics argument. 2 years from now the state of the economy is impossible to predict. It could be going gangbusters again. If businesses want to make decisions based on what they think the economy will be like in 2 years, they might as well be smoking pot and staring into crystal balls. You have to make product decisions based on what consumers want, not what you think their stock portfolios might look like 2 years from now. And, unless Harley is heavily invested in Housing, the current downturn won’t be hurting them. Even if 30% of their financing is delinquent, which is possible – though unlikely, I doubt that would impact them heavily enough to cancel a product development project. I just think it belies some pretty heavy goings-on in light of the normally tight-lipped culture that has already been mentioned. Shit must be shakin off the shelves somewhere... I don’t know if it’s good or bad. I’d just like to know where the epicenter is and whose bridge pancaked! | ||
| X1glider |
I'd like to know how HD/Buell plans on obtaining a top notch rider to prove to the world that their 450 can compete. Even if the bike is awesome, no one will believe it if it doesn't cross the finish line in a respectable position. Are they willing to shell out the dough to get someone to defect? Honda Racing offered up 10 million bucks in contingency for the '07 season. If they have that kind of cash to hand out to anyone on a Honda, what do you think their factory pro riders are earning? Honda is always going to make dirt bikes so it's a stable position. Buell has a history of bailing out of competition. Pro racers would require some stability since this is what they do for a living. I don't think Buell would be willing to pay Stewart, Windham, Reed, Ferry or Alessi the money they would require to defect. Carmichael is on contract with Suzuki for another 2 years to develop their FI MX bikes. Sadly, Buell would need one of these guys to prove to the MX world that their bike can hang with the big dogs. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Hmmm. Here's a link to a very interesting press release on the subject at Mototalk.com: http://www.motonews.com/mototalk2/showflat.php?Cat =0&Number=827560&an=0&page=0#Post827560 An interesting photo here: http://www.vitalmx.com/news/news/Buell-Moto-Projec t-Canned,1987 Hopefully we'll find out some more details before too long. | ||
| Soloyosh |
Harley needs younger folks to start walking into the showrooms. I saw the dirtbike as a key step in making that change. MX riders are typically younger folks. You set that hook in them when they're young then you've got a whole line (Buell/H-D) for them step into when they're ready for a street bike. Yes, I'm a shareholder and yes I wrote to each of the board members for what it is worth. I think the board is doing a disservice to the Buell and H-D future profitability by doing this. Just my $0.02 | ||
| Kuuud |
Watch and see how long the announced "one week" shutdown of HD production (scheduled for November), is actually going to last. Is coitus interuptus (SP?) becoming the normal biz practice? See also XBRR program...yeah, yeah, I know, "it's NOT dead". |
