In October 2009, Harley-Davidson shut down the Erik Buell manufacturing. 2 months later Erik Buell created his independent company EBR for Erik Buell Racing, the only American sport bike company. In 2010, Joseph Sousa and Matt Sienkiewicz began to film Erik Buell to document his daily fight to grow his new company and to find financial support. Unfortunately, the last visit to EBR by the filming crew was mid 2014, so the 1 hour movie doesn’t include the demise of EBR this April. It will air on Wisconsin Public Television on Friday, May 8 at 10:02 pm, or you can rent or buy it at Vimeo on Demand. Certainly worth a watch. Below is the trailer of “Ragged Edge”
Erik Buell Racing. A 1 Hour Movie About What Was Supposed To Be An American Comeback Story.
Published by April 29th, 2015 in Builders, Editorial and Videos.3 Responses to “Erik Buell Racing. A 1 Hour Movie About What Was Supposed To Be An American Comeback Story.”
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So sad that Eric has been let down again. such a talent but I guess if we didn’t buy his bikes we are guily of his demise too. Im sure Eric will be back in some form and I wish him all the luck in the world. All the best Eric.
Hahaha! Hey, Erik, tell us again how you don’t want to build bikes for new riders or people who ride bikes on the public streets, because you just want to build racers. Crush your best-selling bike into a cube again, then cry on YouTube only months later when your funding gets yanked. Promise a Rotax-powered adventure touring bike for years on end, and never deliver because they’re not race bikes. After all, racing is where the money is, right?
Give us more glossy advertisements telling us iron-but riders that “sitting is not a sport,” or that if we can wave to other riders, we’re not riding hard enough. These sound like fantastic recognition of how the motorcycle market works, and therefore an excellent strategy to stay in business. Show disdain and contempt for those of us who want to spend our money on motorcycles, and cater instead to the 16-20-year-old crowd that can’t keep a job these days.
Enjoy the support and internet fandom of your target market, Erik, because that’s all you’ll ever get from them… a word of encouragement on a blog here, a documentary and free publicity a few months too late there… because you’re certainly not going to coax anyone into giving you money after the way you’ve treated those who wanted to give it to you.
“Coffee is for closers,” Erik. Put the coffee pot down.
Business is tough.
7 out of every 10 start ups fail.
And very few of the successful pulled it off on their first go-round.
My hats off to all of-em.
You guys are what made America.
-nicker-