Buell – America’s other motorcycle company – is trying to make a comeback after it got closed down by Harley Davidson, which had a controlling interest in the brand. Harley sold its interest in the brand to Liquid Asset Partners, which revived it in 2021 – just in time for “COVID.”
Buell has been trying to make a go of it since then and if the appeal of its bikes were the decisive factor, it’d be a smashing success. Its latest offering – the SuperCruiser – qualifies as a Bad ********** (to quote Jules from Pulp Fiction). It’s a brute of a bike with a 1200 cc water cooled V-twin that touts 175 horsepower and weighs only 485 lbs. That is what’s known in the club as a favorable power-to-weight ratio. Keeping it from going vertical is probably the greatest challenge riders will face.
Other than figuring out how to buy it.
Aye, cap’n. Therein lies the rub.
This bike lists for $100 shy of $26k – and of course that is not counting all the various fees and taxes that attend buying any new vehicle, two wheels or four.
Or the insurance – which for this thing is certain to be monstrous if the rider is under 50 or has anything less than a perfectly “clean” DMV rap sheet with many little stars for good conduct.
Now, the thing about bikes is that – for most people who ride – they are for fun rather than transportation. Obviously, a bike can transport you but that is an incidental perk. The point is to have fun – the kind of fun that is not possible to have in a car. A bike is for when you do not have to worry about bringing home groceries or transporting a bunch of kids somewhere. It is for when it isn’t 14 degrees and snowing out. People have cars for that sort of thing. More finely, they have to have a car – something on four wheels, with an enclosed interior – for that sort of thing. That is why a car is – fundamentally – an appliance, like a coffee maker. There are coffee makers that are nicer than other coffee makers but at the end of the day, you buy a coffee maker to make coffee.
Just the same, you buy a car because it takes you – and the people/things you need to transport – to where they need to be transported, in all kinds of weather.
The bike is for those other times. Especially bikes like these.
If you can afford them.
The least pricey bike Buell makes is a “naked” (unfaired) sport bike called the 1190 SX that lists for $5 shy of $20,000. It has a 185 horsepower version of the big water-cooled twin in an even lighter (414 lb.) package. That is very serious giddyap. This writer has a 2003 Kawasaki ZRX 1200 – same size engine but it only makes about 140 horsepower – and my bike is a little heavier. 
Aber – as they say in the Fatherland – I was able to buy my Kawasaki brand new for $7,200. Granted, that was back in 2003 – so there’s been a lot of what is styled “inflation” since then. But not that much. According to the government’s inflation calculator, the $7,200 I paid in ’03 is roughly equivalent to about $13k today. That’s a lot but still within reach. Adding $7k more puts it out of reach for a lot of people, probably, who’d like to buy this bike.
Especially the young guys who are the natural buyers of bikes such as these.
It wasn’t that much of a reach for me, when I was a young guy back in ’03 – because $7,200 wasn’t that much money and (this is the more important thing) you didn’t need a truckload more money than that to buy a car for the everyday and the insurance on top.
Today?
Imagine being in your 20s or 30s even and trying to figure out how you’re going to buy an 1190 SX for $20k plus make the payments on whatever car you’re driving, too. Plus prolly a couple thousand annually to “cover” them both and still have enough left in your bank account to pay the light bill and eat.
Plus rent.
So, how is rebooted Buell doing? Are these bikes selling? This is hard to divine because no data is available. Buell says it has received many deposits for the SuperCruiser, but how many people have actually ponied up the $26k for one? (In this vein, it is worth remembering all the deposits Elon said were put down on the Cyberthing.)
Time will tell. Hopefully, it will not toll. As in for whom the bell tolls.
What Buell is trying to sell is something a lot of us who love to ride would love to own. But how many of us ever will?
. . .
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Very bad timing for Buell. Looks like a valiant effort from them too.
They look pretty awesome with different concepts/ideas/products.
Bike market is dead, no idea if/when it will come back.
The only bikes selling half decent right now are the $5-8K units coming from India and China.
Are we seeing a see change? IDK
Even the $10K+ very good dirtbikes aren’t selling.
I did buy one of those ‘India’ bikes too, a Triumph 400X, and wasn’t expecting much, but it surprised me how decent it is. Hoping I can get parts for it down the road. That’s always the question on cheaper stuff (especially china), if it gets bricked with a part ya can’t get 5+ years down the road.
There is/was some law, something like if you sell in the US, you had to have parts avail. for 15yrs. IDK if this ‘law’ still exists or not, or if said cheaper Manuf. are exploiting it?
RE: “There is/was some law, something like if you sell in the US, you had to have parts avail. for 15yrs.”
That’s fookin’ nutz. Really, that’s, some law?
I really like reading your articles, Eric. How-fooking-evah; once you mentioned $26,000 for a motorcycle, I stopped reading.
That’s absolutely nutz.
Hab a nice day.
Morning, Helot –
Well, it’s not me that set the price! I agree with you. It’s absurd. Nice bike. A private jet is nice, too.
Bueller???
Bueller???
Bueller???
The movie notwithstanding, I had to laugh over such an absurd price point for a new model & make.
Recent perusal reveals the average “used car” price is $26,000, and new cars are $50,000!!!
Whether a bike is $20G’s or 26G really doesn’t matter, since its way out of the reach of the average everyman and potential customer.
However, the newer Enfield models, from India, are a breath of fresh financial air. Aircooled twins, of various sizes, like the old Japanese bikes of the 60’s to the 80’s, that were affordable and enjoyable.
Sure, they won’t blow your doors off, like these Buells will, but will let you enjoy an affordable riding lifesryle again, without feeling like a complete fiscal slave to the FEDGOVE empire…
But YMMV, have fun whatever you do, and remember, you can’t take it with you, so enjoy it all while you’re here!!!
RE: “the newer Enfield models, from India”
I guess I’m behind the times. I’ve not seen one.
Not in traffic, not in the countryside.
I imagine, that’s a Big City, East & West Coast, thing? Idk.
I wouldn’t give this new Buell corp a penny. They seem fly by night I see a headline announcing charges of fraud involved in the near future My .02
Lol 26k for a toy motorcycle what a joke anyone who has sence buys a used bike there usually fairly cheap as it’s a toy someone needs money the bike get sold I’m not really it bikes but I always liked the 1960s little stuff for Honda and few others and it was cheap I don’t get this Harley Davidson crap giant bike weighs a ton and fucking so loud just saying look at me I’m a fucking dickhead
Amen, Angelo –
I ride. I own four bikes. All my friends ride. None of us want – can afford – a bike that costs as much as a car. You can still get a Japanese liter bike for around $10k; less for a slightly less powerful iteration. That’s brand-new. You can find excellent condition used ones for a lot less. Only a few very affluent people have the means to spend pushing $30k on a bike. It’s not going to go well for Buell.
Interesting, RE: “Only a few very affluent people have the means to spend pushing $30k on a bike.”
…Who are, these people?
Arab sheiks? Isrealie show-off’s?
10-in-a-million?
And, if you’re That rich, …oh, maybe you wanna ride? Idk. Just seems, Bizzarro World sheet.
Buell has always been and will continue to be a dead man walking.
Occasionally they do some cool engineering but have always been too expensive and underpowered for what they are.
Everything goes up, except most peoples incomes………
A major problem that isn’t being addressed much. Most people’s 9-5 isn’t close enough to pay the bills, let alone get ahead, let alone a fun thing like a motorcycle. And multiple income streams are difficult to get going, especially when your 9-5 doesn’t pay very much. It’s taken me years to get a second income stream going, and I really still need to double my income.
Frankly the “easiest” way to give everybody a raise would be to outlaw income, property and sales taxes. But that is never talked about (except here of course).
Buell, Harley and Indian could all chop their prices by 50% and STILL be too expensive for what they are.
Yes, and The Climate Cult continues to distort markets via government edicts. Here in WA we suffer with a carbon tax grifting system which artificially inflates gasoline and diesel plus natural gas for home. Add in the “clean electricity” windmills and solar for another punch in electricity rates.
My Dec. bill was $678 and we’re having a mild winter. Last year it was about $530 which was outrageous here, considering bills from “before times”.
This gov caused artificial inflation is a financial killer for fixed income and low / middle class. Nothing will change here, total leftist control and the voters kept the carbon grift going by voting against an initiative to eliminate it.
I rode my bike to work today, just like I do any day it’s not actively snowing or icy.
I’m in Topeka, not some weather paradise.
Real bikers don’t park it for winter!
Back to the normally scheduled complaining.
RE: “Real bikers don’t park it for winter!”
HA! Kansas, ain’t Iowa, my friend.
Nor, Minnesota, or Michigan, etc.
You’ve really got easy Winters if you think, “Real bikers don’t park it for winter!”
I dare ya to ride here in negative 20 degrees with 30 m.p.h. Geoengineered winds and add in some slush or sleet. I would say, ‘snow’ but that’s been outlawed and disallowed this year.
All the snow, it be artificial drying agent:
‘He said “THEY ARE NOT BEEING WARNED LOUD ENOUGH” pay attention’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVyCg72thhE
‘Buell — America’s other motorcycle company.’ — eric
But wait — there’s a third one!
‘Indian Motorcycle, America’s First Motorcycle Company, announced today that Carolwood LP has officially closed its agreement with Polaris to acquire the historic American motorcycle business. The deal’s closure marks the beginning of a dynamic new era for the iconic American brand as a fully independent business focused solely on motorcycles.
‘Under the leadership of new CEO and motorcycle-industry veteran, Mike Kennedy, Indian Motorcycle embarks on its next chapter as a stand-alone company. 2026 marks the 125th Anniversary of Indian Motorcycle.
‘Kennedy and Carolwood are committed to a long-term strategy centered on delivering an even better ownership experience for riders and stronger, more focused support for the dealer network.’
https://www.advrider.com/the-deal-is-done-carolwood-lp-now-controls-indian-motorcycles/
Hi Jim,
Yeah – and I hope they don’t do what Buell seems to be doing and Harley is doing. That being sell expensive bikes to a dwindling number of guys over 50 who can afford them.
So Indian’s days are numbered. Too bad.
I sense, sarcasim in your comment, Horst. I get it.
Problem is, that limits the mobility of Americans.
I think, that’s a very very bad thing.
Especially since, it’s being compounded from all angles.
As if, it’s a plan?