HD wouldnt sell Buell

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So who is laughing now HD?

Stupid bastards.

Negative publicity?

Hell YEAH!

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If you haven't the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you.

is this a typical american line of thought???

i don't want it, so why should i give it to someone else??

wankers.... would have loved to ride a cam-am... had fun on their ski-Doo's while i was over there....
(only machine that i have driven that i have not crashed/fallen off.... yeah i know i'm a pussy)

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well... lets see what this year throws at me eh....

My dealer sells Spyders. I've started moving into accessories for them.

[quote="ajturbo"]is this a typical american line of thought???quote]

I sure hope not, though with the recent elections, corporate decisions, legislative actions and public opinions, it's getting harder to be proud of my country...

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Fuzz

hey fuz..

you have a great country !!

there are a couple of places i would like to see one day...

you know, that place that was in "wild hogs".... i kind of like that new bar they built

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well... lets see what this year throws at me eh....

Hey there Fuzz.

Tarred with the same brush comes to mind here.

It is unfortunate that the good guys get the same rep as the wankers but that is human nature unfortunately.

As an ex soldier I have met many US servicemen and for the most part found them to be great people. For the most part.

I bet you have met some Aussies that have pissed both you and me off as well. ha ha ha

Stay well young man.

Well I can honestly say that I have never met an American who I didn't like.

(those nazi airport customs officers don't count do they? jeez they don't like it when you smile at them!)

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If you haven't the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you.

Hurt by savage restructuring costs and the sluggish U.S. economy, on January 22 Harley-Davidson reported a larger-than-expected loss for the fourth quarter of 2009, its first quarterly shortfall in 16 years since the same period in 1993. Harley also warned of “challenging conditions” in 2010, as U.S. consumers remain wary about making luxury discretionary purchases.

Harley said shipments of its bikes to dealers fell 27 percent to 223,023 last year, down from 303,500 in 2008, as turnover tumbled 40 percent to $764.5 million. This led the company to report a 2009 fourth-quarter loss of $218.7 million, compared to a profit of $77.8 million a year earlier, although included in the loss was a hefty $167 million in restructuring charges.

Harley expects shipments to fall another 5-10 percent in 2010, leading it to deliver between 201,000 and 212,000 bikes this year, with first-quarter production down as much as 30 percent from a year ago – a decline that President/CEO Keith Wandell attributed to the fact that customers had become “more practical and cautious.”

To redress that, Harley-Davidson is seeking to attract younger buyers, and to expand its global reach as it attempts to increase its presence outside the USA, an endeavor symbolized by the fact the company has now begun selling a 12-strong range of H-D models in India, and is looking for other growth opportunities abroad, while divesting itself of what it terms “unwanted brands” – namely Buell, and MV Agusta.

“We are behind in that area,” said Wandell in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, in referring to Harley’s expansion in export markets. Indeed, the company’s results were worse than Wall Street was expecting, leading its shares to fall by 7.7 percent on publication of the results.

In light of that, Harley management’s surprise decision, announced on October 14 last year, to spend the $125 million shutdown costs entailed in “discontinuing” their youth-targeted Buell sportbike subsidiary in order to focus on the Harley-Davidson brand’s core product range, is increasingly being questioned. The move hasn’t just generated heaps of negative publicity largely detrimental to the Motor Company’s overall image, it’s also caused dismay among Buellisti, both in the USA and abroad, where in countries like France, Germany, Italy and Japan the Buell marque has a well-established and faithful clientele. The decision is also now being questioned by Harley stockholders, who have zero commitment to maintaining the Buell brand, but are very much interested in getting value for their investment dollar.

For it’s now reliably understood that H-D management rejected two attempts by Canadian snowmobiles-to-aerospace conglomerate Bombardier to become Buell’s white knight, under the aegis of its BRP/Bombardier Recreational Products division. As the owner since 1970 of Rotax, which produced the liquid-cooled eight-valve DOHC Helicon engine powering the Buell 1125R sportbike and 1125CR café racer, Bombardier was anxious to preserve the existence of an important customer for its European subsidiary. According to sources in Austria, it’s understood that the Canadians initially made an offer to acquire the design, manufacturing rights and production tooling of the two Buell-Rotax models in order to continue manufacturing them for sale under the Can-Am name alongside BRP’s current Can-Am Spyder – the three-wheeler powered by the Rotax 60-degree V-twin engine, which was the engine formerly sold to Aprilia for use in the RSV Mille sportbike range.

Bombardier originally founded Can-Am in 1973 as an offroad motorcycle brand using rotary-valve Rotax engines – to such good effect that they swept the first three places in the 1974 AMA 250cc MX series, and were in the process of developing a range of road bikes, when Bombardier management shifted attention from manufacturing recreational products to the railway and aircraft sectors comprising the heart of the Fortune 500 company’s business today. In light of that, Can-Am motorcycle production ceased, before the name was revived in 2006 for a new range of sporting ATVs, followed a year later by the debut of the Spyder.

When Bombardier’s attempt to acquire the rights to the 1125R/CR models was turned down, it’s understood that the Canadians returned with an offer to purchase the entire Buell operation for an undisclosed figure, which the Harley-Davidson board once again rejected. It’s believed that Bombardier would likely have maintained the existing Buell manufacturing operation in East Troy, Wisconsin, but in downsized form to reflect the fact that its line of Harley-engined Firebolt/Ulysees/ Lightning air-cooled models would have been discontinued. Indeed, it’s even possible that assembly of the Can-Am Spyder might have been shifted to East Troy from BRP’s Valcourt, Quebec, factory where it’s currently produced, to take advantage of the excess space that would have become available with the deletion of the air-cooled Buell models.

While still not concerned by either party, the news of the Bombardier approach has caused consternation not only in East Troy, but also at Rotax’s Upper Austrian base at Gunskirchen, where a valuable customer has been lost; and also among Harley stockholders, who question why the board opted to spend the $125 million Buell shutdown costs at a time when the Motor Company is struggling to regain profitability, when all or part of this might have been offset by making a deal with Bombardier.

Harley-Davidson acquired Buell in 2003 with the hope of breaking into new sportbike markets, but a lack of acceptance by the company’s own dealer network – many of whom bitterly resented being made to stock a type of motorcycle they had no interest in – and inadequate investment in building the brand, combined to brake Buell’s growth. Harley-Davidson CFO John Olin has revealed that the Buell brand was not accounted for separately on the Harley-Davidson books, which might be one reason management chose to “discontinue” it, rather than sell it to Bombardier, even if it would continue to exist only under the Can-Am label. But another factor may well have been that Harley bosses would have had considerable egg on their corporate faces if the 1125R had succeeded in building market share under Bombardier ownership. Was the price of saving that kind of embarrassment the $125 million it’s taking to shut Buell down?

Meanwhile, it’s going to be interesting to see what Erik Buell does next, as soon as his 15-month noncompete agreement with Harley expires – a period he’s conveniently occupied by creating his new racing-focused company ( erikbuellracing.com ) to provide existing Buell customers with competition support. But with the 1125R platform for that operation no longer being manufactured, this will have only a limited shelf life. Then what? Well, maybe Bombardier may have an answer to that, too...}

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