In hindsight, building the bikes they did was probably all about picking as much off the carcass as possible, and it was never really about making the company viable. If they had parts to make 300 bikes and if they could get $6000 per bike, that's $1.8 million revenue. Plus what they'll get for the equipment etc., they'll probably end up making money on the deal.
Melvin probably never cared if he could sell the company or not as long as he knew he could get his investment back. And he probably never had any real intention of keeping the company running himself. That was probably all complete BS to help them sell as many bikes as possible.