Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 02:52 pm:

RIDE-CT: Erik Buell, (slightly exhausted) pioneer — specialty bike-maker celebrates 25 years of hard work, quality

By Bud Wilkinson Republican-American
Job offers beckoned when Erik Buell graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1979 with a degree in mechanical engineering. General Motors wanted to hire him. So did Pratt & Whitney, Goodyear and Black & Decker. He turned them all down. Instead, the sport bike/racing enthusiast and musician moved to Milwaukee and went to work for Harley-Davidson, a then-unstable company owned by AMF that made motorcycles of suspect quality.

Having grown up in Pittsburgh and seen first-hand the decline of American manufacturing in what aptly became known as the "rust belt," Buell understood the impact of well-built imported products on sales of U.S.-made items. Having twice survived layoffs at Harley in the two years after company executives bought out AMF, Buell decided to gamble and in 1983 launched his own specialty motorcycle company.

"I wanted to build an American sports bike and I wanted to create jobs," Buell recalled in a lengthy telephone interview last Saturday morning. "It wasn't arrogance toward the imports. It was just, 'Why can't we do this?'"

The 58-year-old Chairman and Chief Technical Officer of the Buell Motorcycle Company has now been building Buells for nearly half his life. The company that bears his name turns 25 this year and hits a high point with its release of the 2008 liquid-cooled Buell 1125R sport bike.

Buell laughed when asked his reaction to the company reaching the quarter-century mark. "All of a sudden, I feel tired," he replied. "It's pretty interesting. We've been very busy. We're small. It just kind of showed up. For me, it really has been a time for me to think about all of the people who have worked for me over the years."

Even after 25 years, the Buell Motorcycle Company isn't as widely recognized as most other manufacturers, partly because it serves a niche market and partly because of its size. It only employs 200 people and only builds 10,000 bikes a year, more than half of which are sold overseas.

While now a wholly-owned division of Harley-Davidson — Buell sold 49 percent of the company to Harley in 1993, another 49 percent in 1998 and the remaining two percent stake earlier this decade — Buell motorcycles are not found in every Harley dealership. Harley-Davidson/Buell of Danbury displays them prominently, Yankee Harley-Davidson in Bristol doesn't offer them at all, while Gengras Harley-Davidson/Buell in East Hartford has them but tucks them at the rear of the showroom.

Buell explained that insufficient production is one reason why all Harley dealers don't carry Buells. Another reason is the necessity of having a trained Buell technician at each dealership that sells the brand.

"There are a lot of public misconceptions about the company and that's partly our fault," said Buell. "Although we're owned by Harley-Davidson, we're still very small. Because of that, we probably haven't done enough publicizing of what we're doing. But we have wonderful dealers. They just don't quite understand our customers yet. They're getting there."

The typical Buell buyer is someone in the mid-30s and who is serious about sport bikes, "probably 10 years younger than the Harley customer in general, older than the average sport bike buyer," said Buell. "You have to have been riding for a while and (be) deep into motorcycles to know about us."

The 375-pound, 146-horsepower 1125R, which went into production in November, will certainly make more people aware of the Buell brand. "It's really changed our whole image in the industry. The 1125 is really quite shocking to a lot of people," said Buell. "The performance starts justifying that we are a world-class sport bike company, not an eccentric company."

Unlike other Buell models, which use engines of Harley-Davidson origin, the 1125R uses an 1125cc Rotax power plant from Austria that was made to Buell's specifications. "Harley did not have the capacity and had too many demands for their own product," Buell explained, noting that Rotax is owned by the Canadian firm Bombardier Recreational Products. "They have that style that we like to see – pioneering but humble."

Surprisingly, Buell doesn't yet have an 1125R in his own garage, although he does have other Buell models, along with some dirt bikes. There is a reason for that empty parking slot. Buell reported that one that he ordered hasn't come in yet at the dealership. Yes, even though he's the No. 1 person at the company and could have gotten a bike off of the production line, Buell declined to do so. "If I'm producing them, I ought to suffer, too," he reasoned.

The slack economy at present is hurting motorcycles sales for most companies, and the high cost of gas hasn't helped sales, either, although Buell said his company's sales this year "are up a little but not as much as we hoped. What we have seen is a very high demand for used motorcycles and lots of people riding," which he believes will translate into new-bike sales when the economy turns around and newcomers to riding decide to upgrade.

Besides being a motorcycle designer, in his free time, Buell is also a bass guitarist in a band and the designer, along with friend Mike Stone of Queensryche, of a signature model guitar from Peavey.

Like most riders, Buell does have one bike that is his all-time favorite. It's the Velocette Thruxton that he got when he was 17 and which got him into racing. "Typical British motorcycle – wildly eccentric but a joy to ride when it worked," he said.

Bike Swap Meet

The Terryville Lions Club brings back the Terryville Bike Swap Meet on Sunday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Terryville Fairgrounds. In addition to vendors, a multiple-class bike show is planned. Admission is $5.

This Old Bike Update

The tins have been primed and, by the time you read this, Tike Ladd of The Classic Motorcycle Co. in Terryville may have painted them British racing green. Meanwhile, the crankcase and cylinder block are now clean and ready for engine reassembly. While the 1969 Triumph T100R Daytona that's undergoing restoration won't be back together in time for the vintage motorcycle show in Rhinebeck, N.Y. next weekend, as was hoped, making it to Brit Jam in August is definitely doable. More on the project next week.

Bud Wilkinson may be reached by email at budw@ride-ct.com.

From http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2008/06/09/lifestyl e/347273.txt