| Author | Message | ||
     Gonen60 |
advertise more. Sure, I have seen some print ads in several magazines, US and UK, But I have never seen a TV ad. When ever I watch the motorcycle races on "Speed channel", be it Moto GP, AMA or WSB, I see Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawaski and even HD and local chopper shops. Two Wheel Tuesday gregs garage, as pitiful as that show can be, is prime time for cycle ads. I picture a Buell "FireBolt" TV spot, showing the "FormulaXtreme" race bikes roaring around the track, then fading into the street Firebolt carving some back road. the voice over mentioning the USA pedigree and how well the bolt is doing in it's first year of pro racing and how the Buell is the only American made sportbike. I can't see where money could be the issue, when HD is very well off. You can't make money without spending money. Why no big push from Buell? | ||
| R1DynaSquid |
They have that commercial you will see on Speed or Discovery channel where they are going thru the curves & in the end the camera pulls back & the curves spell out "mine"...at least I think thats what it says. I have seen 2-3 different Buell commercials. | ||
| Glitch |
SMHD/Buell has lots of ads here. Maybe the ads have to be bought by local dealers? After we broke the demo ride record Buell gave SMHD/Buell a bunch of money for more advertising. | ||
| Court |
Buell does a TON of advertising you likely don't see. In addition Buell, the FIRST company to do the organized demo ride drill, spends a good deal of it's ad budget on demo fleet, staffing and events. Interesting enough, I sat in on a meeting at HD's conference room one day listening to some focused experts tell the four mags Buell would be be to buy space in. I recall being amazed, but I am sure they were right. Few motorcyclist read motorcycle magazines. And trying to sell a Buell to a Buell owner isn't the highest and best use of a limited budget. | ||
| Turnagain |
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| Doughnut |
Buell = Red headed step-child. | ||
| Deerhunter17 |
As much as I was intrigued by the XB when they first came out, it was the tv add showing the bike carving up a twisting road and turnin it into a straight line that got my attention, I think it was on espn, during NHRA or Fox sports during a Nascar show? don't know, but the commercial sure stuck with me. | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
I have seen the ads more during "Tuner Transformation" and TDC on Spike as well as in the rest of the Powerblock on Spike then I have during any of the Speedchannel motorcycle programming, even saw them during WRC coverage. | ||
| Midknyte |
I was going to ask "how many here bought a Buell because of an ad?", but I and my thoughts are probably not representative of Joe Public... I didn't need an ad. I only needed one jaw dropping look at the annual cycle show in Rosemont & I was hooked. Articles, interviews, & details then served as justification. I dunno. For me, the bike spoke for itself. I still think it's awesome. | ||
| Misato |
yeah, I never heard of buell until 2k when I saw my first S1 and said HOLLY ••••! I gotta have that! I've seen that 'mine' ad a bunch, seems like for the last year. speed and spike channels I think. I do remember one X1 ad of a burnout smiley face, but it didnt make me want to buy it. I had my XB before I ever saw ads for it. | ||
| Phillyblast |
I was wandering by a coworker's desk yesterday, and he was surfing for bikes - he's thinking of getting one, and wanted my opinion, since I ride to work a lot, and he's looking to save money on gas (back over $2/gal. her in Filthadelphia). I gave him Court's line about not being able to buy a bad motorcycle these days, which I think is true, too. Asked him what he was looking at - he said HD, natch, but the prices scared him off, the metric cruisers were cool, but they weren't really commuter bikes, either. I pointed him to the Buell web site, and he looked at the CityX. First words out of his mouth were "that's freakin' cool!" He asked me where the exhaust was, so I pointed him to the Erik B. video, explained that EB was in fact the "Buell" on the tank, he sees Erik doing the dance with the muffler, looks at me at the end of the video and says "I want one."  When I left he was laughing at the fuel-in-the-frame video, with Erik talking about what a pig his race bike was with a full tank. SpikeTV indeed. Great place to target what could/should be the Buell demographic. | ||
| Midknyte |
I'd known of Buells - see one here or there. If I offend, I'm sorry, but they always had the look of being made with "parts on hand". The [apparent] HD $ backing for R&D in the ground up designs of the Blast and the XB lines was both appealing but necessary to bring me over. There's definately a point there where Erik [seems to have finally] won the favor and influence to put together an engineering team to flesh out his ideas and I'm very happy about that. For him and for me. Of all the bikes out there in the class, these new Buells are the ones that really have that "I meant to do that!" look. | ||
| Buelluk |
Progressive is currently using an XB12S in its commercial on Two Wheel Tuesday in the NE | ||
| Midknyte |
Nice, but they charge more to insure it than Country Companies  | ||
| Mikej |
I've been wondering what their XB rates are. | ||
| Buelluk |
I would be careful using them, they jacked up my rate by 300 or so bucks after I had agreed to the policy, I later managed to force them down to the original price. Incidentally at that time - September 2003, they did not even have the XB9 on their rates ,they had quoted me the rate for the X1. They claim they know what motorcyclists want ,but they didn't even know I had a policy with them , when three months later they sent me some information asking if I would be interested in trying them out. I think their staff have been spending too much time in them sissy bars ! | ||
| Midknyte |
Progressive quoted me something like $200-300 more for my XB than Country. | ||
| Midknyte |
This conversation went around a few months ago with similar comments all around about Progressive and Buells. | ||
| Bomber |
Mid wrote: If I offend, I'm sorry, but they always had the look of being made with "parts on hand". absolutely right! one of the draws for me, as I'm a big fan of doin the most with the least, but I understand that not all feel that way ;- that said, the XB series represents a huge lead forward for Buell -- I'm thinkin when my daughter finished college (threee more years), I can';t wait to see what Eriok and Co have waiting for me!} | ||
| Midknyte |
Looking back, the last year or two of the tubers really were nice - but I never saw them on the road. I'd seen older tubers. Add to that, I did not know that Buell had been owned by or an official part of HD all the way back to what was it 83 or 87. But even so, they were also too tall. | ||
| Midknyte |
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| Socoken |
when i was a young(er) kid, i remember working in my fathers indy shop, doing bead blasting, tires, detailing, that sort of thing. one day a local dealer had a demo ride, and one of my fathers employees went on it, came back and raved about wheelies and burnouts, which of course peaked my curiosity. he gave me the pamphlet they gave him, and i read every phrase, memorized it even. from the age of 13 or 14, i KNEW i would own one someday. still have that pamphlet. still want an S1.... | ||
| Midknyte |
Oh the parrallels! Buell: Deep Space Nine - Buells in a standalone dealership... Buell: Voyager - Cut off from the mothership to explore independence. Buell: Enterprise - Returning to their roots, er tubes (A dream for many, hence this analogy). | ||
| Bomber |
returning to tubes? {grin} nah, they're making much better bikes now -- no reason at all to go backwards (ymmv, as always) good analogy, though thanks fo rthe giggle in the middle of a, ehm, challenging day | ||
| Ocbueller |
Midknyte, If I am not mistaken, Buell was partially bought by H/D in 97 or 98. By 99 I think H/D owned the entire company. Prior to that time Erik was buying the motors from H/D and then selling the bikes to H/D for distribution thru their dealer network. I believe my 97 S1 is all Buell and my 99 X1 is wholly H/D owned. Others may be better informed. SteveH | ||
| Phillyblast |
HD bought 49% in late '93/early '94 forming the "Buell Motorcycle Company" (Dave Gess or Court could provide more specifics on this) so the S2 was the first HD/Buell model. '98 or so HD bought another 49%, leaving Erik Buell with 2% ownership. Soooo . . . if you own an RR or RS(S) it's a pre-Harley Buell. If you own anything after that, well, it's still all Buell. I rode a Spory the other weekend. Trust me there's nothing Harley about a Buell. | ||
| Court |
Philly: Your statement above is 98% accurate. Let me know if I need to call your co-worker to close the deal. In fact, would it convince him if I'd just ride a Cx down and let him take a look at it? This is a bike he NEEDS! | ||
| Reepicheep |
Did you do it Court? Did you get one. I *really* need to sell my house | ||
| Ocbueller |
thanks for the clarification. SteveH | ||
| 984_cc |
I could be wrong, but I thought that a few years ago (late 90s), that H-D bought 49% of Buell, and recently, they have purchased 2% more. This gives them 51% ownership of the company and the power to dictate what goes on there. So it's 51/49% ownership. I swear I read that somewhere just recently. |
