| Author | Message | ||
     Electraglider_1997 |
For 2009 Buell Homecoming Puleeze Wait until after the dealer show so those that travel far have something to see for their efforts. I mean, how hard would it be to have waited a couple of weeks so that we all could have seen the 09' models up close and personal? Maybe even demo'd. If it would have been later this year we could have all been bused over to the new Harley Museum and that would have been great. By luck only, the gas prices would have retreated a bit. Somehow or other Laura has got to get it changed a bit so that we can see the coming years models. The Sheraton was a nice place to stay. What would really be cool is if we could all stay at the new Iron Horse Hotel which is geared for bikers but very high end. http://www.theironhorsehotel.com/motorcycle-amenit ies-for-the-bike.php Probably way too high priced but maybe Buell could get us some great rate. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Depends on when the race is. I believe IT dictates when Homecoming is. Now, not having the CR for folks to see first hand was unfortunate. Logistics aside, it was a missed opportunity for sure. | ||
| Buelet |
Yeah, I'm down for that! ...Iron Horse Hotel will be on our list next time for sure. -So says my wife! New models or racing... That is the question. How about a sneak preview or an earlier launch? Tough one! | ||
| Pso |
I might go if they had the new models there and also demo rides. | ||
| Court |
Next years Homecoming will be quite different. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Excellent different or you are gonna pine for last year's Homecoming different? Change is not always good. | ||
| Court |
>>>Change is not always good. Neither is rote-redoing. | ||
| Ejc |
I don't know if the intention was to facilitate travel opportunities, but having Homecoming on a holiday weekend actually kept me away. The Fourth of July is family time. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Neither is rote-redoing. Agreed completely. | ||
| Court |
Quite obviously, as the nearly 1,000 folks who attended can attest, no one plans an event to discourage participation. This Homecoming was unique and required special planning and circumstances to accommodate a myriad of needs, dates and schedules. Laura excelled. If it is of any comfort, the party we had at my place in 1990 saw about 14% of the Buell population (2 people) miss it. Willie G, his wife Nancy, Rich Teerlink with wife Anne and daughter Victoria and then entire Buell family made it so I guess it was a success. But, those two folks are still pissed. It's a science of tying to make MOST the people happy MOST the time. The good news is that Buell listens very carefully and all this input is being aggregated and digested for next year. MY OPINION is that any attempt, next year, to "out do" this year will ensure certain disappointment. I'm hoping for a new direction and will, to that end, be weighing in as the planning process moves ahead. Feel free to offer suggestions of your own. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
""Feel free to offer suggestions of your own."" Holding it in Youngstown, Ohio would be nice ... just sayin' . | ||
| Ejc |
Court, I didn't intend to come of as a complainer, sorry. I'm just chiming in for input/data sake. If I'm the minority, great. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Spock | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Things I was impressed with at the 08' Homecoming: Sheraton Hotel except that our air conditioner went kaput twice. They did give me 20 bucks back because of that. Bus ride to Summerfest was very nice touch. And the buses were not some airport shuttle type but were big, nicely appointed Greyhound size. Breakfast at hotel was first rate and very cheap since it was only a 10 bucks extra charge per day total to our room for the 3 of us. Always fun visiting the Factory. Erik Buell signing autographs for what seemed to be 2 or 3 hours straight when he was only scheduled to do this for 30 minutes. Talk about massive writers cramp and dedication to his fans and customers. Kudos to you Erik. Great Buell demos at Road America. Way better t-shirts than the 07' Homecoming. Crusty's daughter's Buell Blast fell over up a Road America and broke off a turn signal. I asked the Buell folks if they had any spare parts to fix up her bike and they said to bring her bike to the trailer and they'd take care of it. I passed this info on to Crusty and assume all was taken care of. It's things like I've pointed out above that kept us coming back for the 2nd year in a row and we will probably do it again next year. It's about a 1400 mile trip on the bikes when all is said and done but we certainly have enjoyed it the past couple of years. Still, I'd rather be rewarded with a look and possible demo of the next years models. One other thing that comes to mind, it would have been better if they had set up a store outside of the factory to sell the Buell t-shirts and memorabilia. Maybe even at the host hotel. I wanted to go to the factory store while I was there but the line was long and cramped and I didn't even have an idea what they were selling as you couldn't see anything unless you waited in that line. I just said, "Not worth it". Buell could have sold quite a bit more had they just set up a table of goods outside the factory, but that must of slipped their mind. Hopefully not next year, got the hint?? (Message edited by electraglider_1997 on August 01, 2008) | ||
| Cyclonedon |
"Feel free to offer suggestions of your own" My suggestion is that they don't change anything! Keep it just like it is since it's such a huge success already! I think that everyone who has attended the last two years will agree since everyone had such a great time. just my $.02 worth! | ||
| Court |
No perception of complaining at all . . .. in fact, I really appreciate your thoughts, particularly at this point where the good and bad can be weighed. They were the coolest shirts in yeas and Erik (little secret here) had that hand on ice for 2 hours before playing that night . . . he refused to stop and wasn't going to let any call "times up". He's like that. By the way . . . I hope all of you took my suggestion and wrote to Laura. Nothing like a letter. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Laura, How about a halter top next year. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I vote they cancel any scheduled rain for next years event  | ||
| F_skinner |
The thing I really liked about Homecoming was meeting the people. Too many to list but I think I made some new friends during the event. Lynn had a great time too, initially she did not want to go because she does not ride a Buell, yet! I am hoping we can attend next year. I need to start learning names because I introduced Lynn to several people by their BadWeb ID. I will never forget seeing Tony and saying hey, I know that guy and Lynn asked what his name was, I said Spiderman. She laughed and asked what his real name is, and I said Spiderman. I made it a point to learn that Spiderman is actually Tony. I did not go to the races, track day or the adventure ride. Since Lynn is from that area we did some other things. One of those was realizing that I could not get my stuff back to Fond du Lac with my broken saddlebags so we had to take a little ride back there to get the truck. I attended the things I really wanted to do like visit the factory, test ride a Uly, the dinner with EB and Summer Fest. I cannot complain about anything with the exception of the Parade Lap around Road America but I should have known better. The only other disappointing thing about the trip was the visit to the Motor Factory, maybe I went on an off day and it was not part of Homecoming anyway. The absolute best thing was going out to the parking lot talking to people, looking at the bikes and drinking a cold one. I would have been happy hanging out at the factory and talking to the employees a little more. A couple of the Buell employees stopped by to talk about the S2T and that made me feel good. I have never seen so many Ulys in one place. I would like to see the new models but that was not an issue for me. I can wait to see what is released. A sport touring 1125r was not released this year and I did not think one would be so I was cool with that. I did like the apparent lack of HD involvement. I know they are deeply involved and many of the people I met actually worked for HD but it did not reflect in the activities. I do not mean anything negative by that (except the motor plant tour and that is another story) but thought it was nice not to have the latest paint scheme from HD pushed at us. Maybe HD is realizing that Buell is not a stepping stone to a Harley. What would I change? I would offer a method to mail the posters home from the plant. Mine got ruined on the S2 on the way back to the hotel. I will know to plan better next year. The poster was too big and it looked like something HD designed. I wish it was the same size as the 20th. I thought the 1125R with the RW750 reflection would have been way too cool but that is just my personal taste. PRINT THE ACTIVITIES THE WRIST BANDS ARE FOR ON THE DAMN BAND ITSELF or have a piece of paper that list the activities and color code them or get rid of them all together. Maybe there was something like that but I did not get it, I am old and drink too much so I forgot and cut the wrong one off. Something I wish I did: I wish I could have got all the S2s together with the owners for a snap shot. I thought it would have been cool to do that with the S1s, M2s, Firebolts, Ulys etc. I should have taken a group photo of all the Colorado riders but I forgot. It was the best time I have ever had at a Motorcycle Rally but after attending MBV, Taos Buell Rally, Gateway Buell Ride and others this year it is standard operating procedure when you get a few Buellers together a good time will be had. Frank | ||
| Court |
Frank: Zero problem . . . Buell. . . has you covered on the poster. SEND me your address. Thank you for the valuable critique, it's really helpful. | ||
| Nevrenuf |
hey frank, would a "F_skinner aka frank" shirt help next time. like at mbvi. then it could be worn at homecoming. | ||
| Usroute66 |
The problem of seeing the new models has been approached before, not at Homecoming, but at Laguna Seca (Monterey, CA) for the World Superbike Races. Usually, these are held one week prior to the introduction of the new models, and none are on display. The attendance at these races is HUGE. All we get to see are the same old models. Imagine the year the Firebolt first came out, one week after the races, yet all Buell had to show was the same old tubers. Seemed like a missed chance to me. Imagine the free press and customer viewing that Buell would receive if they just showed them there. I approached this subject with Erik a few years ago. He agreed totally, but hey, it's a corporate world. I would suspect that they (not Erik but Corporate) want to create foot traffic at the dealers, maybe sell a Buell shirt or a part while you are there. Sometimes simple, common sense ideas just seem too hard to implement. I know...I work in government! BTW, has anyone noticed on the new Buell website that not one mention of Erik, or the history of Buell, is mentioned? Maybe I missed it, but I couldn't find it. The website though is an improvement. | ||
| Svh |
Usroute66- Click on the "COMPANY" button on the top banner. Erik is shown and talked about in there. But there is a noticeable lack of EB on the site now | ||
| F_skinner |
Nevrenuf, I thought about that but if I am not challenged I will never learn.... I wish I had a better BadWeb name to put on a T shirt LOL... | ||
| Cityxslicker |
here I thought this was going to be a thread about the second installment of the pink thong from MBV. | ||
| Atoms |
Feel free to offer suggestions of your own. I could not make it this year due to family commitments. I did enjoy the factory tour, meeting people and seeing all the bikes in 2007. Since you ask for suggestions I'll repeat what I've suggested elsewhere a few times. My idea of a perfect rally is the thing that the BMWMOA throws every summer. You ride to one place - a fairgrounds or whatever, park the bike, set up a tent and then everything is on site. I don't drink and ride so how can I have any fun when the evening events are thirty or fifty miles from whatever hotel may have a room available which is thirty or fifty miles from the track which is thirty or fifty miles from the factory? | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Now this kind of takes off with Atom's idea. Just blue sky thinking now, so don't just summarily nix this. Does anybody know of a lodge on a lake some where that could accommodate 500 or so Buellers for 3 or 4 days. Of course the Buell demo semi truck would have to be there. Some place that has lots of forests, good eating and good riding. Speak up o-traveled-ones. We could actually start some new destination that folks look forward to every year just like Sturgis, Lacuna, Daytona, ect. Milwaukee is OK but it is so darned urban. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
www.soundrider.com the Pacific Northwest is your next host. We already have the event, Hell bring the Buell Demo truck. Sport Bike North West for 3 days, followed by 3 days of Dual sport. I would be happy to help y'all hook it up to invade the left (out) coast on some of the most twisty, scenic, rural and dirty  roads out there. Last week of August, before the holiday weekend, what the hell else ya doing? really ? | ||
| Svh |
http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20080813/APC0101/80813075/1979 Too bad for them not getting it open by the 105th missing out on bunches of their key demographic. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Homecoming '07 was my first, and definitely won't be the last. Just the fact that my wife, who was thinking "oh god, 4 days of nothing but motorcycles in *Wisconsin*" beforehand and at Summerfest declared it one of the best times she'd ever had, makes it a winner! +1,000 for great job Laura. The event(s), with all its dates and locations, must have been a bear to put together - and I used to do concert production and event coordination in a past life, so I know of what I speak. Also +1,000 to EB, for taking the time to sign until the line went away instead of going by the clock, and for being one hell of a guitarist to boot. Great to see the guy is truly "a guy", and not some corporate weenie corrupted by the bar and shield mentality. Couple things that struck Kim and I: 1. Wish the track was closer to the host hotel. That trip was b-o-r-i-n-g to make, lol. 2. Summerfest was an awesome tie-in, and the upper deck was awesome (thanks again, Laura). 3. Agreed on moving the employee store outdoors for the event. They did what, $28k in shirts and caps? Those poor girls deserve some fresh air during all that, and I think we're an honorable enough bunch there wouldn't be a rash of "I like this hat so I'm gonna sneak it out of here". Great to see some of the Vanson stuff we can't get anymore, too - I loaded up 4. More sodas at the factory. The buckets went dry pretty early. 5. Get Court and Dave some shade next time. 6. Like Frank says, parking by model would be cool, at least for one event/photo session. Tony got some good ones of three of our S2's, so that's a start... 7. "recommended rides" with maps/turn-by-turn for those of us who didn't want the whole day of adventure riding, but still wanted to ride the area some. That's all I can think of at the moment, but just some ideas. We'll be there next year to see how things go, lol | ||
| F_skinner |
Joe, it is good to see you posting again. I hope you are getting better and fast. Lynn, being a Harley Girl, had a great time and that says a lot. We are use to a wild and crazy crowd and it was refreshing not to have to deal with that at homecoming. I really, really want to go again. There is something about seeing all those Buells in one place that does it for me. Maybe next year we can put up signs for S2s, X1s, Ulys, S3s and others for some great group photos. I think a group pic of all the Ulys would have been great as well. Yeah, that ride out to the track sucked but we did not care that much and were happy to be riding. We did not spend too much time at Summer Fest (about 4 hours) and I wish I had spent more time at the factory. At least I know how I will spend my time next year. I really just liked talking to all the people and the factory guys and gals were really cool. Next year, we will have to make sure we have a cooler so you don't have to stow your beer in the S2 bag LOL... Frank |
