Is ebr out of business !?!?

I cannot seem to find any reports past January of the current status of the Company.Ive called the East Troy facility directly and the said they have halted production with unsold bikes still on the floor.They insisted they are not out of business but i wouldn't exactly trust them to be 100% honest.

What i do know is that few Dealers have slashed prices just to move the bikes they have.I cant see any new dealers wanting to buy more and they still have product left on the factory floor.
I just cant see them selling enough bikes to stay viable.Please any info would be appreciated

I suspect they are like Delorean at this point, a warehouse of NOS parts with just a few employees. And I think they are still seeking a funding source as they say in their press release, but I just don't see it going anywhere for the exact reasons you stated. I have always liked Buell and would like to see them succeed but I bought one last month without the expectation of a dealer/factory network.

A few reasons I am not worried about buying a bike without a support network.

-I don't need anyone else for maintenance or repair.
-Many of their parts/consumables are vendor supplied, used on other products
-They will likely continue to sell parts, if they close up shop someone will buy the stock and sell them
-If major spares or assemblies are needed bikes are being parted out and sold on eBay all the time
-Other than deliberate upgrades how much stuff does a bike normally need?

Exactly what i was thinking.Just bought mine.Havent even ridden it yet lol.I mean jeez i still see dealers with 2014 models.I am obsessed with bikes and i barley heard of ebr.The common consumer has no idea these bikes exist.

I had an air cooled Buell years ago, then a few months ago I thought "why don't I own a Buell now?" so I picked up a 2006 XB12 Lightning and did a nice cleanup and then some performance upgrades and it is a keeper for sure. But I started reading up on EBR which I really didn't know much about and had not looked into because I liked the idea of the air cooled Buells, a sport bike built around the HD cruiser engine. Going water cooled seemed like it would be just another sport bike, but the more I thought about it why not have both came to mind and with the price you can pick a new one up for I couldn't resist.

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Originally Posted by Subarubrat

I had an air cooled Buell years ago, then a few months ago I thought "why don't I own a Buell now?" so I picked up a 2006 XB12 Lightning and did a nice cleanup and then some performance upgrades and it is a keeper for sure. But I started reading up on EBR which I really didn't know much about and had not looked into because I liked the idea of the air cooled Buells, a sport bike built around the HD cruiser engine. Going water cooled seemed like it would be just another sport bike, but the more I thought about it why not have both came to mind and with the price you can pick a new one up for I couldn't resist.

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Ive always respected buell but hated the looks of all the bikes until he started EBR! For as long as i remember ive always dreamed what a FULL American Superbike would look like.I was truly astounded by the 1190RX and then recently seen how cheap they were i had to strike.

han -

Just a note on peoples names, while you may not care, have some respect for others. His name is Buell, not buell.

Mike

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Originally Posted by Mike

han -

Just a note on peoples names, while you may not care, have some respect for others. His name is Buell, not buell.

Mike

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Are you joking?

Little secret, one of his pet peeves is correct spelling of his name. It's Erik with a K, not a C.

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Originally Posted by d_adams

Little secret, one of his pet peeves is correct spelling of his name. It's Erik with a K, not a C.

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Well he can thank his parents for that life long problem lol
https://youtu.be/sphHfRmI5EM

Yep, my name gets butchered left and right, I some how manage to survive. As for mister buell, Erik or Eric as the case may be that dude is the best bike designer on the planet.

Back to the topic at hand, are they in business? I called the parts line the other day to ask about a part number and since mine was new out of the crate I asked if there was any chance that it was under warranty, I did not expect it to be but thought it was worth asking. The guy I spoke to was very nice but did say that the warranty did not carry over to the "new company". If EBR halted manufacturing they would still be the same company, so something must have changed.

2016+ have warranty, 2014-2015 do not. Nothing has changed.

Subaru -

Erik Didn't design the entire bike himself...despite what you may think.
He had a lot of help, some good, some not so good.

Mike

I just picked a sx up and the dealer gave me paperwork for a 1 year factory warranty. 2015 model

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Originally Posted by MakingPAIN

I just picked a sx up and the dealer gave me paperwork for a 1 year factory warranty. 2015 model

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Its crazy to me that there are still brand new 2014s still on dealer floors.I just cant see how they could ever sell enough bikes to stay afloat.I just bought a 2017rx for less than a new 600cc.Strangely though i see a few rx's still at 18k.But there are so few of these bikes around.Not to mention people already crashing them lol

I wonder who ate the loss? I would guess it is the dealers.

What is amazing is that I get that there were (are) a small number of dealers and very limited press/advertising so many don't know the bikes exist, I didn't and I already owned an air cooled Buell. But you would think that as many people walk through the doors of dealerships that enough people would have bought one that there would not be so much unsold back stock. Surely a bike of this performance with such serious hardware would sell itself when they hit the 10k discount range? Do people need a dealer support network that badly, or is the bike genuinely unattractive? I know my tastes in allot of things are unconventional, my favorite car I own is a 1982 Subaru Brat and I take it to car shows and cruises instead of my Ferrari, I prefer awkward nerdy women over models, and maybe this bike is too weird for the general public although I have always though pretty much all sport bikes look a bit generic and the EBR looks like it would fit in the crowd.

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Originally Posted by Subarubrat

I wonder who ate the loss? I would guess it is the dealers.

What is amazing is that I get that there were (are) a small number of dealers and very limited press/advertising so many don't know the bikes exist, I didn't and I already owned an air cooled Buell. But you would think that as many people walk through the doors of dealerships that enough people would have bought one that there would not be so much unsold back stock. Surely a bike of this performance with such serious hardware would sell itself when they hit the 10k discount range? Do people need a dealer support network that badly, or is the bike genuinely unattractive? I know my tastes in allot of things are unconventional, my favorite car I own is a 1982 Subaru Brat and I take it to car shows and cruises instead of my Ferrari, I prefer awkward nerdy women over models, and maybe this bike is too weird for the general public although I have always though pretty much all sport bikes look a bit generic and the EBR looks like it would fit in the crowd.

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Well people dont know enough about it to realize how much of a deal it is.Plus the casual consumer is not keen on spending thousands of dollars on a Brand they never heard of.And also not many buyers are knowledgable enough to understand how rare and special it is.

I still think the single rotor turns people off but that's just me. I know he's real proud of it but if it was that much of an advantage wouldn't the big manufacturers follow suit? It really is a great track bike and even though I modified mine I still love the bike and the chassis is amazing. There are a few of us out there club racing them or at the track in general but we're pretty spread out. I doubt I see another one in my region for WERA NC. The bike can be an absolute weapon if you think about power to weight opportunities. I hope to get 3 good seasons out of it.

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Originally Posted by ryandcramer

I still think the single rotor turns people off but that's just me. I know he's real proud of it but if it was that much of an advantage wouldn't the big manufacturers follow suit? It really is a great track bike and even though I modified mine I still love the bike and the chassis is amazing. There are a few of us out there club racing them or at the track in general but we're pretty spread out. I doubt I see another one in my region for WERA NC. The bike can be an absolute weapon if you think about power to weight opportunities. I hope to get 3 good seasons out of it.

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I dontt think they can copy it.If im not mistaken buell owns the patent.I think just nobody has any clue what an ebr is.Heck how many even know what a moto guzzi is in America.Even if he Made every perfect business decision its still an EXTREMELY hard market compete in

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Originally Posted by han

I dontt think they can copy it.If im not mistaken buell owns the patent.I think just nobody has any clue what an ebr is.Heck how many even know what a moto guzzi is in America.Even if he Made every perfect business decision its still an EXTREMELY hard market compete in

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That's an interesting point, and is leading me down a slightly off topic train of thoughts.

Although there are a lot of "carryovers" from the 1125 series of Buell Motorcycles to the 1190s, Buell the company (HD) likely owns the patents for a lot of those innovations, which makes me wonder how EBR was able to use so many similar designs. I suspect Harley either licensed or fully released that IP back to Erik after the non-compete clause in his contract with them was up. But that honestly leads to more questions in my mind, such as "what would have prevented EBR from building an XB like bike" and at a minimum "why wouldn't Harley release the rights to build replacement parts for ALL the earlier Buell models?" It's been speculated in other threads that if EBR were able to produce replacement parts to support the 10s of thousands of existing Buells on the roads around the world, they could potentially have had some steady level of revenue as they worked on new projects. There's probably start up costs in tooling and some additional manpower that would need to be brought on to sustain something like that, but after the initial investment it seems like it could have helped.

But then again, I could just be crazy

Yea you must be crazy if you think Erik would want to build an "XB like bike". He has been trying to get HD to build bikes like the 1190 for a long time.

HD was on any patents since around 1990, Buell Motorcycle Company was and Erik Buell is listed as the inventor.

Patents I thought only lasted 13 years? Or is that just pharma?

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Originally Posted by ryandcramer

Parents I thought only lasted 13 years? Or is that just pharma?

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Mine stuck around with me until I graduated and moved away...

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Originally Posted by Purves

Mine stuck around with me until I graduated and moved away...

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well played sir lol. Error fixed

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Originally Posted by TerryS1980

Yea you must be crazy if you think Erik would want to build an "XB like bike". He has been trying to get HD to build bikes like the 1190 for a long time.

HD was on any patents since around 1990, Buell Motorcycle Company was and Erik Buell is listed as the inventor.

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I'm not suggesting it would be an all or nothing endeavor, but yes, I do think whether he wanted to or not, he should have built something like that. The market segment for those is larger, as evidenced by the 100k+ XBs sold over barely 6 years of production. As we saw, the market for higher priced/horsepower bikes wasn't sufficient to keep EBR afloat. I can't tell you the number of posts I've seen on other forums saying they wanted something with less for less. I clearly shared a portion of Erik's vision because I got the 1190, but it's not everyone's cup of tea.

And yes, I know Erik wanted HD to build this type of bike for a long time. If you look at the Barracuda articles (which I'm sure you have) the 1190 might as well be the same damn thing with IMHO a better front/rear end. And therin lies part of the problem. If the 1190/Barracuda had come out almost 20 years ago when he came up with the concept, I suspect we wouldn't be wondering if EBR was out of business because EBR never would have existed. Buell would have truly been a sportbike market leader with this design on that timeline. But it didn't and unfortunately it wasn't. So here we are, lamenting the business failure of a visionary inventor whose products most of us refuse to let go.

My main confusion is how he was able to take part of his IP to build the 1190, but not able to take it all/more to be able to supply parts for older Buell bikes. HD doesn't really seem to want to support the existing fleet. I've got to scrounge ebay for takeoff parts for my Uly and Firebolt. I just think EBR would have stood a better chance of success if they could have had additional revenue streams as discussed, perhaps partially as a parts supplier.

But why stop there? Who's to say they only would have made parts for Buells? If they had been successful with that, they could have expanded to make parts for other makes as well. Erik and his team are clearly able to take existing designs and enhance them. Just thoughts.

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Originally Posted by toxicf16

I'm not suggesting it would be an all or nothing endeavor, but yes, I do think whether he wanted to or not, he should have built something like that. The market segment for those is larger, as evidenced by the 100k+ XBs sold over barely 6 years of production. As we saw, the market for higher priced/horsepower bikes wasn't sufficient to keep EBR afloat. I can't tell you the number of posts I've seen on other forums saying they wanted something with less for less. I clearly shared a portion of Erik's vision because I got the 1190, but it's not everyone's cup of tea.

And yes, I know Erik wanted HD to build this type of bike for a long time. If you look at the Barracuda articles (which I'm sure you have) the 1190 might as well be the same damn thing with IMHO a better front/rear end. And therin lies part of the problem. If the 1190/Barracuda had come out almost 20 years ago when he came up with the concept, I suspect we wouldn't be wondering if EBR was out of business because EBR never would have existed. Buell would have truly been a sportbike market leader with this design on that timeline. But it didn't and unfortunately it wasn't. So here we are, lamenting the business failure of a visionary inventor whose products most of us refuse to let go.

My main confusion is how he was able to take part of his IP to build the 1190, but not able to take it all/more to be able to supply parts for older Buell bikes. HD doesn't really seem to want to support the existing fleet. I've got to scrounge ebay for takeoff parts for my Uly and Firebolt. I just think EBR would have stood a better chance of success if they could have had additional revenue streams as discussed, perhaps partially as a parts supplier.

But why stop there? Who's to say they only would have made parts for Buells? If they had been successful with that, they could have expanded to make parts for other makes as well. Erik and his team are clearly able to take existing designs and enhance them. Just thoughts.

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So i called ebr and heard a lot if noise in the background (lol yeah im nosey) So im like whats up they building or moving out haha.I cant find any current info.

I think they could have made a bunch just from having xb compatible versions of the new wheels developed for the 1190's. I would have loved to see EBR make a street legal XBRR powered bike. Many would have jumped for the turbo XB. That's it, the holy grail, a turbo XBRR!!! (insert maniacal laugh)

"I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist. There's a difference." - Doctor Cockroach

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Originally Posted by han

So i called ebr and heard a lot if noise in the background (lol yeah im nosey) So im like whats up they building or moving out haha.I cant find any current info.

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They won't tell you anything about anything. The Melvin's try to keep everyone under a "do not disclose" contract/gag.

I tried to convince my company to make a bid for 2mil and my VP asked if I had been drinking lol.

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Originally Posted by ryandcramer

I tried to convince my company to make a bid for 2mil and my VP asked if I had been drinking lol.

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A bid for the company at the receivership proceeding at 2 mill would have made a viable company without liquidating it. But instead of running it as a small manufacturing company the new owners liquidated all the value outof the place. I would only give them $200,000.00 now that they've sold off everything.

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Originally Posted by buell-fan

A bid for the company at the receivership proceeding at 2 mill would have made a viable company without liquidating it. But instead of running it as a small manufacturing company the new owners liquidated all the value outof the place. I would only give them $200,000.00 now that they've sold off everything.

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Put it this way if Erik Buell went on Shark tank what would They say to him LOL?! I have a feeling it would not be good.

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Originally Posted by han

Put it this way if Erik Buell went on Shark tank what would They say to him LOL?! I have a feeling it would not be good.

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Erik wouldn't be going on Shark Tank. The liquidation company who bought EBR at the bancriptcy proceedings would, and they'd be lol'ed off the stage. Seven years ago or so Harley made the first decision that shut the Buell line down. After aquiring the rights he needed to proceed in building bikes, Erik Buell made a prudent business decision, under EBR, to share the wealth of Hero, and when they pulled funding to screw EBR he made a schrewd business decision to file in a local court under bankruptcy proceedings to try and save the company. The courts who allowed the sale to go to a liquidation company under the guise of them testifying they would "save the brand" and not liquidate and shutter everything down is who is to be "lol"-ed at! --along with the liquidation company who didn't realize the long tern viability of what they had bought.

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Originally Posted by buell-fan

Erik wouldn't be going on Shark Tank. The liquidation company who bought EBR at the bancriptcy proceedings would, and they'd be lol'ed off the stage. Seven years ago or so Harley made the first decision that shut the Buell line down. After aquiring the rights he needed to proceed in building bikes, Erik Buell made a prudent business decision, under EBR, to share the wealth of Hero, and when they pulled funding to screw EBR he made a schrewd business decision to file in a local court under bankruptcy proceedings to try and save the company. The courts who allowed the sale to go to a liquidation company under the guise of them testifying they would "save the brand" and not liquidate and shutter everything down is who is to be "lol"-ed at! --along with the liquidation company who didn't realize the long tern viability of what they had bought.

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Yeah i never bought that whole "Plan to save company" garbage.Just P.R. bull crap.The LAP is a Vulture.But to be honest as much as i want him to succeed if i had money id be making the same Exact move as LAP.Trying to save EBR is a money pit. 2017 is the most STACKED year for 1000cc Supersports and bikes in general.He needs cash to put on abs to sell in Europe.He needs R&D for more hp for top end on the rx (yeah i said it and yes i use it).Most guys wont use it but its a MASSIVE marketing tool.The hard reality is he wasnt/isnt selling bikes.At the end of the day nothing matters if people arent buying.I feel so bad for the familys of east troy facility.I love my bike and feel pride riding it.I just cant see this company staying afloat