EBR goes Kaput.

[Capo]

What a bummer, for a while there we had a real American sport bike. I saw and heard them at the TT last year, pretty magnificent machines.

http://lanesplitter.jalopnik.com/erik-bu...1698051637

[the Ferret]

Hard to make a living making and selling motorcycles, especially niche ones. Guess Hero is out a lot of money as well. Didn't they buy 49% of EBR last year?

[Capo]

Yes, and with their deep pockets, I assumed they would stick. But EBR was likely a bigger mess inside than they realized.

[redbirds_imp]

Truly a shame that EBR was not able to survive but after reading the review of their naked sport bike in Motorcycle Consumer News I'm not really surprised. It was panned for a general lack of refinement and poor fueling at normal highway speeds. For the premium price of this model, it shows poorly compared to the competition. Hero pulled out before more good money was thrown after bad.

[ChipBeck_imp]

Gentlemen,

I would have liked to see Eric succeed as well. But building, selling, and servicing motorcycles is a business that requires billions, not millions, of dollars today. Despite looking out over a landscape littered with the corpses of bankrupt motorcycle startup companies there are still men who want to give it a go with foolish investor money. Excelsior-Henderson, Norton, countless Indian revivals, etc. Still, sad to see EBR fold.

Chip

[JustPassinThru_imp]

It's too bad; but Buell, like Bricklin, like Kaiser of 60 years ago...discovered just how hard it is to break into the motor industry as an independent.

Again like the others, he took several stabs. The first time, Harley-Davidson bought him out and made him a division. Now I'm no admirer or H-D or its marketing strategy...but it was probably a sound decision to close the Buell division.

Erik Buell apparently thought otherwise - and put his own money on the line. Sadly...the time is not right. These aren't the 1980s; and I think a resurgence in motorcycle sales will only accompany an economic retraction that puts cars out of reach of large numbers of persons.

I am not advocating that or hoping for it. I'm just noting that the motorcycle, in America, has moved from transportation tool to sporting good; and when times get tough the toys are the first thing off the list.

[rboe]

Norton seems to be doing better now, Indian is doing very well thank you (finally!!!).

Just need to have Henderson and Crocker return!

[Novice_imp]

and Hodaka!

[Motogeezer1949_imp]

Have friends that own them, one has an SX the other has an RX and an SX. They love them. We've ridden together a lot. They are awesome performers.

[Henrik_imp]

That is a real pity. I really liked Buells, and was set to buy an XB12S. However, just then my company moved me to Singapore, and so when I got there unfortunately there was nobody importing them there. When I got back to Switzerland 4 years later I then started looking at the 1125CR instead as I thought they were great with the Rotax engines. Unfortunately it was not to be, because HD decided to shut down Buell before I got the chance to buy it.

There are many of these small bike manufacturers in Europe as well, and they all struggle. Luckily there are still enough enthusiasts around to give it a try from time to time!

Not being very familiar with the bike market in the US, I have to ask though when was the last period that bikes were for transportation there. It seems to me that basically since the end of WW2 the US has been purely a car country, and bikes have been for fun and sports with some small exceptions.