Buell dirt bike shelved

[mxvet57]

i was looking forward to seeing what buell was going to offer.

http://www.racerxill.com/breakingnews/article/3571/buell-dirt-bike-program-shelved.aspx

[katrider]

Too bad. But probably not a bad decision for such a small company.

It's interesting to note that Harley is still one of the market share leaders for motorcycles, and they don't sell a single dirt bike. It would also be interesting to see a market breakdown of how many bikes total each company sells and then what percentage of their market is dirt vs street, or even dirt vs sport vs touring vs cruisers.

[servicerifle]

That's actually excellent news.  The new Rotax endeavor will be very profitable for the company, I think, and it might be foolish for them to split their focus at such an important time.  The potential exists for Buell to be a major player now that they've stepped away from the air cooled V-Twin for some models.  They show that they do NOT have blinders on, and that they are more than willing to change the line to something that people actually want.  I have a feeling that the Firebolt, Lightning, and Uly lines may have Rotax engine variants either standard or as an option, in the future.  A tuned-for-torque Rotax 1125 in a Uly chassis could easily become a GS competitor, and evenutally a mini-Uly with a Rotax 650 single could be an F650 competitor as well.  My prediction is that is the kind of "dirt bike" they will lean toward in the future.

[Bjorn Toulouse]

Too bad. But probably not a bad decision for such a small company.

It's interesting to note that Harley is still one of the market share leaders for motorcycles, and they don't sell a single dirt bike. It would also be interesting to see a market breakdown of how many bikes total each company sells and then what percentage of their market is dirt vs street, or even dirt vs sport vs touring vs cruisers.

IIRC, Motorcycle Product News (trade publication) has manufacturer sales numbers breakdown for the US of A.


Rex

[R.Markus]

Will the mods please move this to the Dirt forum and then move the duplicate thread in there to the Buell forum? Thanks.

[JamesG]

   You no fun. Big meany.


Probably just as well, the offroad race bike market is a pretty cutthroat market.

What might be interesting is a dirt oriented frame and and suspension (ie: Cannondale) with a scaled down version of the Rotax 1125 motor, to say...650cc?  
Make it streetlegal and set it loose as a distictive alternative to all the same-same ZXRDLY650 thumpers.

[RedRocket]

I've also heard that the dirt bike was just a front to hide the real reason for Buell's involvement with Rotax.

[Mastros2]

Too bad. But probably not a bad decision for such a small company.

I agree. Although I would'ove loved to see a Buell dirt bike that would be similar to the dr-z400, it might be too much for the company to handle now.  

But, with the new 1125R and bringing over new faces for a dirt bike, they might'ove been in a better position to split dealership ties with the Motor Company.  We all want to see that.  Maybe by 2010?