Harley-Davidson shutting down Buell

Sad news for Buell and MV Agusta:

http://www.motorcycle.com/news/harleyda ... 88821.html

The tubular frame Buells were on their way to become Classic bikes (as no longer produced since 2002). I think the sad news from yesterday will only accelerate this process.

Buell should have stayed independent.

MV Agusta going away is just sad. Aprillia, Ducati or one of the other Euro marques should have rescued them.

That's still possible: MV Agusta is for sale again. On the contrary, Buell is not. Apparently H-D doesn't want anyone else to continue the Buell make.
Some say that it doesn't change much. For them, Buell stopped producing the real Buells in 2002 when the producion of tubelar frames was discontinued.

An S1 Buell is close to being a real motorcycle - something which Harley has only ever achieved once with the XR750TT road racer.

The XBs are sweet, I like the XB9. Light, agile, competent, innovative. All they needed was a 4 valve head. No need for OHC, pushrods/forked rockers would work fine and would preserved compact head. Then . . . H20 cooling. Could have evolved.

Usually a 4 valve head gives about a 10% increase in power. If the bike is light and it's handling is excellent, that 10% is not essential but nice to have. The way the power is delivered is probably more important. If it comes on with a big rush, the bike will be more difficult to ride well. I don't think Harley know what they have with the Sportster motor. The Buell was almost a decent bike.