American sports bike manufacturer Erik Buell Racing (EBR) Motorcycles has recently announced its plan to shut down the company once again. This is the second time that EBR Motorcycles has gone kaput in the last 2 years and with several cases of bankruptcy, shut down and revival over the last two decades, accounting for the unfortunate history of the company. According to the information shared by the company, EBR Motorcycles will wind down operations starting next week.
EBR has stated that the company will continue to honour warranties and provide parts and service to customers and dealerships. In the statement issued, EBR said, "This difficult decision was based primarily on EBR facing significant headwinds with signing new dealers, which is key to sales and growth for a new company. In addition, EBR has had limited production in 2016 and 2017 that was under goal. The combination of slow sales and industry announcements of other major OEM brands closing or cutting production only magnified the challenges faced by EBR."
EBR 1190RX
In fact, over the years, the company's founder Erik Buell has faced a number of setbacks, including having his company bought by fellow American manufacturer Harley-Davidson and then given the axe. In fact, back in 2013 Hero MotoCorp acquired 49.2 per cent stake in EBR Motorcycles for $25 million (nearly Rs. 152 crore back then) that revived the company's operations while also boosting its R&D department. The manufacturer had also announced that the latter will distribute Hero motorcycles and scooters in North America. Over the next two years, Buell developed and launched two new motorcycles - Buell 1190RX - a full faired sports bike and its street-fighter derivative - the 1190SX.
EBR 1190SX
Despite the fact that both the bikes were highly appreciated for their performance and engineering, they failed to fetch the success Buell desired and had to ultimately shut down. Back then there were also rumours about Hero MotoCorp planning to take over the company by buying the remaining shares, but that never happened. But the home-grown two-wheeler manufacturer did pay $2.8 million (Rs. 17.8 crore) for Buell's consulting business. Finally, the remaining assets and shares of EBR went under the hammer in December 2015. As there were no takers for the company, the matter went to the court and the remaining assets sold to Liquid Asset Partners for over $2 million (Rs. 12.7 crore), a private liquidation company specialising in breaking-up company remnants in another auction.
In fact, even after that Liquid Asset Partners tried to find buyer experienced in motorcycle manufacturer to re-establish the business and kept the company's assets intact. Subsequently, EBR resumed motorcycle production in March 2016 and the first new motorcycle, a limited edition "Stars and Stripes" themed 1190RX rolled off the assembly line the same month. EBR had big plans for 2016 and was seemingly optimistic about the brand's ability to establish itself as a viable and sustainable sportbike option and it was indicated that the company is establishing a new dealer network to sell the newly produced motorcycles. But none of that turned into reality and now the American bike maker is fully closing operations once again, for the last time we guess.
