Eric Buell's EBR Company Closes

[John Ranalletta]

Local dealer has a few in stock. I wonder....

 

http://rideapart.com/articles/ebr-goes

 

Edited January 27, 2017 by John Ranalletta

[TEWKS]

Too bad, Eric seems like an awesome guy with a deep passion for motorcycles that goes way beyond his own personal monetary gain.

 

 

Pat

[Jake]

It's like Motus beat him to the punch in developing a motorcycle that most of us would want, and Eric could have done it for far less. Great engineer, but likely not listening to the accountants.

[T.M. Roe]

Accountants speak gibberish....

[Antimatter]

That's too bad. I would have loved to see EBR put out an ADV bike that could evoke some passion among riders. It's a shame for the employees and suppliers for the company.

[realshelby]

That's too bad. I would have loved to see EBR put out an ADV bike that could evoke some passion among riders. It's a shame for the employees and suppliers for the company.

 

They did! The Buell Ulysses was marketed as an off road/on road bike. Like other Buell bikes it tried to reinvent stuff that was working well. Just because it was a Buell. The real failure was the Harley Davidson connection. The engine was a problem ( based on Harley Sportster ) as it had low power, vibration, excessive heat, and reliability issues. Maybe the biggest problem was that it had to be sold by Harley Davidson dealer. I went to look at one, actually went there twice, and NO ONE would approach me to talk about it. HD salespeople didn't want them and sure didn't know them.

[John Ranalletta]

Accountants speak gibberish....

 

On that note, a fellow managed the local prime steak house for a chain. It was the highest grossing store in the country. On the Monday morning after a blow-out weekend, he gets a call from company headquarters. The accounting dweeb says, "You're short a case of beer" on your inventory.

 

The manager says when he quits and opens his own restaurant, "My old company was an accounting firm masquerading as a restaurant."

[Amac]

The Uly was a great bike...you are right in identifying the HD connection as the failure. Most HD dealers didn't have the slightest idea how to sell not only the bike, but sell to the people who rode it. If Harley had set up an independent dealer network, or even an appendage on their stores with different entrances and staff they would have done better.

[OoPEZoO]

I have a Buell S1 as my play bike. It is loud, crude, the chassis flexes weird, the stock suspension wasn't great, it leaks oil from several places, and I'm constantly chasing little annoying issues with it. That being said, its still awesome and I never plan to part with it. I've never ridden anything that makes me grin like that. Its not a utilitarian point A to B bike like most bikes of its era turned into. Its raw and has a ton of soul.

 

The late Buell XB bikes were well sorted and fantastic machines. Their pitfall was the HD dealers and lack of support. There were a few good dealers who catered to the Buell crowd (and still do), but the majority wasn't interested. Its a shame......there are many XB's out there with 100k miles on them, and many happy owners.

 

As far as the latest EBR bikes.......my god, if you can ever throw a leg over a 1190SX and take it for a spin, please do it. It will blow your mind. They are truly remarkable. I don't have enough time to ride anything right now to justify such an expensive toy, but they are really amazing motorcycles.

 

Hopefully EBR pops up again and continues to offer them....and I'm pretty sure they will, its just a shame they are having such a rocky road keeping things going.