| Author | Message | ||
     Buelliedan |
Just got my first communication from EBR today. doesn't say a whole lot but they do sound optimistic: "Hello to all EBR dealers. Our apologies for the last months and all the uncertainty and business hardship that the closure of EBR created. The receiver and his team have worked diligently for a way forward and we are now confident all is headed in the right direction. It is likely that EBR will be under official new ownership as of July 23rd." | ||
| Tod662 |
Congrats Dan I hope the risk you took, and the pound of flesh you have in this ordeal, (while the rest of us are armchair quarterbacks) can be properly rewarded. | ||
| Buelliedan |
thanks tod | ||
| Hughlysses |
Wow, Dan. That seems pretty positive. I also hope you and the other EBR dealers come out of this ahead of where you were in April. | ||
| Crusty |
Dan; I have to echo Tod's sentiments. I hope you come out of this smelling like a rose. | ||
| Steveford |
You may come out better than before, who knows? Who does the patent for that electric motorcycle which makes a ton of power belong to? Would that be part of this Receivership auction? | ||
| Dave |
+1 on hoping things resolve in favor of EBR customers, dealerships, employees, and future EBR products and support. DAve | ||
| Jon |
That's an awesome post, Dan. Eagerly awaiting 7/23. | ||
| Fuzzz |
Good Luck Dan! Hoping for the best for all concerned.... except for the villain...LOL! | ||
| Tpoppa |
Just got my first communication from EBR today. doesn't say a whole lot but they do sound optimistic: What is the reason they can communicate to dealers now, but not previously? | ||
| Hootowl |
Maybe the judge said so?  | ||
| Hughlysses |
Cross-posting this from ebrforum.com, looks like Polaris isn't one of the potential buyers: Statement from the Head of Product for Indian Motorcycles and Victory Motorcycles, Gary Gray:
Source: http://www.motorcycle.in.th/article.php/The-Future -of-Victory-Motorcycles | ||
| Aaron_thomas |
"What is the reason they can communicate to dealers now, but not previously?".......... Because now they are kissing ass after treating them like crap and might actually have to depend on them for a dealer network and hope like hell they didn't totally piss off what dealers they did have. Especially after a comment or two directed toward some dealers on here. (Message edited by aaron thomas on July 09, 2015) | ||
| Court |
What a lucid and intelligent comment. Ya gotta love the internet. | ||
| Ourdee |
. | ||
| Ourdee |
Thank you Court. (Message edited by OurDee on July 10, 2015) | ||
| 86129squids |
  | ||
| Jon |
Opinons are like heroin. Everybody has one....er, I mean everyone shoots heroin into their arm using a needle. Just like opinions. | ||
| Buellmojo |
Ya gotta love a Groupthink... Just saying! | ||
| Alfau |
You have still have to ask yourself, What clown is going to try to sell race bikes to a nation in recession? Unless your not in recession and Obama is really a hero. | ||
| Sifo |
You have still have to ask yourself, What clown is going to try to sell race bikes to a nation in recession? Trying to leave politics out of it, while our economy is far from robust, it's not in an official recession (yet). The problem is that when starting a company such as EBR, you don't have knowledge of what the economic conditions will be when your product hits the market. Under different conditions, the economy could have been on a robust rebound and sales could have been much better. Even if you had a clue of the future economy though, the timing of starting EBR was set by the closing of Buell by HD. Taking a 5 to 10 year hiatus from engineering effort would have been even more unlikely to provide success in launching a new bike company. Personally I do have my own ideas on how EBR might survive short term, but it doesn't fit their most recent business model. It's beyond wild speculation though, so I'll keep it to my self, other than discussions over a beer. | ||
| D_adams |
Tom, I have beer in the fridge. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Well, the sale should be finalized the day before BITA 5 starts, so I'm sure there will be some lively discussions about EBR's future that Friday night. | ||
| Elvis |
What clown is going to try to sell race bikes to a nation in recession? BMW Yamaha Ducati Suzuki KTM Aprilia MV Augusta Suzuki Honda Bimota Kawasaki . . . EBR just needs to sell a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of he sport-bike market to be successful. They were getting there in a bad economy. They just had the rug pulled out from under them before they had enough time to cover their set-up costs. Even if demand had been off the charts for their product, they still would have been in trouble if their funding got pulled after a year and a half because they wouldn't have been able to physically make as many bikes as they would have needed to be cash flush after that brief period. | ||
| Greg_e |
You have Suzuki twice, and they collapsed too. Their highest selling racer the GSXR went for at least 2 years with zero changes and few newly manufactured because they had plenty in the warehouse. It was a bad time all around. And with that collapse, I know one dealer that lost all their franchise fees, and didn't get the franchise back when things turned around. | ||
| Ourdee |
Where's my couch and popcorn? | ||
| Steveford |
It takes big balls to start off in the deep end with a flagship model but they did have the engineering section to help out with the old cash flow until Hero refused to cough up (if what we've been led to believe is accurate). | ||
| Classax |
No disrespect to anyone intended, that said some of you are going to be deeply offended by my comments and I'm ok with that. The motorcycle sales slump ended in 2011 numbers have increased in all categories steadily since Q2 of 2011. BMW, DUCATI and MV have all had banner years since and that includes sportbikes. The 1190 series is essentially an improved version of the BMC Barracuda which is was near ready for production when HD decided to focus on selling relics... I mean classic cruisers. EBR came to market with that machine because it was the one that was closest to production. The XB line requires significant support from HD to produce and simply was not viable to continue with so many gaps in the IP held by HD. In other words they put players they had on the field and got in the game instead of waiting it out. If you own one of these machines you have been kept directly in the loop on what's happening. If you had questions interested parties could talk to directly to the Receiver or their rep. Otherwise you're just blowing smoke because you like to hear yourself talk. EBR made some huge mistakes in marketing. They have some quality control problems that need to be ironed out with the supply chain. EBR failed miserably at creating a good relationship between itself and its dealer network and needed to devote more time to it. Alot of mistakes in focus were made along the way. WHY were these mistakes made? In part, the demands of Hero on the Engineering Consulting business at times left both dealers and owners wondering whether they were a motorcycle MFG of and Engineering firm who made a few bikes on the side. HERO's desire for international exposure and seemingly unlimited bank roll made WSBk attractive since AMA racing was basically dead. The trouble with that is 1. The bikes and engines are designed to work on tight, rough tracks found here in the US not the glass smooth super tracks of WSBK and the inexperience in set up, riders and rules all made for an embarrassing first year that seemed to be turning around in the second season. 2. The number of machines required to constructed in order to compete outpaced the demand by a wide margin. 3. By all known accounts HERO has in the last 2 years reneged on just about every contract it has made with any partners it had. 4. 20 Million in debt with over 20 million in accounts receivable. Nothing else needs to be said. Everyone is entitled to their opinion as I have expressed mine but if you're going to whine, complain and speculate at least hold up the BMC/EBR of tradition of doing it in and informed way. PS. I notice that EBRs are selling now and the ones that are running and racing seem to be winning at the club level where it was designed to compete. (Message edited by Classax on July 13, 2015) | ||
| D_adams |
Sorry if you're not on fb, Pat hasn't uploaded this one to youtube yet I guess. Last weekend's race, well, one of them anyway. https://www.facebook.com/pat.mooney.90/videos/1015 3500596003901/ | ||
| Cmmagnussen |
Not sure if anyone was paying attention but remember EBR hiring a marketing exec from Piaggio? There is a link somewhere on here to the article. Now has anyone attempted to purchase an Aprilia in the last couple years? (Owned by Piaggio) Website doesn't give an accurate lineup of available models. Dealers aren't sure what models are available. Half the dealers listed on the site seem to be inactive. What product is available dealer staff don't seem to know anything about.... I went to multiple dealerships so this was not isolated and it ALL seems terribly familiar. Ah heres the link http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/17/ 725735.html?1382377175 Glad I got that off my chest back to beer and thinking about how glad I am that I passed up that Dorsoduro 1200 |
