[wbsprudels]

I stopped in to the HD/Buell dealership in Bloomington, IN yesterday and saw they had a 2010 Blast for sale. I spoke to a sales manager and told her I was surprised to see one. She said that Buell dealers can order them for use in their Riders Edge courses or to sell. The only difference from before was that the bikes no longer say Buell on them, simply Blast. She said they have ordered 10: 4 for their classes and 6 for sale.

Surprised me–I didn’t expect to see any. BTW, the gas tank cap still says Buell.

[JtownJJA]

I guess that answers the question about what they were going to do as far as providing bikes for their Riders Edge course. Maybe they took some heat and are backing off a bit?

[JackTrade]

That’s what I’d heard too (you should see the all conjecture on the Blast websites since the “cube” ad)…basically, Erik is just removing the “Buell” decals from the tanks.

As wbsprudels points out, there are other Buell logos on the bike that are harder to remove, as it would require new parts. On mine, there’s a “Buell” and a pegasus (the Buell icon) on the speedo. Of course, the engine does say “Harley Davidson” on it.

Makes sense to me…othewise, what would Harley use for the Rider’s Edge course? Yeah, novices riding 883 Sportsters would be a *great* idea…

What I’d like to know is: is Buell still making the bike, or will Harley? I can see Buell making ’em in the short term, but given Erik’s disdain for the bike vis a vis the rest of his line, I wonder if he’ll want to produce them over the long term…

They have seperate factories, and (mostly) seperate supply lines…Harleys have nearly 100% American-made parts, whereas Buells are very globalized. When I bought mine, I replaced the aftermarket front turn signals with OEM ones…I was somewhat surprised to find they were made in Italy!

[Munch]

“Harleys have nearly 100% American-made parts”….. ummmm NO

[JackTrade]

…what’s foreign?

[Munch]

there’s quite a few parts that are shipped back over and are Harley badged. Mostly the electronics but even some of the engine components are “out sourced”

[JackTrade]

Interesting….I had no idea…always thought they were 100% (more or less) USA, with the exception of the V-rod engine.

[AtlAggie]

A reference I found on line says that in 2000, Harley was down to 41% domestic content, and had lost the right to the “Made In USA” stamping privileges. They weren’t happy, though, when the Marysville Honda plant started putting “Made In USA” on the back of their seats, and went to court to stop it.

[WeaponZero]

The engines on all V-rods are actually built by Porsche in Germany and imported to the US. The engine design of ALL current model Harleys (except for Sportsters) was a collaboration between Porsche and Harley. The Twin Cam 88 engine that replaced the Evolution in the late ’90s in all Harley big twins was also a collaboration between Porsche and Harley.

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