Bike talk: Motorcycle/Scooter chat thread!

[94RS]

So..... This just happened.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – EBR Motorcycles, the American-made superbike designed by the legendary Erik Buell, are back in limited production.


“We are going to keep the iconic brand in production with specialized and performance builds.” says Bill Melvin, an avid motorcyclist who is leading the company he acquired in 2016.



When high volume production at EBR’s Wisconsin assembly plant ended in 2017, Melvin moved a smaller operation to his e-commerce warehouse in Grand Rapids, Mich. EBR, which maintains its original offices in East Troy, Wis., has been fulfilling parts orders from the inventory for dealers and existing EBR owners ever since.



Now, EBR plans to keep the iconic brand alive on the street and track with production in Grand Rapids. EBR brought two of its top assemblers to Grand Rapids, where they are hand-building three of the exotic EBR 1190 superbikes, capable of hitting over 185mph in race trim.



“The approach is to keep it boutique and high performance driven, ala Bugatti, Koenigsegg, or Lotus,” Melvin says. More updates and motorcycles are planned for 2019, he adds.



Engine builder Eric Weber “Eroc” and chassis builder Elliot Malzahn recently put the finishing touches on their first three editions, whose fairings will get custom paint treatments to celebrate their return. Weber began building motorcycles at the Buell factory in 1996. Malzahn began in 2000.



“It's great to see the iconic legacy in experienced hands like Eroc and Elliot,” says Melvin. “We are fortunate the team of legacy employees stay involved to keep the only American Superbike in production. We recently received our 2019 EPA certification.”

Shitty that Erik is no longer involved with the company that bears his name, and they're building the bikes in Michigan, not East Troy.... But this fucking thing might actually see the light of day after all.

 

[R13]

Harley’s gonna feel real fuckin stupid now that all their bikes are basically Thailand Honda shadows when buell becomes a prestigious brand like Ducati used to be [emoji23]

 

[94RS]

I have my doubts though... "limited production" could mean they're throwing their name out to see if there's any interest left in a company that basically went under more than once. Not sure how many people are gonna bite on that, even as a boutique brand.


There's also the fact that Erik has nothing to do with EBR anymore. So whatever "new models" they have planned out, they definitely won't have the same weirdness as if Erik had designed it. And you know damn well every Buell model ever has some kind of "wtf" factor to it lol

 

[R13]

Watch them sell like fuck now because they’re not weird [emoji23]

They’ll be way too expensive from the sounds of it though. Nobody will buy them if they’re more than 13-16k out the door.

 

[94RS]

What a fucking slap in the face that would be, eh?


Erik has all these crazy ass ideas that actually worked, and wanted to keep the bikes affordable. Then the new owners throw all his (literally) patented ideas out the window and charge Motus prices for the bikes.... because Motus turned out so well [emoji23]

 

[R13]

All those tiny op “prestige” bike manufacturers fail... nobody wants that weird expensive ass shit [emoji23]

Nobody wants to deal with stupid people being like “it’s cool but what is it?”

 

[94RS]

"Oh, that's the bike with half an LS, right? I was going to get one, but the $35k price tag turned me off"


- Person that said they were going to buy a Motus because the EBR's original $18k price tag turned them off.

 

[R13]

[emoji23]

I wonder what the actual sales figures on motus bikes were...

 

[94RS]

Couldn't have been more than 1000 bikes. They were supposedly all handmade, right? And that fucking price tag....

 

[R13]

I’d wager it was less than 600 total. I’ve never seen or heard mention of them outside of YouTube videos that were specially about them when they first came out.

 

[94RS]

Yeah, I just had a look at the Motus owner group on FB.... looks like one or two posts per month.


It’s strange that the financial backers would pull out with a fan base that strong [emoji23]

 

[R13]

Those bikes were just something no one asked for, and like the Kardashian’s... really popular for no reason [emoji23]

It’s weird how random stuff like that just explodes sometimes right at first

 

[94RS]

Idea behind it was good: large engine based on something that’s easy to get parts for.


The design of the bike on the other hand....

It honestly looks like they stuck a tall windscreen, comfortable seat and a huge engine in a fucking Hyosung GT650R

 

[R13]

Jesus it does... [emoji23] I hadn’t realized it before.

It just looks like a 6-7k Kawasaki or Suzuki sport-touring bike. Shoulda taken inspiration from the R1200GS, that’s a bike that looks like it costs 35k lol

 

[94RS]

Or ya know... this

Which you can ride like this

And this is a common occurrence

I think Uly’s sold for around 11k when they were new.