Eric Buell

ultimate fighter wrote: Mr. buell has to differentiate from the harley buell. Harley is watching him like a hawk, because they hold his patents and will sue at the hint of him using one.

I applaud the break away. He will now have the consumer interest and the following to make and sell an exponentially better bike without having to run his plans by a group that prides itself on styling over performance.

Erik’s new venture will consist of the making and selling of Buell 1125R-based race-use-only motorcycles, which will are under license from Harley-Davidson.

LINK

The only patents Harley got from Erik are the ones he applied for as an employee of Harley (and Harley has licensed those patents to him), he keeps the patents he owned prior to his employment.

Did anyone watch the video of the engine assembly in youtube? MAN THAT PISTON LOOKS HUGE!!! :woohoo:

Actually I had a friend who was able to tour the manufacturing do some hands on,, his comments are as follows:

Harley bought him out and ran Buel into the ground....so he started EBR....uses a Rotax engine...190 HP, 345 lbs....our SAE section got to tour his new place and see his parts , bikes and stuff...pretty much a race ready bike for the street; but being a premium sport bike, it also comes with a similar price tag....he's pretty cool to hear speak....very passionate about it...we got to handle parts, see bikes going together.... talk with the engine builder,handle engine parts too.$40k for the base model,actually, with all the custom, billet and exotic materials we saw on that thing... $40 seemed cheap. magnesium cast wheels, front part of the frame is alum and also is the gas tank, rear part where the seat is magnesium....the front brake assy out performs duel caliper setups and is 7 lbs lighter....also meets all noise and pollution standards quite easily....50 state cert, just remove the resonator with the cat and go racing...they had this cool clutch on it...you could set it up to grab when you want... so you could be in 6th gear, dump it to first and it would just slip until you got to where you wanted it to grab....

Here is the link for the engine build:

72 deg V, they actually gut the engines, put all new internals, are buying raw castings from the head casting place and machining and porting it themselves...I think this is the bike he always wanted to build....Harely never wanted to try and go into that market...

Godfrey

Aesthetics could be debated, but man, thats a lot of tech going into a bike and I would love to ride that beast. Cracking that throttle would be very addictive :silly:

In one of my MC mags, they had a write up & pics on the new build... Seems the race model/build is going to compete with the big boys on the GP circuit.

I don't have a scanner so I'll take some pictures of the article and see how it comes out to post.... Interesting write up...

I gotta go with Jeff on this one, to build a brand you have to get buyers when they're young, simply making them wish for one doesn't put more butts in seats later when they have disposable income. I just wonder how well this Buell type bike will translate when true cost cutting comes in for his affordable version.

"Be assured that the standard 1190RS won’t be any less expensive than was a Ducati 1098R, and the Carbon Edition will be more expensive yet. And also be assured that Erik Buell doesn’t plan on being in just the boutiquesport bike business; he intends to follow these $40,000-plus machines with more affordable versions." ~ Steve Anderson, Cycle World Quote

Selling a few very expensive bikes will probably be very easy. There are a number of collectors that'll jump at the chance to own a 'limited Edition' bike. ut I doubt Buell will make much money on a few dozen specials.

I just can't see him getting his bikes down to a price point where local dealers will signup to sell them. Their investment in training across sales, service, parts, warranty, software, etc. will be high - and for how many different models? and how few unit sales? HD throws a fit when their dealers bring other brands into the same dealer building.