Buell Prepares For Comeback

Buell was one of the
world's top sport bike manufacturers when it was bought by Harley
Davidson in 2003. Yet in 2009, Harely shocked much of the
motorcycle community when it announced that the Buell brand would
cease production.
After turning down a top job offered to him by Harley, founder Erik
Buell struck out on his own, starting Erik Buell Racing (EBR), a
motorcycle manufacturer and race team. Up until now, the company
has only made racing bikes, but that's about to change with the
introduction of EBR's first street-legal sports bike.
At the time of Buell's demise, the company was working on a new
bike known as the Barracuda 2. EBR has taken that design and
modified it significantly to produce the new EBR 1190 RS, the
street version of the company's successful 1190 RR racing
motorcycle.
Buell attributed the success of his new company directly to
longtime fans.
"There was no question that we had to start work on a new street
motorcycle design for 2011, but we also knew we had to go racing at
the highest level in 2010." he said. "The solution came from
suggestions on our social media sites, where race fans told us they
would support us directly if we would just set up a site. We could
not have made the last four rounds of the series without these
contributions, as we simply needed to invest our money into the new
motorcycle."