Erik Buell Racing has got a new life courtesy of its new owners. The U.S. based sports bike manufacturer had filed for bankruptcy earlier this year and its assets were sold in an auction. Bruce Befler, head of Atlantic Metals Group, who is an automotive aficionado himself, bought the company for US $ 2.25 million.
The new owner has decided to make Erik Buell, founder of the company, the president of the rejuvenated Erik Buell Racing. This move will put the company back in production and it will soon restart work in its factory in Wisconsin. Hero Motocorp earlier had 49% stake in the company and the new owner thinks that it was because of the Indian two-wheeler giant that EBR had to file for bankruptcy in the first place.
Bruce Belfer seems to be happy with the fact that he was able to keep the production in U.S. itself and would like to continue with the same workers, “There’s not a single piece of machinery that I don’t have or can’t buy. EBR is people, skilled people, craftsmen and innovators. That’s what I was buying. Everything else I can buy at the store”, he said.
Hero Motocorp was taking a lot of inputs from the American manufacturer regarding its performance bikes and the new Karizma ZMR was the result of that partnership. If you look at Buell 1125R, you will see striking resemblance with the ZMR. The Indian company has developed one more bike with the help of Buell- HX 250R. This one is slated to be launched later this year and will go against Honda CBR150R and Bajaj Pulsar RS200 apart from KTM RC200. Hero Motocorp will be looking after the consulting side of EBR’s business under its new owners.
