EBR to close

[F800GT_imp]

Talk about a drifting thread

Yea drifted a bit but there was not a lot of response about the EBR thing. I think most people don't really care if EBR went out or not.

Things are pretty quiet around here right now. The 17's haven''t hit the showrooms and we've been talking 2013's and 2014's for a couple of years now. Plus it's winter in a lot of places so few are riding. So a little more thread drift than usual is to be expected I suppose.

We need an infusion of 2017 CB excitement to get things going again.

Yea drifted a bit but there was not a lot of response about the EBR thing. I think most people don't really care if EBR went out or not.
It's true that most people don't care as most of them never heard about EBR. And I wouldn't know about EBR until I met one guy riding it a few months ago. What a fine motorcycle ... the design includes using the interior of the frame as gas tank ! If given enough time, I am pretty sure EBR would catch up with Ducati, Honda ... in term of performance.

The fact that most people don't know about EBR is because EBR marketing is weak IMHO. Good engineering is not good enough. Good marketing would make better sales than good engineering. Harley Davidson understood that better than anyone else. From the motorcycle technology advancement perspective, HD is far behind BMW, Honda, Ducati, Yamaha ... but from the marketing perspective, I believe HD has done a fine job.

The things that happened to EBR is just too sad. They deserve to be successful and I would like to see at least one US company getting into high-performance supersport motorcycles.

[the Ferret]

Erik had some great ideas, the most successful of which was the underslung exhaust which a lot of manufacturer adapted. Using fluids in the frame is nothing new. In my memory, as long ago as 1975, manufacturers were using frames to house engine oil and radiator fluid. The problem with using it as a fuel tank is the capacity limitations. For good capacity, you need a big frame, and a fuel pump immersed in fuel to keep it cool. Perimeter braking was supposed to be a good idea, but in practice never proved to be that outstanding, as evidenced by no one else using it. If it were truly superior you would see it on other manufacturers motorcycles.

Motorcycle manufacturers are smart, and if something is truly a good idea others will adopt it and stick with it.

It also didn't help that this was EB's third attempt. People are sorta getting used to Buell going under at this point.

It is a shame though, like Michael Czysz who just died last May, we need more american motorcycle entrepreneurs. I think it's safe to say we are pulling for Motus but it is just such an uphill battle, that even brilliant men with brilliant ideas, often can't make it.

[emptysea]

Ego. At least that's my opinion. He could have taken his great ideas to a major manufacturer and helped them be successful, but I think he wanted his name on the tank. Again, I have not followed his career, but he sure looks like one lousy businessperson. The sad part, it seems to me, is not that he didn't have enough money to make his projects work, but that he wasted his investors' money and very likely scared some of them off from ever funding another American motorcycle entrepreneur.

[Cormanus]

I don't know much about him, but I suspect you might be right MTC. I've also wondered whether he might be impossible to work with, hence his business partnerships keep falling over. But who'd know?