| Author | Message | ||
     Figorvonbuellingham |
So, any news on the matter at hand? Lol... | ||
| Hughlysses |
Google search on Web and news still turns up zip in this. Where are all the investigative moto-journalists? | ||
| Reepicheep |
I agree with you on one of those three points. Though I think without Hero, you assume they wouldn't be where they are now ever. I suspect they would have been here sooner. What source of available operating funding should they have utilized instead? Help us understand their mistake? | ||
| Rubberdown |
"I guess you could just be MOTUS and not actually sell anything..." Customers have taken possession and are riding them. There was one near the Deals Gap this weekend. They are also having a number of demo days at this time. Wish I had one. Go Motus! | ||
| Hughlysses |
Hmm, maybe Motus has deep enough pockets to buy the EBR IP. I could go for a water cooled pushrod V-4 with fuel-in-frame and an inside-out front brake!  | ||
| Classax |
Although its under powered in stock trim, the best engine in terms of power delivery and top end has to be Aprilia's V4. The day that can get that engine into an EBR chassis is the day I will finally stop my search for the perfect sport bike. Buell has been tied to the V twin because of his ties to HD for far too long. As nice a production engine and street, trackday, and club racer powerplant it is, when it comes to all out BIG MONEY racing it just doesn't have the topend needed to push aliens beyond light speed. Still you have to play the team on the field not the one on the draft boards. I can't say for certain what we have heard about HERO is completely true although they've reneged on contracts with Brains Logistics and basically appears to be a carbon copy of what their bike division pulled on MIFA about the same time last year, as well their sponsorship with Pegram Racing and contract with FIM WSBk leads me to more inclined to believe it than not; Up until the latter part of 2014 HERO has zero negative press. Ever since the exit of Bain Capitol in June of 2014 as one of their major investors, HERO has been burning partners in what appears to be one nefarious deal after another. Hind sight being 20/20 the HERO deal was a failure, but armed with the information available at the time, I'm not sure most of us don't make the same decisions. In life sometimes your're the hawk and sometimes you're the rabbit. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Buell favored Vtwins for the same reasons as Ducati and others: They are narrow. | ||
| Hootowl |
Yeah, I can't see stuffing a 4 cylinder inside the tank spars. A twin worked for what he need it to do and where he needed it to fit. However, he is on record as saying that he's not married to twins, and is open to many engine configurations. Makes you wonder what was in the works. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Makes you wonder what was in the works. Steve Anderson's article in Cycle World about the closure of Buell in 2009 mentioned they had a line of middle-weight triples almost READY FOR PRODUCTION prior to the closure. I've often wondered if EBR wasn't going to eventually pick that project up where Buell left off. | ||
| Hughlysses |
BTW- In another thread on this subject that I started in the EBR sub-forum, our Badweb resident soothsayer on all things Buell/EBR stated that he believes that the auction of EBR in chunks indicates there is no big buyer waiting in the wings, but he hopes he's wrong. We'll all see in 3 weeks I guess. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Really? Well I heard from a very reliable source on the internet that he was going to fit a re-engineered version of the old Jag V12 into a unicycle, but the bank draft from his "Dear Friend" Mr Gerald Umbokoboko never arrived in time from Africa. Of course there was that terrible funding disaster, that was reported on somebody's blog, when he invested all the company's assets in lottery tickets & won ninepence. Not to mention that time when he blew a raspberry at an innapropriate moment. What a terrible businessman & human being, perhaps he should just go back to playing a guitar.  | ||
| Sifo |
The XB platform is already kind of wide between the knees. Stuffing another pair of cylinders in there just isn't going to work. Sadly, anything in the works in 2009 is the property of HD. All the speculation in the world isn't going to change the future of EBR. I was in my local shop yesterday for new tires though, and spoke with the service writer who bought an 1190 as a race bike just before stuff hit the fan. He told me that just recently he was finally able to purchase a race ECM for his 1190, and the spigot has been turned on for many other parts also. Sorry, I don't know much in the way of details, as it really means little to me beyond wishing the best for all involved in this sad series of events. | ||
| Jaimec |
The "Frank" was designed as a way to lower the CG of the already tall V-Twin and leave room for an appropriate sized airbox. If you had four parallel cylinders, you wouldn't NEED to wrap the fuel around the engine, you could tilt the engine forward and you'd have all that empty space where the "V'ed" cylinder would've been. This is what most of the manufacturers do with their Superbikes today (and what Yamaha is doing with their MotoGP bikes). | ||
| Hughlysses |
Referencing the cancelled Buell 3-cylinder mid-weights and the idea that EBR might pick this project up at some point: Sadly, anything in the works in 2009 is the property of HD. I'd imagine, much like with the 1190, there's a LOT of info in the former Buell engineer's heads that would make re-starting such a project from scratch much easier the second time around. | ||
| Sifo |
The "Frank" was designed as a way to lower the CG of the already tall V-Twin and leave room for an appropriate sized airbox. If you had four parallel cylinders, you wouldn't NEED to wrap the fuel around the engine, you could tilt the engine forward and you'd have all that empty space where the "V'ed" cylinder would've been. This is what most of the manufacturers do with their Superbikes today (and what Yamaha is doing with their MotoGP bikes). Well if you start to do it like all the others, then you don't really have the Buell thing going, you've just followed the pack. I'll let the individual decide if that would be a good thing or not. I'd imagine, much like with the 1190, there's a LOT of info in the former Buell engineer's heads that would make re-starting such a project from scratch much easier the second time around. While I don't doubt that would be the case, the current reality is that the way this has worked out the heads in question have already be pretty well scattered to the wind. Not only that, but you would still have to be careful to avoid patent infringement while implementing ideas that are still in various heads. I hate to say it, but it's a long shot to see any new EBR 1190 models built much less something new that would require pretty much starting out with a blank sheet of paper. I would be happy if reality proves me wrong. We still have a few weeks to speculate before reality has a chance to do anything though.  | ||
| Steveford |
For those in the know, when the dust settles from this mess and the lawyers have gone back to chasing ambulances and bilking little old ladies out of their pensions will the actual story of what led to the Receivership see the light of day? | ||
| Classax |
The current Aprilia V4 mil is only 6cm and some change wider than the ET-V2 at the base of the valve covers. It would greatly benefit from having a larger airbox. I the V4 would make the bike that much wider. But yea until the dust settles its all just wishful thinking... | ||
| Reepicheep |
I hope we get another Steve Anderson story. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Posted by EBR or their Facebook page last night:
| ||
| Reepicheep |
I hope so! | ||
| Court |
We've no clue as to who is posting the farcebook information......but.......if that is a credible statement it brings great hope. I'm convinced that Erik Buell is not done and has some amazing things up his sleeve. There are 4 hurdles he and the assembled team will need to clear. If they can successfully manage them....the designs ...... Now at the 90%+ stage could change the face of motorcycling in America. HERO erred. They fell for the "biggest guy with the stick" wins fancy. Big is size and size, alone, is a small component of commercial success. Don't believe me? Ask a bankrupted General Motors, Lehman or AIG. Brains, tenacity and perseverance are the tools a commercial warrior takes into battle. I've seen Erik's drawings of the new products (he wasn't thrilled about me photographing them, but we have a pact which I will honor to the grave concerning pictures taken " past the end of the driveway") and I'm convinced his sense of what folks want and are prepared to buy is still keen and on target. This isn't the way anyone had planned the script but, after several commercial left hooks to the jaw, no one is better that coming up from the mat swinging than Erik Buell. It's my personal opinion.. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Finally, a brief mention of the sale in the motorcycle press- in Poland!: https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_ c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&t l=en&u=http://www.motogen.pl/Majatek-Erik-Buell-Ra cing-trafi-pod-mlotek,23606.html&usg=ALkJrhjGibE5n vMIIiRgG7MJyPHxstlpSQ | ||
| Reepicheep |
Maybe whoever bought the entire run of VR1000 homologation bikes will buy EBR.  | ||
| Readyxb |
Court, a few questions... who is the "we've" you refer to? Is that the badweb community, or you and someone in EBR? Also, when you say we've no clue who is posting the farcebook information, are you referring to the facebook post quoted by Hughlysses above? If so, that was posted by "EBR", ie, whomever owns the EBR facebook account, which I imagine is currently used by Erik and might be shared by a few EBR employees in the past. Thanks for any clarification you can add to your statement. | ||
| Glitch |
Court has a mouse in his pocket | ||
| Sifo |
Well I had an interesting day, so to speak at my local dealer. Never mind about that, but it gave me a chance to clear something up with their service writer who I had mentioned earlier had finally been able to order his race ECM. Turns out that it's not coming from EBR, but directly from the company that made them for EBR. What that means in the grand scheme of things, I have no idea, other than some select parts are being made available. He was expecting it to arrive today. | ||
| Ourdee |
Glitch +1 | ||
| Strokizator |
If they can successfully manage them....the designs ...... Now at the 90%+ stage could change the face of motorcycling in America. I don't want to sound like a pessimist, and I still think Erik Buell is a great engineering talent, but I'd like to see the superlatives ratcheted back just a bit. The Segway was supposed to change the way cities were designed (I haven't noticed it) and I'm not holding any hope that the face of motorcycling will be radically changed. Most people, myself included, ride motorcycles for the visceral experience and I hope that doesn't change. Here's also hoping his "sense of what folks want and are prepared buy" is more finely honed the next time. I really do want to buy another bike from him. | ||
| Sifo |
BTW, local dealer told me $10,999 for the EBR 1190 models. Said if you buy two they could sweeten the deal a bit and you would be covered with spare parts. | ||
| Gearheadgrrrl |
Hostess declared bankruptcy, shut down, and began liquidation in 2012. Yet you can still buy Twinkies, Wonder Bread, and many of their other brands in most of the country. Other companies bought the brands and some of the bakeries and put them back into production/ |
