surprising..

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/15/harley-davidson-drops-buell-will-sell-stake-in-mv-agusta/

Yep read that on the general board.
Surprised, not really. If GM and Ford are/have been in trouble in the US how can a very small manufacturer like
Buell last a serious enough recession in the US.

Bummer as they are cool looking bikes.

No surprise to see HD in trouble. Baby Boomers love the HD's but the young generation coming through aren't interested. They will be doomed sooner or later.

Surprised to hear they are sellng their stake in MV, they only just bought in. Unless someone jumps in to save MV it will be bye bye for that brand shortly. MV were about to go bust but HD saved them. So much for knight in shining armour, perhaps a knight in brown armour?

Sad to hear, and very emotional video of eric Buell.

Only hope for MV now is Chinese money, I would say...

I can't believe they will close the brand entirely, that's nuts!

And for MV/Cagiva?! WHAT THE make the beast with two backs?

They just got picked up what, 6 months ago?  NO ONE at HD was looking at sales at all?

The Castigliones probably have a buyback provision.  It will go back to them directly.

Nuts nuts

I think Buell was just to different to be accepted into the mainstream motor biking world, I will say I admired some of the models (Would never own one as the dealer up here is a make the beast with two backswit)

I also feel that letting mainly HD dealers sell them was also a mistake, I used to have a couple of Buell owners come in to say hello when I was at the Ducati dealer, these guys could not stand the local Buell dealer (also the HD dealer)

They always felt like 2nd class citizens when they went in, the staff used to call them the "Plastic Harleys" they always tried to sell them across to a HD bike, not the more sporty Buell bikes that they wanted, they found the backup and advice for service was crap, because the staff only wanted to talk Harley's.

both of them said they had contacted/dropped into a number of other Buell dealerships, and they all appeared similar, they were not interested in the Buell range, only the Harley stuff.

And from what I have read, it seemed to be a very common issue all over the place.

Farrrrk that is so horrible for Eric.

I have to admit I did own an X1 Buell for a little while. A little uncouth but geez did I get the looks. Now that I have read the news I wouldn't mind getting one for my collection.


The later models looked shit compared to the old tubers.

The only thing wrong with those buggers was you needed alot of locktite to hold the buggers together!

Rob