We all thought the Buell brand was dead and gone, but it seems we haven’t seen the end of it yet as a recently issued announcement says the name will be associated with motorcycle racing in the near future. This is the result of Erik Buell leaving Harley-Davidson and establishing Erik Buell Racing with support from Harley-Davidson Motor Company.
Erik Buell Racing will be based at the Buell factory in East Troy, Wisconsin and supply the Buell 1125R to racing teams. This means meeting racing regulations and keeping part of the workforce previously engaged in producing American sportsbike. But most importantly, we’ll be hearing from Buell in the future when, hopefully, they’ll be winning races.
Press release is attached after the jump.
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As you all know, Buell Motorcycles are dead and gone, but after the brand was killed by HD, people have began to speculate about the last project that Buell was working at. It all started from this photography taken by John Hanson, a contributing photographer for Road Racer X, in the Milwaukee area.
The word is out that Buell had prepared an 1199cc V-twin for what was to become a high performance American superbike. This prototype was surely contoured around the idea of more power and less weight than the 1125R, which could have translated into Buell turning to WSBK. All hope vanished when HD made the radical decision to discontinue Buell. Sad, too sad!
Buell’s East Troy, Wisconsin production line has today delivered the 136,923rd and last motorcycle, this
Buell Lightning XB12Scg. The company’s 26 years of operation end today after Harley-Davidson announced the discontinuing of Buell a month ago.
Walworth County Economic Development Alliance (WCEDA)
Email- fdburkhardt@yahoo.com
WCEDA is an economic development coproration that works with business and government to retain, expand and grow businesses.
UPDATE- BUELL
23 October, 2009 .
Status
• WCEDA has had contact with Jon Flickinger, President and COO of Buell and representative of Harley Davidson.
• WCEDA anticipates a meeting with Mr. Flickinger sometime in the next 10-days or so. At this time, a fixed date for the meeting has not been set.
• The conversation with Mr. Flickinger was general in nature and revolved around the Buell’s level of integration into the Harley Davidson system
• WCEDA briefed Mr. Flickinger as to WCEDA’s and the Village of East Troy’s objective: Identifying and exploring options that might be available that would enable the Buell motorcycle to continue to be produced in East Troy.
• Mr. Flickenger acknowledged that he and Harley were aware of the concerns and we could meet so as to present them personally.
• There are no outcomes projected for the anticipated meeting
• WCEDA’s initial primary contact with Buell and Harley will be Jon Flickinger.
After reporting on Harley-Davidson’s decision to suddenly kill Buell Motorcycles, we’re happy to hear that the American brand may have a chance after all as a group of officials from the Village of East Troy, Walworth County Board and East Troy Chamber of Commerce, formed by the Walworth County Economic Development Alliance, plan on taking over the Buell name and continue producing motorcycles at the East Troy, Wisconsin plant, where more than 180 people currently work.
According to reports, the group of American businessmen will meet with company founder Erik Buell to discuss about the possibilities to revive what until last week was the wholly-owned subsidiary of HD. We hope for the best.
We’re sad to announce that Harley-Davidson is discontinuing the Buell brand and selling off its share in MV Agusta. As a result of the shocking news, Erik Buell comes ahead and speaks with a trembling voice about his 26-year engineering adventure that resulted in a motorcycle brand with global recognition, the first one to show that America can deliver competitive bikes and go head to head with European and Japanese brands in this segment of the industry. Also, the founder of the company thanks customers and dealers for that support and he explains that motorcycles currently found in dealerships are the last to ever be sold and HD will continue to honor the full factory warranty on his motorcycles. You can see the video and read HD’s immense press release about their third-quarter results after the break.
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Buell’s 2010 lineup wouldn’t have been complete without the notorious Ulysses models, the XB12X sportbike and XB12XT sport-touring one. Both motorcycles are powered by the smooth, reliable 1203 cc air-cooled engine and feature the appropriate wheelbase and ground clearance in order to prove efficient both on paved roads and unpaved roads. At a first glance, the Ulysses XB12XT model stands out thanks to the standard side and top cases, but it also comes with heated grips and tall windscreen, like any touring motorcycle should.
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Buell likes to consider the 1125CR a modern day café racer and while the perfect blending of class-leading performance with sinister styling and a wicked attitude to push the boundaries of the streetfighter category means they’re not at all far from the truth, we’ll just go ahead and say that this bike is close to being the ultimate in streetfighter performance and style. What qualifies it is the fact that it is pretty much a stripped down
1125R (a veritable superbike).
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The Buell Firebolt has been evolving in parallel with the
1125R and in 2010 we find it being characterized by the same qualities as the American company’s superbike model: light weight, razor-sharp agility and torque-rich V-Twin powerplant. These make a potent canyon carver out of this apparently innocent model, but in fact there is much more to it. Buell created the Firebolt for real-world and race track performance, while the unique styling and aggressive ergonomics are meant to deliver intuitive sport bike riding performance at the highest level.
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We know that Buell builds their models utilizing the so called Trilogy of Technology - chassis rigidity, centralized mass, and low unsprung weight – in order to achieve great chassis response and while this characterizes the 1125R too, the liter-class superbike category also requires a unique combination of engine performance, precise-and-agile handling, raw sound and performance in order to consider the innovative package complete. These are simple words to describe such a complex motorcycle characterized by unique styling, aggressive ergonomics and premium components combined to deliver the ultimate, intuitive sport riding experience.
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