Buell Motorcycle Company will begin production and taking online reservations for the Buell Hammerhead 1190 on November 1st.
Power comes from a 72 degree, 185 horsepower, 101 foot pounds of torque V-Twin. Fuel is carried in the aluminum frame and up front it’s equipped with the now familiar single perimeter front brake. Weight is 419 pounds.
Buell will also be using an online reservation and delivery system, Buellvana®.
They’ve put together a formidable team with former executives from Buell, General Motors, Lotus Engineering, Toyota, and Bombardier Recreational Products, they’ve got an impressive lineup of current and upcoming models and I wish them great success.
Doug says
Such a great engine in both performance & looks. Shame its being hidden in that fairing and frame. The Buell name is also puzzling. No disrespect at all, its just confusing and there’s a ton of buyers that will stay away, even without the HD baggage.
What about a new company with a new name, a new steel, trellis chassis, standard front brakes, & a fairing design to display the engine and chassis? All backed up by a go-to-market strategy like the Speed Triple RR, which also has the frame and engine on display?
Doug says
The market opportunity of an American sport bike with style is big, especially now that Ducati isn’t making their sport bikes with a trellis.
Aguy says
“What if instead Erik Buell just made a bike without his signature frame, without his signature brakes, and without putting his name on it!”
Now there’s an idea, wonder why he didn’t think of that
Doug says
Erik Buell is *not* part of the above effort – knowing the full story is a better idea!
Even if it there are crucial members from the original Buell or EBR companies involved in this new “Buell” company, there are still legitimate strategic questions about the viability of a company that decided to use not only the name but the design. Resurrecting an old marque name is very odd when they guy is still alive but not part of it, no?
The buying market for the Buell 1125 and later EBR 1190 wasn’t huge to begin with, so what has changed to make this latest Buell co. more successful?
One item that has changed is there won’t be the ongoing damage by a neglectful HD & HD dealerships. There won’t be the Hero abuse. That’s great news, but is there a large enough buying segment to continue as an EBR but under the original founder’s name who isn’t part of the effort?
The original Buell/EBR small market was not small due to only HD’s presence. The 1125 styling was the beginning of the end imo. So many people had waited a *very* long time for a modern American sport bike only to have that delivered. The 1190 had a much improved makeover, but was it too late then and going forward? Many people were turned off while at the same time there were other options available, which is why I raised the above questions…. why not start over with that awesome engine into a whole new package and company profile?
Jason says
What you are suggesting is VERY expensive and almost certainly doomed to be a money losing proposition – that is why they aren’t doing it
Liquid Assets bought EBR’s assets out of bankruptcy and then bought the Buell name from HD. They are making the same bike as EBR because that is what they bought – the design, parts, and tooling.
They are using the Buell name because it has decades of marketing and brand awareness. Trying to launch a new brand is very expensive.
Liquid Assets has been hand building a couple bikes a year and selling them as EBR bikes. With this they are ramping things up to move that old stock faster. I’m sure the response will determine if they actually try to restart production and find suppliers to build new parts or just continue to deplete the old stock. (Rumor has it they got enough parts in the bankruptcy to build about 200 bikes)
Remember Liquid Assets business model – they buy assets cheap then then liquidate them.
Doug says
No question – launching any new motorcycle company is expensive. Yea, and I know the recent history of Liquid Assets and their motus operandi.
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The questions being raised were ones to ask at the outset of the idea to continue the Buell brand or not. “can we just buy the engines & its tooling?”
EBR made cool bikes, but they were niche bikes due to their styling and ideas deployed. To some degree same goes for Motus and Moto Czysz C1. I bet they all would have remained niche even if all 3 were more affordable.
Contrast those to these 2 examples:
John Bloor’s 2nd gen Triumphs included a great looking 955 sport bike. It had a very capable & unique triple engine (identifiable to the brand & country) but everything else about the bike was on-par with Italy and Japan who have been refining race-proven construction formulas at many different top-level racing leagues for decades.
BMW finally came around to those formulas with the S1000R.
Guess what? Both platforms are still selling in different models because they’re known recipes the buying public trusts, but with country heritage & enough uniqueness.
I’m all for the odd bikes but how about an American company delivers something that the large buying market knows and wants from America. The expensive part has been done – developing the badass Helicon engine.
Jiro says
Doug, how much more is your wish list going to cost than what Liquid Assets has already spent? I would guess, what you are wishing for, is at least an order of magnitiude more expensive.
Doug says
I know the above sounds like “selling out” with some of the industry standards, but this would allow experimental bikes to be explored in a skunkworks budget…. This is not all that different from selling very industry-standard sedans, suvs, trucks so you can develop the GT40.
Meanwhile, there’s barely an American sportbike available. I’m sure the hardcore Brits are happy to ride a Triumph even if they miss the Vincent, Norton, Brough Superior, etc. experimentation and innovations.