| Author | Message | ||
     Motorico |
Court, since you are apparently in the best position, other than Anonymous, to know, is there actually any investor interest in continuing the Buell motorcycle company? Without that, what real use is a letter campaign? | ||
| Hex |
Here's what I wrote: 23 November 2009 Dear Mr. Melvin, The closing of Buell Motorcycle Company by Harley-Davidson was wrong and needs to be influenced and adjusted. In the interest of fairness, equity and rational business decisions, allowing Buell to build both street legal motorcycles, as well as, pursuing motorcycle racing at the highest level, will save and create American jobs, spirit, and pride. I own both a Buell and a Harley, and I would like to see Buell completely free of Harley-Davidson's parentage. I would encourage fair licensing agreements between the two separate companies to satisfy business protocol. As a fellow patent holder, I look up to Erik Buell as a mentor. His business model is fast becoming my business model. If there is anyway you can help Erik Buell through this temporary road block, a small and spirited piece of America will be preserved. Please help set our Pegasus free! Sincerely Yours, Eric Ryan Owner: Ryan Rod Co. U.S. Pat. # 7,584,571 www.ryanrodco.com | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
No comment, just subscribing to the thread  | ||
| Rpm4x4 |
How do you subscribe to a thread? | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
In my profile I have it set to email me replies to my posts, so if I put a post on a thread I effectively "subscribe" to it and get emailed any new posts on that thread(until it archives to a new page). | ||
| Hex |
Today's the day! Just do it, write a letter, it will only take you half an hour if you put your mind to it, just use some of Court's bullets. | ||
| Mndwgz |
Done | ||
| Court |
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| Doerman |
Who is Chuck Melvin? | ||
| Court |
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| Hex |
Court, may I post your example on BuelletinBoard in the thread that I started over there? Hex | ||
| Hex |
At least I asked... Court, without your permission, I just posted your letter on BuelletinBoard. Hope you don't mind... Hex | ||
| Motorico |
Court, where did you get the numbers to support the line, "Buell was the ONLY American motorcycle company (Buell, Harley-Davidson, and Victory) to experience increasing sales over the last year"? | ||
| Xbrad9r |
hannity@foxnews.com for anyone who wants to also try to hit the news with your letters as well. | ||
| Xbrad9r |
here is a copy of the email i sent to Sean Hannity... Mr. Hannity, On October 15th, 2009, Harley Davidson Motor co. made the "business decision" to close Buell Motorcycle Company. This move was to shut the doors on the factory in East Troy, Wisconsin and put approximately 200 employees out of work and also effect local and nationwide suppliers and distrubutors that work with the Buell product line as well. In an economy where businesses are failing at an alarming rate this would seem to be business as usual, but that is only if you take it at face value. Buell Motorcycle Company was an innovative, forward moving and increasingly competitive cog in the overall motorcycle machine of today. The Buell Motorcycle Company had increased sales over 55% in the last five years while Harley Davidson had grown approximately 9% in that same time period. The Buell brand won the season championship in the very competitive AMA Daytona Sportbike class versus the much larger foreign bike makers and the much larger budgets they race with. The company was beginning to make more and more noise in the motorcycle world and Harley chose to silence it when it made no sense to do so. The decision to close Buell was met with lots of questions and backlash toward Harley Davidson from not only enthusiasts of the Buell brand, but from experts in the motorcycle industry from all over the globe. The decision to close Buell rather than allowing investors or a third party to purchase the company is one of the biggest questions that needs to be answered by someone with the ability to get someone at Harley Davidson to speak. Harley Davidson has allowed Erik Buell himself to leave H-D and start "Erik Buell Racing, LLC" which is a small step in the right direction. We, (the motorcycle enthusiasts of the world) would like to know why no one is allowed to buy Buell and keep Americans employed, and American ideas and innovations continuing to flourish. Thank you for your time and for taking a deeper look into this issue, Brad Farmer Abingdon, VA 423-817-3540 bfarmer@courtesykingsport.com (Message edited by xbrad9r on November 24, 2009) (Message edited by xbrad9r on November 24, 2009) | ||
| Court |
NOTE: Buell grew 55% over the LAST 5 years, Harley grew 9%. In the last year Buell GREW some 20%, while Harley-Davidson SHRANK The figures came straight from the respective firms' public filings, 10-K and 10-Q.
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| Motorico |
Court, I see that Buell/MV sold 9224 units for the nine months ending Sep 2008 and 8753 for the nine months ending Sep 2009. That is not an increase in sales. | ||
| Hex |
Units vs. revenue? | ||
| Motorico |
I do see a slight increase in revenue, but that is Buell MV Agusta combined. That makes it difficult to say that Buell sales are increasing since Buell sales are not represented as distinct. Although that does irk me that Buell is so intertwined with the HD monster that it cannot be sold off, yet the sales/revenue are lumped together with MV. | ||
| Motorico |
Actually I see an increase in Net Revenue, that may equate to an increase in sales (not supported by a decrease in shipments - perhaps old inventory being sold) or efficiencies or other factors. Maybe old inventory was sold, perhaps some 2008 inventory, but fewer bikes were shipped from East Troy. | ||
| Elvis |
Here are the numbers: Buell Harley 1999 * 63,474 * 1,890,932 2000 * 58,053 * 2,246,403 2001 * 61,672 * 2,671,314 2002 * 66,949 * 3,161,046 2003 * 76,064 * 3,621,488 2004 * 79,029 * 3,928,232 2005 * 93,069 * 4,183,515 2006 * 102,227 * 4,553,561 2007 * 100,534 * 4,446,637 2008 * 123,086 * 4,278,241 We can't count 2009 because Buell didn't even exist for all of 2009 and the numbers Harley released lumped Buell and MV together in 2009. If I remember correctly, the unit sales fell for Buell/MV, but the revenue grew. Harley shrank dramatically in 2009. From 2007 to 2008 (the last full years for which we have data) Buell grew 22.4% and Harley shrank 3.8% (Message edited by elvis on November 24, 2009) | ||
| Hex |
Accounting is funny. Why does HD have to cover it's butt and lump together the good (Buell) with a bad investment (MV). Somebody somewhere has Buell only numbers, but they're not public, I guess. | ||
| Xbrad9r |
My letter to Chuck Melvin at the MJS is signed, sealed and being delivered. The 1125 uprising is underway. keep me posted as to any other places/people we need to mail to and the day we are sending. | ||
| Motorico |
Elvis, what are those numbers? Is that sales revenue? It can't be the number of units sold as I have read that there were only something like 125000 or 135000 Buells ever produced. I have difficulty finding numbers to support the claim that Buell was the only American motorcycle manufacturer that experienced increasing sales over the last year. I am basing my numbers on the following document: http://xml.10kwizard.com/filing_raw.php?repo=tenk& ipage=6554392 If there are better numbers, post the URLs. I have seen some documents on posts here but searching badweb is agonizing. | ||
| Elvis |
Those numbers (all times 1000) are revenue numbers right off Harley's annual reports. The Harley numbers are for bikes only (so it doesn't count T-Shirts, leather dog-vests etc.). You can find the annual reports here: http://investor.harley-davidson.com/annual.cfm if you'd like to confirm. I've been collecting numbers for a while, so they may not have the oldest reports still posted. These: 2000*18,000 2001*19,000 2002*34,000 2003*57,000 2004*74,000 2005*99,000 2006*113,000 2007*113,000 2008*94,000 Are the numbers for Victory (X 1000 off their reports http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=108235&p=irol-reportsannual). Excluding tiny manufacturers such as Confederate and Fischer, that covers the 3 real manufacturers in the US. (Message edited by elvis on November 24, 2009) | ||
| Xbrad9r |
any more letter senders out there? anyone?... anyone?... Bueller?... Bueller? ...has anyone seen Bueller? | ||
| Rpm4x4 |
My letter will go out in the am. | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
I'll be sending a letter tonight, or tomorrow morning at the latest. | ||
| A_s_r |
Mine went out in today's mail. Edit: By today, I mean Tuesday (Message edited by a_s_r on November 25, 2009) | ||
| Littlebuggles |
I'll be mailing several tomorrow. I like the Sean Hannity letter too, good idea by the way. My wife and I usually try to listen to the radio show in the afternoons locally. I'll probably type them up here at work, then print and sign at home for legibility reasons. Thanks for posting up numbers guys, the data is nice to have. -Mike (Message edited by littlebuggles on November 25, 2009) |
