| Author | Message | ||
     Lpowel02  |
Ride red. ...you have a Russian bike?  | ||
| Spiderman  |
Runs on Vodka | ||
| Court |
>>>This old guy rides a Honda Goldwing. If he thinks the Goldwing is more reliable than a Buell pull his head from the exhaust pipe. It'll do two things.....his head will clear and he won't be injured if the frame breaks.  | ||
| Davegess |
All of the drive train is made here in Wisconsin 'cept maybe those german pistons | ||
| Court |
>>>>'cept maybe those german pistons Oh yeah....I recall the night we were eating Mexican food when you first told me about that. Were we driving your French car or my Swedish one? Hold on...wait....it was my Ford truck with the Canadian motor! Court | ||
| Surveyor  |
Anyone tried the new 900XEnophobia? It's made exclusively by people, and with parts from your country - wherever that is. I'm told its particularly comfortable for those possessed of a narrow mind. | ||
| Davegess |
My French car was made in Belgium with German seats. | ||
| Whistle |
You guys are cracking me up-but I havea serious questions... I think I read somewhere that our bikes are handmade... is this true or do they still have assembly lines with machines that build some of the parts??? Obviously some of the parts are cut or machined automatically but I'm asking about the wrench turning...machine or hand? thanks, Nick | ||
| Blake |
But don't ya miss the Yugo? I hear they are coming back with a new four door sedan, the "Wego" or down here in Texas they're thinking of calling it the "Yallgo" with a station wagon version, the "Allyallgo" to follow soon after. | ||
| Steve_mackay  |
Court, those heads could also have been made on a "Made in America" Fadal machining center as well now But yes, the majority of the horizontal machines in HD's plant are Toyoda's. And for good reason. They're built like tanks. VERY FAST tanks, but still tanks | ||
| Anonymous |
Whistle, They are hand assembled, using digital torque wrenches hooked up to record onto computers for quality. Come to the Homecoming and see! | ||
| M1combat  |
Nice . | ||
| Court |
>>>I think I read somewhere that our bikes are handmade... Ahhhhh...the discussion enters my arena! Your Buell was built by smart, well trained passionate folks who love motorcycles, these folks are so single mindedly obsessed with YOUR motorcycles that they have a name.... Buell Motorcycle has taken the old "handmade" thing from the age of when it meant "widely varying tolerances and quality" to mean "built with precision and care". As the fellow wearing the bag alluded, Elves now use digital torque wrenches and each twist of a bolt is logged, followed and tracked by a smart fellow from India and his crew. Standards from vendors are tight as the nuts on a railroad switch engine and variances quickly detected and offending vendors brought on the carpet. It's interesting but I recently had a screw loose. Wait? . . let me rephrase that . . the Buell had a screw loose. In the old days, that'd been just one of those things. But the bar is now infinitely higher and I immediately started a how'd it happen, why'd it happen and what can we do to prevent it from happening again process. This, bear in mind, was a $0.03 screw. We are now in the age where I could take a V.I.N and tell you the precise time a given fastener was installed, how many degrees of rotation it went through to reach torque and what the final torque value was. I could also insure that the Froznoplnkitor was properly installed prior to adjustment of the Vifillator. Successor and predecessor tasks are defined. A couple years ago a wonderful thing happened to Buell owners......Erik Buell got his ••• handed to him over what could have been just "glitches" along the way. His reaction, like that of many driven folks was intense over-reaction and a possessed myoptic "I must build a perfect motorcycle" obsession. Lots of folks talk; Erik does and he, surrounded by similarly afflicted folks, has the vision and tools to make it happen. You'd be quite humored and somewhat amazed to see the folks who come to Buell to see how this is done. Folks from other countries that make vehicles, typically associated with "quality better than American" stand in awe chanting "humans can't out do machines". These folks have never met The Elves. Buell has melded man (woman too, apologies to April and Crew) and machine in a mutually beneficial marriage. The machine contributes to CONTROL of the process, it does not build the motorcycle. That is reserved for a person, not unlike you, who is passionate and loves what they are doing. Put this type of person in the proper enviroment, get them well connected with the end user (that'd be me n' you), let them know (by reading Badweb) that their work is appreciated and The Elves, like Pavlov's Rats, will scurry in pursuit of the perfect motorcycle for the reward of hearing of your enjoyment. It's a good world....... And there is so much more to say. Don't miss reading "Atomic Passion - Buells in 2005". Court | ||
| Aydenxb9 |
This whole thread was started because of comments made by some old Wing-Bat who thinks his Honda was built in Wisconsin?! When did Marysville Ohio get relocated? Dang, leave the state for a decade and see what happens? Next, someone will try to tell me the Greater Cincinnati Airport is in Kentucky! | ||
| Reepicheep  |
I heard they put half the Ohio river there as well.
I am *such* a sucker for this stuff. I absolutely positively can't go this year. Too many other commitments. I can't. It's impossible. No way it can work. (when is it again?  Maybe if I.... ) | ||
| Court |
Bill: Ya might want to think about it....I am about to get stirred anough to ask for a special clearance to do one of my SPECIAL TOURS. Frankly, you wouldn't believe what you'd see at Buell. We took a group of TEAM ELVES through, including Blake and Aaron, a couple years ago. Pretty amazing stuff. Court | ||
| Road_thing  |
Uh, Court, I think Pavlov was a dog lover... rt or was it sheep? | ||
| Blublak  |
COURT.. Man, you I can't believe you misspelled  Froznoplinkitor !!  And my wife thinks we're all too technical on this board for her to post here.. Sheesh.. Later, (Message edited by BluBlak on February 01, 2005) (Message edited by BluBlak on February 01, 2005) | ||
| Glitch  |
How did you get Court's user name and password? Who are you and what have you done with Court "remind me to tell you some time" Canfield? | ||
| Light_keeper |
I'm pretty sure they serve 100% columbian discount coffee in Canfield's diner located in beautiful Wiscassett Maine not that it is pertainate to this thread. | ||
| Outrider  |
The times they are a changing. Heck, the machines that used to make HD's were also made here in Wisconsin and that industry is gone. A lot of subcontractors for HD used to be here in Wisconsin and now they are either pursuing other interests or out of business. And Lastly...Court's beloved Briggs & Stratton Plant is being leveled and will be replaced with a Lowes Home Center and most likely a strip mall. Gosh golly gee...Where will we (Cheeseheads in NaziLand) find work to buy the products? In a low paying retail job? LOL | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
I joke with the wife about our Axis powers of automobiles (Alfa, VW, and Isuzu) oh and one old American Pontiac that ain't runnin' right now. | ||
| Steve_mackay |
Outrider, you are correct. We had some machines in HD when I worked at Wisconsin Drill Head. They are a shadow of what they used to be. Bought and sold several times, moved most of the manufacturing to Croatia or something like that. And now the plant in Croatia went on strike last I heard Harley also used to use Cincinatti machining centers and lathes until the early late 80s when they started buying Toyodas. Which were much faster machines, with more "industry standard" Fanuc controls. I can say, where I work, we do try to buy American machine tools when it's feasable. We have 7 Haas machining centers, which are made in Oxnard CA. And 2 Leblonde/Makino EDM machines made in Japan. So at least the majority are made here in the good 'ole US of A. | ||
| Outrider |
Steve...I used HD as an example of what has happened to the local economy. It goes much deeper than most can imagine. | ||
| Steve_mackay |
To put things a bit in perspective. I was talking with our Cad/Cam VAR down in Rockford last year. He estimated that 30% of the tool/die/mold shops in the chicago area have gone out of business in the past 5 years. That's an alarming, and continuing trend unfortunately. But it does help those of us that are still open. Less competition But, alas, the last mold we quoted for Buell, which was VERY recently, ended up in China IIRC  | ||
| Aesquire  |
I was working late one night, ( when I was the QC manager, ie, the guy the boss hates ) so I could give the Tech who flew out to Rochester, NY, from Osaka, a ride back to the hotel when he was done working on the machining center. I hear this little sound, over the hiss of the CMM, wander over & this little dude is INSIDE the head of the machine! He'd screwed up & was holding the main shaft, in both hands, and couldn't let go ( or it would drop & break ) and was stuck there. I had to lay on the bed, and bench press this really heavy chunk o' steel so he could crawl out & put the bearings back on. Strong little dude. I hung with him till he was done, & reamed my boss the next morning for leaving the guy alone. We had machines from 5 countries, ( including here ) making trany's for Dodge, who sold them to 2 other countries, as well as Ford & Chevy. If you really want to mess with your heads, where do you think that "Milwalky Iron" is mined? ( maybe someplace with elephants? ) | ||
| Court |
I recall seeing a piece someone once wrote called "ALL Made in America". The idea was they bought each part, regardless of cost, in the good ol' USA. I don't even recall what it was but the article ended up with something like a $59,000 motorcycle. Turns out basic economic theory makes sense. | ||
| P0p0k0pf |
Is it just me, or did the thread title just gain a few slurs? Jason | ||
| Lpowel02 |
Jason...it sure did, didn't it my nationality isn't included in the slurs, but it still offended me when I saw it | ||
| Mikej  |
How about simply "Multinational part sources"? |
