Love stinks: Cummings Harley-Davidson drops Buell

"It's not me, it's you."

That's the joking response I had for Scott, the nice service guy at Cummings Harley-Davidson in Burton.

He had just told me — gently — that Cummings is dropping the Buell line, effective today.

And, hence, Buell service, parts, support, etc.

I was in for a new rear tire and a warranty repair on a clutch cable. The new rear (4,200 miles, mounted, balanced, on and off the bike) set me back nearly $300. (Hey, it's a dealer, I learned my lesson. Southwest Moto tires and Syndicate Cycle in Essexville for cheap mount and balance from here on out.)

But still, it hurt. The Buell is a great machine. Cummings is a nice dealership, with good people who were nice to me.

Scott even said he loves dealing with Buell folk: They ride, they break something, they bring it in for repair, they ride. Not a bunch of whining, or fussiness.

To bad. Darren at Cummings was the one who first arranged a long, long test ride for me on a Ulysses. He sold me my 2008 Ulysses. Steve and Luke in parts were great. Jennifer may be the best phone receptionist alive, in my book.

I bought at Cummings out of loyalty to a local outfit, with a long history of flat-track racing. (Instead of going up the road to Bay City, which seemed to understand the Buell mentality much better.)

I even bought what parts I could from them.

Again, loyalty.

Know what? Loyalty counts for squat, at least in a business transaction. Thinking about a bike? Buy it from the best dealer for that bike, period. I don't care if they are in Timbuktu. If they live and breathe the bike you love — give them your money.

Oh, here's the funny part.

The ferrule on the new clutch cable snapped in Jake's hands. Says its a common problem on Sporty's, too.

So ... I'm still owed a warranty clutch cable. Somewhere else.

I'm telling you man:

Love stinks.

Well, it gives you reason to cross the Mac bridge and go to Wisconsin. Always a silver lining if you look for it.

all the great cheese and beer!

:slurp

Doesn't make a lot of sense to me why a dealer would do this. Can't be costing them too much to keep a few on the floor, and it's not like they can't sell 'em.

Is it an image thing?

Well, now, mebbe, mebbe not.

Cummings typically had half a dozen Buells or so on the floor. But this is a Harley town, and Cummings is a Harley dealership.

Almost everything I bought from them had to be ordered, save the oil filters.

As I waited for the guys to do the work, I wandered over to the "Welcome to the family" wall, where they post pictures of people who buy bikes from them.

I counted about 100 pics. One of them was mine, with my Uly.

There was one other guy up there with a Buell. A Uly, too.

So, out of 100+ bikes they sold this spring, 2 were Buells?

Financially, it doesn't make sense.

Unless, of course, you MARKET to Buell types.

that takes money, too.

A buddy and I have discussed this, and others have noted it: If a Buell dealership was paired with a BMW or Ducati dealership, or even a crotch-rocket launching site, in the right area, they would probably do a lot better.

Even a "Buell corner" at Cummings would have worked better than what was there.

But you know what? I don't own a dealership. It's a tough biz.

And selling Buells in flat and straight mid-Michigan can't be a walk in the park.

Hot Rod H-D/Buell in Muskegon has decided to drop Buell as well.

I took HDs purchase of MV Agusta as good news for Buell. I don't think the Motor Co. would be buying Italian niche brands if their American niche brand wasn't working. Overall I think Buell will be fine, just some dealers not making it with the brand.

"Know what? Loyalty counts for squat, at least in a business transaction. Thinking about a bike? Buy it from the best dealer for that bike, period. I don't care if they are in Timbuktu. If they live and breathe the bike you love — give them your money."


Even though I have a dealership in the town I'm living in...learned the hard way too...Won't go anywhere but Fremont "Faultline" now for the WYDGLYD or the ULY.

maybe its because Buell makes a crappy bike? don't blame it on harley...write erik buell and tell him to make a better machine that will sell. A uly is a poor excuse for an adventure bike, and any buell sport bike (yes..any) will get its ass wiped by a decent 600cc sport bike. ride that uly you have for 30k then you can we can see what you think of it, you are still in the honeymoon phase with yours.
sorry to sound negative but I have had nothing but problems with my uly....which i still have because I am broke and can't buy anything else.

A new Harley dealership opened it soors just about a mile away from my about a month ago. Driving by it, I see its a buell dealership too. Having owned a buell, I stop to see what the got. Not a single goddamn buell is what they got. They have a corner, away from the rest of the merch with a few buell skull caps and tee shirts, and thats it. WTF? Also, the clothing section has more square footage than the showroom, fuck harley and lifestyle bikers. The only harley riders I can appreciate are the ones in my local antique bike club. Now thems bikers.

maybe that means HD might spin of buell (not sell just present differently) to sell in dedicated buell/mv dealerships for the enthusiast.

if HD don't like buell they're gonna hate MV.

Funny you mention that as I ride by the Harley/Buell dealer in Manchester regularly and have been meaning to stop in and see if they have a Ulysses I can sit on and see how it feels.

And everytime I think this, I see some dude dressed like a pirate, headed for the door. That's just not me.

It does cost them something. A Buell dealer has to have a Buell trained service person, so there is a training cost. And there is the interest and depreciation on the bikes. And if they don't pay to stock Buell parts and train their salespeople, then their image/goodwill suffers. And the opportunity cost of devoting the space to Buell when they could use it for Harley stuff.

It used to be the case that HD would offer incentives for dealers to carry Buell. What this caused was a bunch of HD dealers, who really didn't want to be Buell dealers, picked up the brand to get the incentives. Well of course they sucked as Buell dealers because they just didn't care (or worse.) A couple years ago, HD stopped doing this, after realizing that having bad dealers was not a good thing. Since then a fair number of dealers have dropped the brand and reverted to HD only dealerships.

The theory is that the dealerships which choose to remain will be the enthustic ones, and that being a Buell dealership will be more financially rewarding with fewer competitors.

Harley Dealers dropping Buell

I got my Uly 2006 in sept. 2007 for 7500$. It was built in 2/06 so it sat in the dealer inventory for 1.5 + years. Buells are hard to move. I love the Uly, simple air-cooled engine that dosn't need even valve adjustments that kicks 100 bhp (same as r1200gs).

Problem I see with Buell is marketing and packaging of the final product. A couple token Buells in a sea of black leather Harley stuff is tough to sell the sport/adventure stuff of Buell. Also the body panels, and over packaging of Buells is a decade ago. Good point is why the black painted muffler (that rusts from day 1) and KTM with stainless mufflers on the new 690 SM and sportbike. If buell wants to sell more bikes and premium bikes at premo $$ (msrp Uly 11500$) then put better stuff on them.

The "trilogy of tech" grows old as an ad and marketing plan. Also the 1125R roll out had to many bugs and the market has moved forward with KTM, BMW, and even the Ducati bikes.

Chas

"It does cost them something. A Buell dealer has to have a Buell trained service person, so there is a training cost. And there is the interest and depreciation on the bikes. And if they don't pay to stock Buell parts and train their salespeople, then their image/goodwill suffers. And the opportunity cost of devoting the space to Buell when they could use it for Harley stuff."




In addition to that there are silly things like signage. HD drops the incentive and requires Buell signage to the tune of about $60,000. If you are only selling a few units a year it isn't hard to do the math on that.

I can tell you that THIS statement is NOT true.

I just did a track day on my Gixxer 600, and diced it up a bit with a guy on an 1125R.

That bike has a monster of a motor in it that my little 600 had no chance against.

I'd like to see a local HondaSuzukiKawa dealer pick 'em up.

Would be interesting to see if those dealers who decide to keep Buell will have access to the MV line as well.

Would be interesting to see a Buell/MV "love child" :)

It may also be that HD has given up on the U.S. non-cruiser market and decided to give Buell the limp leg. They just introduced a HD sportbike-like model in Europe. It is not available in the U.S. They may buying MV primarily to widen their European market.

Two brands that do not sell well = DISASTER.

I would like tho see ALL Harley Dealers who do not stock Buells to support them both in service and in sales on a special order basis. No reason to force a dealer to stock a showroom full of Buells but a couple of demos and order as demanded process doesn't seem unreasonable. As for MV I am pessimistic on that purchase. MV/Cagiva has been a money pit to all prior owners and the dealers who tried to sell them.