Buell Motorcycle Company was one of the promising motorcycle manufacturers acquired by Harley-Davidson, up until meeting its demise by liquidators in 2009. It would then be acquired by Erik Buell Racing in 2010, again meeting its end in 2015. In both cases, the liquidator firm was led by Bill Melvin, who decided to revive the Buell brand name in 2021!
The newly-built Buell Motorcycle Company announced that they would release ten different motorcycles by 2024, which is an ambitious move, to say at least.
So, what is the story behind Buell Motorcycle Company? It all starts with Erik Buell, who was a road raced hired by Harley-Davidson to an engineer position. Buell wanted his branch to build motorcycles that combined his engineering expertise and Harley engines.
Hence, Harley invested in Buell Motorcycle Company and eventually bought 100% of its stock shares. All went well until the economic crisis of 2009 when Harley decided to give an ax to the Buell division.
After the company got dismantled, Erik Buell didn’t stop there. He started the EBR, a company specializing in building bikes for the race tracks and their parts. This company saw decent success and branched out to street bike production. They released amazing sports bikes – the 1190 RS and 1190 RX, which were very limited.
Eventually, the 1190 RX would enter into AMA Pro Superbike and FIM Superbike championships. After that, EBR got a contract for engineering gigs for Hero, a famous Indian motorcycle company. Thanks to that collab, Hero became a sponsor for the EBR racing team and a minor stakeholder in the same company.
Sadly, Hero was a culprit for some financial difficulties for EBR, which caused the company to shut down in 2015.
Thankfully, instead of dissolving EBR, the liquidation firm’s CEO, responsible for the company’s closure, decided to purchase the company. This is mostly due to EBR being the only American sportbike manufacturing company.
And good news – EBR has acquired the Buell trademark, which means that they will produce more than just sportbikes. They aim to introduce sports, dual-sports, adventure, cruiser, dirt, and electric motorcycles to their lineup. That’s a hefty bunch, isn’t it?
To start off the 2021 season, Buell Motorcycle Company will release:
- Hammerhead 1190RX sportbike
- Hammerhead 1190SX sports naked bike
- Hammerhead 1190HCR race bike
- Hammerhead 1190 Super Touring bike
Let’s see how their new bikes will old up against the fierce competition!
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Source: Web Bike World
