The fate of Erik Buell Racing will be decided on July 21, 2015 when the shuttered company goes up for auction. According to a post on its Facebook page, the sale of the company’s assets will be done through a bidding process between a number of potential buyers. No details were given on where the bidding will take place, only that it will be done at an event “managed by the receiver.”

Once the winning bid is attained, the legal court will still have to decide on whether to approve the bid or not on July 23, 2015.

EBR also clarified that the sale will be comprised of assets in large lots. What this means is that anybody who makes a bid for the company would be bidding on a number of EBR-owned properties, including unsold motorcycles, leftover parts inventory, and intellectual property. These properties have been grouped together with the idea that it can not only meet the company’s debts to its creditors, but also open the possibility, small as it may seem, of the new owners reviving the brand altogether.

That scenario is what everybody, including myself, is hoping for. But there’s also the possibility that bidders only purchase the company’s basic assets, which would make it more difficult to see EBR return as a company. Hopefully, that scenario doesn’t happen, but we all know that these auctions can go in so many different ways.

The good thing is that we’ll know soon enough what happens to Erik Buell Racing. Cross your fingers that whoever ends up winning the bid will see that it's worth it to bring the company back from the grave.

Continue reading to read more about the fate of Erik Buell Racing.

Why it matters

This is the first sign of good news to come out of Erik Buell Racing in quite a long time. I’m not privy to all the details surrounding the scheduled auction, but I do know that it’s a positive step towards determining the future of the company.

The hopeful in me wants to see the winning bidder commit to reopening the company and restoring it back to its old prominence. But I’ll also be the first to say that something like that is easier said than done. It’s going to be a complicated process that will likely remain unresolved for the considerable time being. But there’s still hope in that scenario and at this point, if clinging to the last vestiges of hope is what it takes to see EBR back up and running again, then that’s how it’s going to be.

Then there’s the practical side of me who thinks that even with this bidding process, it’s going to be difficult to bring back EBR. The company just has far too many problems to navigate through that it might not even be worth the hassle to whoever ends up winning the auction. It could just as well buy individual parts of the company that it thinks it can turn around on its own, or just use whatever it acquires for its own purpose.

It really is a complicated process that will unlikely be resolved anytime soon. That’s how these things go and if you’re thinking that EBR will be back in business in a few months, you’re kidding yourself.

The real hope here is that we hear positive news towards the end of the year about the future of the company. That or we might never see EBR again. Here’s to hoping for the best.