| Author | Message | ||
     Davegess |
"Perhaps Erik just loves racing so much he'd rather be there, not winning, than be home (I can certainly relate to that one). Who knows? " The poet Tennysen said it best "tis better to have raced and lost than to never have raced at all" Dave | ||
| Aaron |
Hmm, so you're allowed to second guess and complain about them, and nobody's allowed to question the logic in that? So you can dish it out, but you can't take it? Got it! Have fun, AW | ||
| Aaron |
Dave: I can certainly relate ... I had the choice of staying at the amatuer level, where I was competitive, or running with the big dogs, way in the back. There was no decision to be made. I was being lapped once, I'll never forget it. Dorsey Shroeder came around one side of me, Tommy Kendall the other side. It was like I was parked. They come flying around, both going for the same corner, slammed into each other, fiberglass flying. I figured hey, maybe I just got lapped, but I've got the best seat in the house! | ||
| Spike |
Hey, I resent that comment about 20-year-old squids on 600s. I bought my Cyclone when I was 20, and I just turned 21 last week. I don't care about an image, and I don't care which bike won on Sunday. I just want a torquey bike that's fun to ride. Spike '99 Cyclone | ||
| Anonymous |
"Hmm, so you're allowed to second guess and complain about them, and nobody's allowed to question the logic in that?" Yes, I AM allowed. I'm the customer. You see, since I'm the one spending money and allowing their business to even EXIST let alone be profitable. Management should be making decisions based on what _I_ want...as the customer. As a customer I don't need all their corporate information...I just need them to build bikes that I am willing to pay for. As a customer I ask for products that represent a good value in the real world. I ask for products that compare favorably or at least comparably with the products of other manufacturers in the same industry. Without my money there will be no company for the managers to run, there will be no employees to second guess the managers, and there will be no product made for anyone to complain about. Since it's my money paying for EVERYTHING the company does and the company lives and dies by MY decision to purchase their product your damn right I'm allowed to criticize! If the company I criticize doesn't listen...well they probably won't around long, now will they? I am the customer, your company exists to service ME and not the other way around. Get with the program or hang up the closed sign. Such are the realities of a free market economy. | ||
| Court |
Buell KNOWS their demographic very well. Erik Buell would suck exhaust gas from a tailpipe before he'd race WITHOUT doing everything within his power to win. Preposterous. You are talking about a guy who generated stories some folks don't, to this day, beleive when he raced. Buell is in business to SELL motorcycles. Erik can't pay one of the girls tuition with a trophy. The "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" thing makes a better cliche than business model. >>>Why would anyone pay $10,000 for a 92 CHP Firebolt when the same money gets you a top of the line Jap superbike? Precisely why top-drawer marketing folks were brought in. >>>"I bought my Buell (M2) precisely because it was designed to perform as well as practical on real world streets (which includes making it comfortable enough that I ride it more instead of less). " A: Need I say one word here?..go ahead...all at once.... I want to ride an XB and I'd really like to wring one out, I'm not sure I'm interested in buying one. However, I am absolutely thrilled with everything they represent in terms of what has transpired at Buell. Like some of you, I'd pay a pretty sum for a pristine S-1 (and likely will in the next year) partially due to nostalgia and largely, as AW comments, because it is what I want. Nothing, absolutely nothing, there that does not contribute to simple motion. DaveG..get that thing and get it broke it  Court | ||
| Aaron |
Anon, I agree with EVERYTHING in that post!!! When you're speaking collectively about the market. Companies that do a bad job of delivering what their customers want, when they want it, at a competitive price, can and should go under. But unfortunately, there's no single formula that meets all needs. Buell chose, this time around, not to meet mine. Damn! I don't believe that means they're all screwed up, though. My guess is that it just made the best business sense to them to make this product right now, instead of the product I want. I refuse to criticize them for that. Make no mistake about it, though, if they don't make it, and someone else does, they'll lose my business. I absolutely agree with you, that's the way it should be. | ||
| Anonymous |
What is the average age of a Buell onwner (Blast aside)? Isn't it 40 something? | ||
| Sarodude |
Hmmm... Buell BUYER or Buell OWNER?... -Saro | ||
| Lsr_Bbs |
see my post from Tuesday, January 29, 2002 - 12:27 pm ...I said bring it on. Sorry that you view all critiquing as complaining...I don't own a XB, I'm not complaining about a thing...I am questionning why certain decisions may, or may not have been made. BFD. Let's see, the jist of your POV is that BMC know more than us cause they have access to all the data, so therefore we shouldn't question or critique anything? Ok, got it. You still won't answer my simple question, yet you'll ramble on w/ smart-assed dispirsions about those (or at least me) that question WHY and/or WHY NOT. God forbid I try to learn anything by questioning why, and gathering differing viewpoints. fucking narrow-minded hypocrite. Neil Garretson X0.5 | ||
| Aaron |
"I'm saying, they need to shit or get off the pot!" "like winning the beauty contest when your the only participant." "If your going to talk the talk...you damn well better walk the walk! "you've got mediocre product development, arrogant decision making, etc" Yep, sure enough, just "questionning why certain decisions may, or may not have been made" and "questioning why, and gathering differing viewpoints". Not throwing rocks at all, I don't see how in the world it could be taken that way  C'mon Neil. If you're man enough to put down Buell, be man enough to take it when I point out how it looks. Not resort to revisionist history and name calling. You're getting way too spun up over this! "Let's see, the jist of your POV is that BMC know more than us cause they have access to all the data, so therefore we shouldn't question or critique anything?" I'm saying it puts us at a huge disdavantage when it comes to understanding their decisions. How in the world can we say they made bad decisions when we have a fraction of the information that they have? Isn't it kind of arrogant to sit here and claim that we know more about what they should do than they do? What question is it that you'd like me to answer? | ||
| Rempss |
"Buell KNOWS their demographic very well." Put THEIR in caps & thats the best statement yet. "Anon, I agree with EVERYTHING in that post!!! When you're speaking collectively about the market." Same with COLLETCTIVELY. "Yes, I AM allowed. I'm the customer. You see, since I'm the one spending money and allowing their business to even EXIST let alone be profitable. Management should be making decisions based on what _I_ want...as the customer." If you as the customer wanted a ham & cheese sandwich, should Buell build one? "As a customer I don't need all their corporate information...I just need them to build bikes that I am willing to pay for." Actually you just need SOMEONE to build it. You WANT Buell to build it. "As a customer I ask for products that represent a good value in the real world. I ask for products that compare favorably or at least comparably with the products of other manufacturers in the same industry" Comparing the same type; right? Well what should I compare my Buell to, what out there is it's equal? "Without my money there will be no company for the managers to run, there will be no employees to second guess the managers, and there will be no product made for anyone to complain about." If you are in the manufactures target demographic, you will buy, enjoy, not complain & buy agian, they will have your money. If not someone else will have yours and Buell will have someone elses; see how it works? "Since it's my money paying for EVERYTHING the company does and the company lives and dies by MY decision to purchase their product your damn right I'm allowed to criticize!" Yes, but if buy today's product complain about that. If their new products fall outside of your desired needs - go find out who makes that ham & cheese sandwich you are looking for. If you decide to be a customer of one manufacturer then buy what they build, if you like the idea of being a consumer, then don't buy from company A, go to company B. No matter how long you stand in front of company A with cash in hand, unless they have decided to market to YOU for a profit THEY decide you are wasting your time. "If the company I criticize doesn't listen...well they probably won't around long, now will they?" Farthest thing from the truth. They have people looking at the whole market and choosing a portion to market to, seems to me Buell has been successful in thier target market, maybe you are no longer in it? "I am the customer, your company exists to service ME and not the other way around. Get with the program or hang up the closed sign." You are the customer for their current product, if a company changes direction, and it is not the way YOU want it to go, voice your opinion with your feet. You, me or anyone else on this board cannot decide how company we purchase from should go to market. We do not have the information they are looking at right now. "Such are the realities of a free market economy" According to your definition of a free market Buell does not have the freedom to build something you do not want? Reality? Figure out want you want in oyur new bike, go buy it and I will spring for the Buell logo for your tank. I am an independant represenative - salesman - and sometimes I send my customers elsewhere until I can fill thier needs; as they change. Of 30+ manufactures I represent, sometimes I don't have what they want, do they demand I change MY focus, without knowing what I know? No. Jeff | ||
| Court |
Gotta run...someone remind me, tomorrow, to tell the story of the S-1, the lemons and the helicopter in San Francisco...might tie some of these loose ends together and keepo us from going Keynesian or summoning the ghost of Adam Smith! | ||
| Rempss |
How do I make my text show up blue? Cool. Jeff | ||
| Aaron |
Jeff, that was a great post, you hit the nail on the head. Companies don't owe it to any particular person to make exactly what he wants. To do something in blue, just type \ blue{text}, without the space after the \ |
