BIRTHDAY PARTIES

The official H-D 100th birthday is fast approaching and along with it
Buell's 20th. H-D's is already an elaborate affair orchestrated with an
attention to detail that would make an Olympic organizer shed tears of joy.

It was kicked off last year an feature media blitz's in cities across the
country. It is gonna be one hell of a party. It is destined to go down in
history as one of Milwaukee's greatest parties. It could rival the Brave's
World Series victory or the repeal of prohibition. It can't of course match
the start of prohibition when, the story goes the entire populace turned out
to make sure none of the beer or booze went to waste.

I am looking forward to it but not as much as I am looking forward to the
low key affair that will occur in East Troy the week before. Not only is
the Buell part going to be smaller it is being organized by owners who want
to wish Erik, the company and those who work there a genuine "Happy
Birthday". Buell was not planning any big celebration, deferring to the
"Mother Ship's" big event. Buell owners, not being the type to let a good
excuse for a party pass them by jumped in and planned an event.

I has grown from a simple card presentation to an event. There will be a
Battle Trax race and lots of screwing around. A perfect celebration for the
world's first hooligan bike.

Dave

Change is afoot. I have spent the weekend scanning and editing photos. New stuff is unearthed hourly. The official launch date of davegess.com fast approaches.

February 28th is the day the press release goes out to all the mags so much needs to be done. I currently am ready to post new RR material and soon will have more RW stuff ready to go. The idea is to do monthly updates to this thing with the result after a year of so will be an electronic “book”. In the meantime stay-tuned. If you poke around the site who knows what you might find before the official opening.

MUNG BOY

Quality control at the Jefferson Street facility was a pretty informal affair. When you only have 10 employees and each bike is built by hand you don’t need a fancy “quality assurance program”. People are committed to doing good work and peer pressure keeps people on their toes.

I know that a current Buell employee will cringe when he reads this but the assembly guys developed their own “quality assurance program”. It was called the Mung Boy Hat. If you screwed something up or did something dumb you have to wear a beat up old hardhat that had been decorated with insulting slogans. While you wore it you were subjected to all sorts of verbal abuse. Not a shining example of quality management but it allowed the guys to blow off steam and kept them involved in building a quality product. I know that Erik and others would have liked to see it go away but as long as it was used sparingly it was tolerated.

The Mung Boy Hat is a long, long way from what happens today in East Troy. The employees are still very involved but in a much more constructive way. All the workstations have been designed with lots of input from the folks working at them. Everyone has the tools they need and management really listens to what they have to say. The latest tracking techniques are used and Buell and the employees know on a bike-by-bike basis just how well they are doing at meeting their goals.

This has resulted in the Blast and the XB line being near, no not near, I will go out on a limb and say at the top of the motorcycle world in terms of build quality and productivity.

Buell quality has improved on a steady basis. Quite simply the older the bike more problems it had in terms of build quality. If you rolled a $15000 1989 RS next to a $5000 2003 Blast the Blast would beat the RS in every quality area. The early bikes were hand built works of art but can’t compare to today’s product for fit and finish.

In the annuls of Buell history “the barn” holds semi-mythic status (can something be semi-mythic?). Just what was “the barn”? When Erik left H-D to gamble on the RW he needed a place were he could run the beast without having legions of cops descend upon him. He moved from a duplex in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood. This is a nice if somewhat “challenged” neighborhood were you could pass a cup of sugar from your kitchen window to the neighbors without much trouble. Not the sort of place were a screaming two stroke motor would go unnoticed.

Erik found an old farm in Mukwonago Wisconsin and moved the Buell F1 team headquarter there. The house was a turn of the century build-it-yourself
Sears home with a classic large barn and a four-car garage.

Erik built an office of sort above the milking shed in the barn (the only spot that could be wired and sort of heated) and turned the garage into the shop. The barn part of barn was storage for wheels, leathers and other racing parts that he sold at that time along with the extra RW parts.

An old oil-burning stove heated the workshop. The stove did not have any connection to the large oil storage tank outside. It could run for several hours on its supply of oil but than you had to trek outside with a bucket, load the bucket from the tank and haul it back it. Henry Duga was usually the first to work on Monday morning and would need to fill the stove, fire it up and work with his gloves on until the chill was off. It would eventually get quite toasty inside but first thing in the morning it could be chilly.

The quaint item was that none of these building has any toilet facilities. You had to walk across the yard to the house to use a restroom.

Whenever I stop by the modern Buell facility in East Troy I am struck by just how far they have come. The two employees in the barn would have been happy to get heat. Now they have lunchrooms, 401-k’s, parking lots, etc. “What a long strange trip”

I have received some interesting mail regarding my BRAG tiraid. Here is one from Jim Witt.

Dave,

It's quite obvious that Harley-Davidson hasn't the slightest inkling what a sport bike riders' profile is, regardless of brand (meaning Buell or other sport bike manufactures). A Buell to them is like some sort of alien craft that has landed in their backyard and they're not quite sure how to approach or accept it.

Combining B.R.A.G. and H.O.G. as one entity clearly shows Harley-Davidsons lack of vision and understanding of the sport bike community. A group type ride with H.O.G. and B.R.A.G. members is a ridiculous concept for me to even visualize.

I also think FUELL is quite tame but I'll have to add LAME as well. If they really were in tune and possessed innovative ideals and foresight within the Buell lineup, they would of hired Rex Kitrelle to ramrod the publication.

I have attended a few group rides since 98 and have to admit they can be quite unsafe and very competitive. However I enjoyed them more than anything else, especially considering EB was there and very approachable. I'd much rather see B.R.A.G. putting together events similar to BattleTrax and Team Elves assault on the salt. Having maintenance classes for your Buell would be a big plus too.

Cheers,
-JW:>)

The future of BRAG

H-D has just announced the B.R.A.G. coordinator position on their job board. This should quiet some of the rumors of B.R.A.G.’s imminent merger with H.O.G.

Whoever gets this position will have their work cut out for them filling Leslie’s shoes. She has done a knockout job these last few years.

Many of the rumors are based on the argument that it makes no sense to have two groups that do the same thing. Hogwash. These groups, while at first glance the same, are vastly different and need to become even more different. The idea that you could have Buell riders joining a H.O.G rally, riding along with those guys on a poker run… you must be kidding.

B.R.A.G. currently has nowhere near the membership base nor the impact on sales that H.O.G. has BUT, and this is important, H-D is more aware of the impact of owner groups than any other manufacturer. After all they pretty much invented the concept. Everyone is doing it but nowhere else is it so ingrained in the corporate culture.

I think that H-D fully understands the need to not only keep B.R.A.G. going but to keep it separate from H.O.G. I also think that they do not yet understand what the Buell rider wants. The FUELL magazine is pretty tame for a hooligan bike, it’s could use a dose of Brit bike mag craziness.

I would also like to see lots more track days and owner races. BattleTrax is brilliant but we need more. Team Elves, if we hadn’t been rained out, would have had a dozen Buelligans racing in the 130 or 150 MPH club at Bonneville. I think more of this would be cool. Do Buell track weekends with a day of instruction and than an actual race. Tie it in with one of the existing schools to keep the cost down. Set up a series aimed at novice road racers. Lots of help with tech and aim it at streetable bikes. You would race your daily ride and this would keep costs down.

I don’t see Buell owner’s being real big on group rides. Buell riders are competitive and ride hard. Not a great combination for a safe group ride at a place like Deal’s Gap. How many bikes can you wad up before you get sued big time.

What do you think?

mailto:blog@davegess.com

So H-D is now offering synthetic oil. Beyond the pure amusement of watching all the “it makes roller bearings skip” crowd choke on their ill informed “wisdom” it would be interesting to know just what went into this change by the mother ship.

Assuming that this is Mobil oil who blinked? H-D has enjoyed huge margins on their dyno oil and Mobil has pretty healthy margins on Mobil 1. If both companies keep those margins the stuff would be costing us $12 a quart. Did H-D reduce their margin because they saw eroding dyno sales with the intro of Mobil’s Big Twin oil? Or has Mobil seen flat sales of this stuff and wanted H-D on board to boost sales?

Fun to speculate but I suspect we will never know.

All of us expecting or hoping for a Buell touring model or a big engine of some sort were very much surprised by Buell’s announcement of the XB Low. We should not have been. We let our personal desires get in the way of clear thinking.

How so? Buell has been among the most aggressive in catering to shorter riders. The Blast is perhaps the most focused beginner bike to ever hit the market and features two seat heights, low and lower. The M2L is one of only a very few sporting bikes that offer a lowered version that allows the short rider a fun, fast bike with little compromise in handling or comfort.

It makes sense for Buell to continue with this market. The have identified an underserved market segment and made it their own. Unlike their invention, the hooligan bike, this market has remained theirs alone. It is not just a good market for Buell but a positive for the industry as a whole because it brings in new riders.

Keep it up East Troy.

Seems silly to bleat on about motorbikes. I' just say Godspeed to the shuttle crew and condolances to the families.

The usual bleat tomorrow.