| Author | Message | ||
     Mnscrounger |
"Just Ride The Motorcycle" could that come back? | ||
| Court |
And . . . . and, this may be the keystone to this entire dream . . . . it needs to be rolled out in the next 3 to 4 weeks. Absent a clearly defined, clearly communicated . . . customer service initiative . . you're essentially hoping to find the loyal core to join the company in their risk. Not likely to happen unless you have a business model that can survive selling 250 bikes a year. I suspect the EBR folks know this . . . let's hope the LAP folks, holding the reins, appreciated the import. | ||
| Davegess |
EBR desperately needs someone to market those points with a well-done ad campaign I doubt an ad campaign is coming they are far too expensive, a full page Cycle World ad can cost $40,000 and you need to runt he ad in many places many times. I can think of many better ways to drop a million bucks on marketing that doesn't involve buying ad. Hopefully EBR has a good guerrilla marketing person on board. We had the beginning son good campaign with Cory hitting the track days and smoking the top end sport bikes. | ||
| M1combat |
Yeah... it does need to happen NOW me thinks... | ||
| Hughlysses |
Well, Eslick may be available cheap...  | ||
| Court |
Eslick has burnt himself out. Getting drunk is one thing. Smacking a woman and a cop is commercial suicide. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Didn't hear about the woman. Bone-headed moves all around. | ||
| Hootowl |
That's why the cop was after him, apparently. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Send some bikes to me in MD. I'll ride 'em, and I'll sell 'em  | ||
| Oddball |
Mnscrounger, I suggested a return of that ad privately last year. It made the most sense to me to encourage experiencing things on the EBR. Make memories, have adventures, live, enjoy. It's the one way to truly bond with a bike/brand and for the brand to grow numbers of followers. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Come on, Thursday...  | ||
| Bob_thompson |
Just a random thought maybe not many have thought about. I first got into Buells a little late in 2002 when I bought my 2002 M2 Cyclone as a retirement gift and stayed here on BadWeb until now and will continue my love of them until their just a memory or I'm gone. Erik gave me what I tried building back in '75 with a sport bike type of Sportster but fell well short of what Erik finally gave me. After ordering an 1125R in Oct 2007 and taking delivery in Feb. 2008 I have enjoyed the absolute best bike I have ever owned in pleasure, performance and sheer enjoyment of riding. Now no matter what happens to EBR and I hope they can be resurrected once again, I will always be thankful to Erik, the original Elves and all the folks who have given me a fine riding life full of excitement and enjoyment. I hope all of you can feel as good about Erik, Buell & EBR as I do. BadWeb people are the best anywhere. Bob  | ||
| Buelliedan |
I honestly do hope they succeed and hope they can finally make a successful go of this. I just cannot afford to take the financial risk right now with them. I know my comments have rubbed some folks the wrong way but all I can say to that is: Put YOUR money where your mouth is. They need a dealer in the Colorado region so if you think it will be easy I am sure you could set up a dealership out here. You might see things in a much different light if your liveliehood is on the line. (Message edited by buelliedan on March 14, 2016) | ||
| Court |
Bob: Well said and I absolutely agree with you. Dan: Well said and I absolutely agree with you. | ||
| Cbi |
Social media is would be the perfect place for EBR to start. It's FREE! Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. They should start hitting it hard, then maybe bring in some print advertising. A lot of people say "EBR needs to make a smaller displacement bike" or "they should make a touring bike" or "they need more tech on the bikes". What EBR needs is an IMAGE. I'm not a PR exec, but I think EBR would fit right into the Triumph/Ducati crowd with the right campaign. | ||
| Buelliedan |
It's funny but I keep getting these anonymous e-mails from somebody who supposedly works for EBR telling me that they have spoken to Erik personally and how pissed he is at me for some of the comments I have made. Really?? EBR shuts down with zero notice to their dealers and absolutely no communication for months after and we are the bad guys for expressing our opinion? Plus, somehow I find that hard to believe as Erik has my number and he seems like the kind of guy who would call me up and tell me he was pissed if he really was. I don't see him as the passive aggressive kind of person. But Erik, any other EBR employee, or better yet my cowardly anonymous e-mailer, if you are reading this and are really pissed at me I would be happy to discuss it with you. call me at 970-532-3344 (Message edited by buelliedan on March 14, 2016) | ||
| Court |
Absolutely not Erik Buell's style. I'm calling bullshit on them working for EBR. Some folks can't participate in a discussion where all the dominoes don't align their way. If Erik Buell had a problem with you . . . he'd pick up the phone and call. | ||
| Buelliedan |
My thoughts exactly. Erik is not the kind of person to act like a high school girl and say stuff behind others backs. | ||
| Buelliedan |
"Hal's Harley in Milwaukee still has a few Buell's for sale at 12,499 and 12,999" That is most likely $2,000 less than the price they paid for them so they are probably not yet willing to take an even bigger loss. From other dealers I spoke with this has been the norm if they could afford to let them sit on the floor. Unfortunately other dealers could not so they sold them at less than $10,000 which IMO has killed the potential market for the LAP EBRs. Several of the old EBR dealers I spoke to have said they cannot justify selling the new LAP EBRs until the company is willing to do something about the EBRs they still have sitting on their sales floors. I can understand that. (Message edited by buelliedan on March 14, 2016) (Message edited by buelliedan on March 14, 2016) | ||
| Cyclonedon |
I plan on attending the reopening this coming Friday in East Troy. I love going through the factory and meeting the employees. I just wish they were making the anticipated AX model. That might actually make me trade in my Ulysses! | ||
| Fmaxwell |
Buelliedan wrote: "EBR shuts down with zero notice to their dealers..." That is what EBR should have done. News of panicked dealers canceling orders, returning inventory, and filing claims against EBR in court would have quashed any chance of EBR obtaining last-minute financing or renegotiating terms with existing creditors. It would have immediately driven bike sales to zero. Parts suppliers would have ceased all deliveries. Creditors would have filed lawsuits to obtain immediate payment of outstanding EBR debt. Why did dealers deserve more notice of this than the EBR employees who were about to lose their jobs? What about the customer who dropped $20K on an EBR motorcycle (price, tax, tags, accessories, etc.)? You don't think he deserved a heads-up that the resale value of his bike was about to plummet and that warranty service and some parts would become impossible to obtain? How about the manufacturers who supplied EBR-specific parts? Many of them were waiting to be paid for parts that they already manufactured. Others might have been deep into the red due to money invested in tooling, components, and raw materials to manufacture the EBR parts. I am sympathetic, but not just to the dealers. A lot of people were hurt and I don't see a fair way to give advance notice to one group and not the others. I don't pretend to know who was aware of this in advance, but I'd be really surprised if EBR's lawyers would have said that it was okay to tell some people and not others. Give me a moment to put on my Nomex suit before the flaming begins. P.S. Is it just me, or does it seem strange to others that "EBR" is flagged as a spelling error on this site? | ||
| Hughlysses |
To close out the Eslick discussion: http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/danny-eslick-p leads-no-contest-to-reduced-charge-of-misdemeanor- battery/ He's very fortunate the felony charge got dropped. | ||
| Panhead_dan |
Slick reminds me of those pilots on Top Gun. | ||
| Buelliedan |
Fmaxwell, I agree with you 100%. I was just using the dealers as that was personal to me and I can give a factual opinion from that viewpoint. All the reasons you gave is why I cannot take the risk on being a dealer for them again should they do the exact same thing in a few months. It is also the reason why I think LAP is going to have a much harder time than they think to sell the 2016 bikes at the price they will be offering them at. I did not feel it was my place to try to speak for vendors, employees or EBR customers. (Message edited by buelliedan on March 15, 2016) | ||
| Billybob |
Buell should spent heros money on rd and billing bikes for hero and not pissing away on racing.erik does not know how to run a business he ion a engineer .i fell sort for all the dealers that lost money | ||
| Hybridmomentspass |
wut? | ||
| Froggy |
That is what EBR did.
The race efforts were paid for directly by Hero. EBR only built the bikes and parts. Hero took care of the rest. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Well, let's hope for some more good news out of East Troy in the next couple of days. | ||
| Crusty |
Isn't today the day? Sure wish I could be there tomorrow. Oh, well; life is full of disappointments. | ||
| D_adams |
Today is press only, tomorrow is open house. |
