Before he was a successful engineer/motorcycle designer/motorcycle manufacturer, Erik Buell was a motorcycle racer. And like any good racer, when you get knocked down, you get right back up…
Get ready to throw AGAIN a leg over the ‘American Sport Bike,’ turn the key, and twist the throttle! EBR Motorcycles resumes production beginning March 1 with a stable financial plan in place from Liquid Asset Partners. The new company, EBR Motorcycles, LLC, will start with production of 2016 1190RX and 1190SX motorcycles. The first bikes are scheduled to roll off the line March 17 with a Press Day for approved media.
The public, Buell Nation, and EBR fans are invited to attend the EBR launch party on March 18 at the EBR motorcycle factory on Buell Drive in East Troy, WI. There will be free food, an EBR team ‘meet and greet,’tours of the production line, and other events at venues in the historic downtown village of East Troy, WI.
“This would not be possible without the EBR team. All the credit goes to them for waiting out the storms during the last year,” said Bill Melvin Jr. “Now the clouds have cleared; EBR is able to shift into gear knowing that it has financial stability, a profitable multi-year plan, and a 5-10 year vision. We feel there is still room for new partnerships or investment, but it is not critical. EBR is on solid ground and moving forward. We are turning the key and twisting the throttle!”
“I am really looking forward to the launch and the press day. I have dedicated my life to this and want to get the word out on how great our motorcycles are,” said Erik Buell, Founder and CTO. Ed Laben, Director of Sourcing said, “It is so good to see the factory coming back to life! The energy, talent, and enthusiasm of this team are unparalleled, and I can’t wait for the world to see what’s coming down the road.”
The next steps for EBR Motorcycles are to identify the 2016 top US dealers and to work closely with them for the re-launch. Riders can prepare to buy from these premier dealers, helping to grow and solidify EBR Motorcycles in 2016. Information on EBR’s aggressive new 2016 MSRP, warranty for 2016 bikes, and plans for racing will be forthcoming next week.
New Management Positions at EBR Motorcycles Include: • Steve Smith: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) • Bill Melvin Jr.: Chief Financial Officer (CFO) • Erik Buell: Chief Technical Officer (CTO) • Kim Tordik: VP of Business Operations • Ed Laben: Director of Sourcing • Dan Hurda: Director of Engineering.
Anyone interested in EBR Motorcycles or dealership opportunities should visit ERIK BUELL RACING www.EBR.com. Any press parties interested in attending Press Day on March 17, please contact Marissa@LiquidAP.com. Concurrently on March 18, assets excess to current factory production will be sold through a public liquidation run by Liquid Asset Partners for approximately 30 to 45 days (excess machinery, equipment, tools, excess race assets, and excess parts). This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy a piece of history at the factory level. Anyone interested in more information about the EBR partnership, investment opportunity, or purchasing assets that are excess to current production should visit LIQUID ASSET PARTNERS.
Wish he would have a bike at Daytona Bike Week for everyone to see
Great to hear ! Eric is a talented and motivated innovator, its great to see him/them get going again. I love my old XB , still have a hard time understanding why they weren’t better received….a Harley based machine that has good power to weight ratio, actually handles well, brakes, looks rad….. ! Cheers
The article says that there is still room for partners, that being said I want to partner up and offer beta testing of his machines under real world situations, like going to the store and ridding with buddies. Free testing for a free bike will suffice.
I look forward to decades of growth…
AAAHHHH!!! Make him stop!!!
Hey Erik, Better Luck, this time! Are you sticking with the AMSOIL? FATZUSAdotcom, Boston Jim
I think “waiting out the storms” really needs to be explained before this is anything to be celebrated. If it just means shedding prior financial commitments in order to start up with the next batch future money losers, I’ll skip the party hats.
The man who refused to die …. Go Erik Go ….
………..Dave
Good. I was losing sleep over this….
Good luck Eric. Although I’m not a sport bike rider, i truly believe that we need an American sport bike builder. Competition is good for everyone.
That guy is a study in perseverance. Glad to see him come back yet again.
I am glad for E.B. America is the home of second chances, sometimes 3rd and 4th chances.
I wish you much success and look forward to the bikes to come.
Shouldn’t he be in jail by now? Somebody fill me in on what I’m missing. As I recall one of the largest motorcycle manufacturers in the world dumped something like 25 million into his company and Liquid Asset Partners picked up the pieces for ten cents on the dollar. Of course this was after H-D spent God knows what on him. So he couldn’t make it with 25 million dollars in backing but with LAP’s 2.5 million he’s on solid financial footing? Somebody else is about to get screwed…
Big scam!
BobS….you do know HD spent more $$ to close Buell than they ever did to promote it,right? You know Buell BOUGHT the HD sourced engines, right? Even though Buell made them better?
This makes me pee my pants
Eric, you are Slicker than Deer Guts on my Mirrors!You are beautiful. I am so jealous.
would be interested, but i can’t stand the smell of snake oil…
NoH2O, I know very little about Buell’s relationship with Harley which is why I prefaced my post with “someone fill me in…”. I can appreciate that Harley Davidson was a less than great partner for EB. But that doesn’t change the apparent reality that everybody that invests in Buell loses money.
I lived in East Troy for a while and I knew a lot of people that worked at the original Buell plant. Erik Buell was much-loved and well respected by the community as well as his employees. From the board room to the broom closet, everybody seemed to love the guy. When “the mother ship” pulled the plug, there were a lot of pissed off people but I can’t recall any of them being pissed at Erik Buell over it. All of that says something, at least in my mind.
I’m not sure what exactly happened with EBR, but when a worldwide giant buys up a controlling interest in a small manufacturer, takes what they want out of it (usually in the way of technology, designs, and/or patents) and then dumps the whole thing, I find it hard to fault the small manufacturer. Sadly, it happens every day, in all kinds of industries; this one just hit closer to home for many of us.
Buell up and running again will be a good thing, especially for the people of East Troy. I for one am excited by this and I wish them all nothing but the best.
From what I’ve read, it seems to me that HERO is the one that nearly killed EBR, by deciding to not send a check for engineering services it received from EBR. I think HERO knew if they waited till EBR fell apart, they could walk away with all of the design work for nearly nothing. Nice company. Am I missing something? Congrats EBR !
MSP Dan since you opened a One way story of how the “People” (employees) think and thought of Eric Buell as the Sweetheart of the People. A little background on the “Deal”. H-D thinks of buying and INVESTING in Eric Buell and his project and they did do exactly that. They thought and thought and crunched numbers and thought and crunched more numbers and then Investigated and investigated more and then Voted on taking on the LITTLE GUY (EBR). Well they spend Millions and Millions and more Millions. Then when it is not what it was thought to be they reinvest and Rebuild and then they throw more millions into Buell. Well now what to do, says the mighty Mothership? Pull the plug and that is exactly what they did, However……………………what to do about these hundreds of millions hence the H-D comes from that has been Shot, blown, spent and lost for good, But, what do we do with EBR? We have a Contract with him and if we CLOSE & do not make every effort in our end we will look like Bad Guys even though we just BLEW Hundreds of Millions on this BUELL Motorcycle deal. So lets GIVE ERIC all of our investment in EBR as Payment in full. This way we do not get bad rapped about leaving the Little Guy out in the wind after so called stealing all his Technology and Ideas and he doesn’t talk about H-D and we don’t talk about the BIG Fuck Up that we wasted 190 Years on. So now Eric is released and FREEEEEE to find another Group of Money Guys that he can peddle the EBR Program to and sell the Investors his Complete Bikes, Parts, Tooling and Manufacturing Equipment to Quick start a Motorcycle Manufacturing Business. Now you know a little about the poor Eric Buell who continues to achieve success by becoming unsuccessful !
Buells used to be awesome and distinct in the sport bike market. Then they decided to ditch the Sportster engine completely and started using that rotax engine which officially sucked all the awesome out of their bikes. They may be technically better on the track, but Buell’s strength was always how great they were in real world riding situations. I personally have no interest in what basically amounts to another exotic track bike.
“you do know HD spent more $$ to close Buell than they ever did to promote it, right?” Nobody knows that, because it isn’t true. How much value are you dismissing in the R&D support, parts support and availability, NOT having to sign a “no compete” when leaving, intellectual property sharing, and on and on? Those are HUGE, tangible assets that were part of the deal, values that cannot be ignored when assessing Harley’s support from start to finish. The bikes’ simply didn’t sell enough to make the enterprise successful as a business, and that seems to be the beginning of a pattern. I remember folks weeping and wailing how “Harley stuck ’em in the back of dealerships and didn’t promote ’em” like that was a thing that would have mattered if folks wanted the product. There’s not a corner of any dealership you can hide product in if there’s a waiting list for it, they could have been sold out of unmarked tents if the demand had been there. The motorcycle world, like automotive and outboard engines, is littered with dream companies and cool products that are no more. No need to defend them by blaming others for not providing one set of crutches after another.
“you do know HD spent more $$ to close Buell than they ever did to promote it, right?” Nobody knows that, because it isn’t true. How much value are you dismissing in the R&D support, parts support and availability, NOT having to sign a “no compete” when leaving, intellectual property sharing, and on and on? Those are HUGE, tangible assets that were part of the deal, values that cannot be ignored when assessing Harley’s support from start to finish. The bikes’ simply didn’t sell enough to make the enterprise successful as a business, and that seems to be the beginning of a pattern. I remember folks weeping and wailing how “Harley stuck ’em in the back of dealerships and didn’t promote ’em” like that was a thing that would have mattered if folks wanted the product. There’s not a corner of any dealership you can hide product in if there’s a waiting list for it, they could have been sold out of unmarked tents if the demand had been there. The motorcycle world, like automotive and outboard engines, is littered with dream companies and cool products that are no more. No need to defend them by blaming others for not providing one set of crutches after another.
@ noh20- “you do know HD spent more $$ to close Buell than they ever did to promote it, right?” Nobody knows that, because it isn’t true. How much value are you dismissing in the R&D support, parts support and availability, NOT having to sign a “no compete” when leaving, intellectual property sharing, and on and on? Those are HUGE, tangible assets that were part of the deal, values that cannot be ignored when assessing Harley’s support from start to finish. The bikes’ simply didn’t sell enough to make the enterprise successful as a business, and that seems to be the beginning of a pattern. I remember folks weeping and wailing how “Harley stuck ’em in the back of dealerships and didn’t promote ’em” like that was a thing that would have mattered if folks wanted the product. There’s not a corner of any dealership you can hide product in if there’s a waiting list for it, they could have been sold out of unmarked tents if the demand had been there. The motorcycle world, like automotive and outboard engines, is littered with dream companies and cool products that are no more. No need to defend them by blaming others for not providing one set of crutches after another.
Great news! When Liquid Asset Partners made the purchase, I assumed the worst… that they were just going to sell everything off. It’s good to see that they value EBR enough to re-launch it.
Brilliant. The best of luck Eric, may you have all the success you deserve.
Bigalyts….the “plug being pulled” on Buell came from the same mindset that bought MV Agusta for $109M only to sell it for a dollar or so. No vision and cold feet.
restart company check
get buddies “management positions ” check
lots of hype check
search 4 suckers / investors check
make millions
fold company
laugh all the way to the bank
isn’t this the mans business plan ?
I’m not so sure Eric is to blame. It’s Hero and H-D that did a lot of the screwing.
I wish EBR the best.
To all of the haters, have you even ridden a Buell?
What does riding a Buell have to do with anything, and why call people haters just because they’re not worshipers? Ever think there may be a middle ground?
-IMHO-
As hot rod Sportsters they were good looking bikes…..
As just another plastic-body sports bike…… not so much….
-nicker-
people forget all the dealers that had to blow out their inventory below cost. whats makes anyone think a dealer will jump on that bandwagon again. dealers invest big money in tooling and training to carry a given brand. really…what dealer is going to carry his product again.
Third time is the charm! Now let’s see if Erick can build a motorcycle that will sell. I still say there is a huge hole in the market that needs to be filled. I thought Buell/ Harley would fill it. Then I thought Victory was going to do it with the Octane but the hole is still there. In my humble opinion a hooligan/ street tracker bare bones mega horse power motorcycle would sell. Not a cruiser with forward pegs and pull backs. Something that handles well, can break the rear tire loose or stand up on the rear wheel by simply twisting the throttle. Big multi piston brakes, no chrome, hell raising hairy chested hee man fun.
I had a Buell, and my nephew blew me into the weeds with a Suzuk 600. So I bought a 600 Ninja. Also lots quicker than the Buell. I guess if you like the look, ok,’ but if you want performance, look elsewhere. The old twin just ain’t got it.
Way to go Eric I knew you’d be back and stronger.
Yes, he’s back !!!
Question ?
How many times do you throe money into a well
before you realize you are not going to be able to get it back ????
Motorcyclist published a great “behind the scenes” article after Buell was shut down. It answered a lot of questions about all the weird stuff that went on, like “why do Buell’s all look so odd” and “what’s the point in using a Sportster motor in a sport bike?” To those who think Erik Buell is a shyster, go back and read that article. For those who think Buell had no value to Harley, Harley had a contract with Rotax for 10 years worth of engines from Rotax for the 1125R’s, with a heavy price to be paid if Buell/Harley broke the contract. When Harley’s new CEO Wandell decided to shut down Buell, Rotax offered to waive the penalties if Harley gave them the rights to Buell. Harley refused, and paid the contractual penalties, putting people in East Troy out of work and getting nothing for Buell. Why? Not because Harley is evil or Erik Buell was a shyster and a millstone around Harley’s neck, it was just business. Buell didn’t fit the Biker Lifestyle that is a Harley dealership, Harley wouldn’t let them be sold at non-Harley sport bike dealers, and there may have been tax advantages for The Motor Co. in shutting them down vs selling Buell. I’m sure that Harley also didn’t want the humiliation of seeing Buell possibly do well once freed from some of the decisions that had been forced on them by Harley management, like building Blast’s at a loss or using an air cooled long stroke motor in a sportbike.