First, full disclosure: I could not be considered a dedicated fan or acolyte of Buell; I have never owned one and have only ridden a very few of them – demo rides, test rides for friends purchasing them, etc. However, I also do not currently own a BMW, a Moto Guzzi or even a Suzuki – yet the motorcycles which each one of these companies produce would be more than welcome in my life. (If I had the money at the time, I would certainly have a Buell in my garage with some significant tire wear as I wrote this!).
Even though I am not completely captivated by the current selection of their products, many other people are; Buell does enjoy an almost cult-like following by owners – and for good reason. I absolutely must admit that I respect the creativity, imagination, engineering and technology with which Buell built the machines they produced; so much of what they did was what we all want from a motorcycle. Though they did not pioneer all of the ideas the company implemented, they certainly made them fit for mass production like never had been done before.
These included the perimeter front brake, otherwise known as the ZTL (Zero Torsional Load) brake, the fuel-in-frame, the oil-in-swingarm, and the 'under-slung' exhaust, something almost every factory is doing now for their sporting motorcycles. There are many more innovations developed by the Buell engineers which space limitations prevent me from detailing, and they were all designed to make the machine as effective at what it does as possible. In all of this work, Buell was holding to an internal and extreme focus on mass centralization, low unsprung weight and a rigid frame.
However, there was a time when I would not want to be responsible for maintaining such a bike. That was when the heart of a Buell was a series of 45 degree, air-cooled V-twins from Harley-Davidson – mostly from the Sportster line. For me, the idea of that engine in such an advanced frame seemed like an absurdity – of course, I am referring to the pre-Rotax era. It is simply that I could more readily see the benefits of, for example, a Ducati engine in that chassis; or, even a good high-strung V-twin powerplant from one of the Japanese marques.
Even better, though, would have been an engine of their own design like the Helicon engine in the 1125R which did not begin production until 2007; unfortunately, that was the last major engine design sold in production bikes by the company. (There was a newer version of the Rotax-built lump to be used in the Barracuda 2 – the ill-fated final attempt at a true Buell superbike which was literally destroyed soon after the Buell factory closed.) They did almost have exactly that back in the late 1990's until H-D took over their Porsche-designed engine program and created the V-Rod; by then, the engine was "too big, too heavy, too expensive and too late." The 1125 was a motorcycle which could be developed quite well and was, in my opinion, in its infancy – only at the beginning of its development.
We cannot talk about the Buell brand without speaking of the brand's creator, one Erik Buell. Mr. Buell started riding when he was very 
young. He eventually went into racing – with both Ducati and Yamaha – while studying for his engineering degree. Once Buell recieved that degree, he went straight to Harley-Davidson and procured himself a job at the Wisconsin factory. Though he worked very hard for The Motor Company, he soon left H-D – amicably - to form his own racing motorcycle company. The Buell Motor Company began life in late 1984, and Buell built it up considerably with a focus on production race and performance-oriented bikes, and went on to reinvigorate the two-wheeled world with many of his designs while also producing a successful line of street-going motorcycles sold through Harley-Davidson dealerships worldwide. By 2003, Harley-Davidson took the entire Buell company into its fold and obtained full ownership. And, as you now know all to well, Harley shuttered the company on 30 October 2009. This announcement came just over a month after Danny Eslick won the AMA Pro Racing Daytona SportBike Championship by taking seventh place at the final round of the season – Buell's first ever road racing championship. Erik did not just sit back and watch his dreams fall apart – that's not his style; he took the initiative and quickly created the Erik Buell Racing company. EBR will be supporting racers all over North America and beyond who wish to continue racing the Buell 1125 series – including the 1125R, 
1125RR, 1125CR, 1190R and the soon-to-be-produced 1190RR (in conjunction with BRP). You will see many Buell race bikes mixing it up in race series all over, and it is rather likely that some Buell-only race series will continue, albeit without the Buell corporate sponsorship.
Throughout Buell's existence, though, many in the sportbike world have considered their machines to be lacking in refinement, and those in the Harley-Davidson mold found them too different from what they were used to riding. This put Buell in the unenviable position of being a sort of out-of-place step-child; after all, their bikes were only sold alongside big-inch V-twin cruisers in the H-D dealer network. Riders who like to ride hard-edged performance bikes developed from race machinery never felt comfortable entering those stores to even look at the machines…and, of course, the Harley riders simply avoided that part of the showroom floor, many pretending it did not exist. In short, Buell has been praised by designers and engineers alike, but very much underappreciated by most of the riding public. And, yet, Buell has developed technologies which are present on the bikes now owned by the same people who would have never even considered owning a Buell motorcycle. With all of us being so capable at hindsight, it is easy to look back and see some marketing and sales strategies which did not work well or could have been planned based on better demographics; or to see where some different approach to gaining market share might have been more 
successful. Maybe this and possibly that, but reality is reality and Erik Buell knows this well; he has not given up.
The Buell Motor Company was the brainchild of an amazingly competent engineer, Erik Buell, and it will leave a legacy of motorcycle design which many continue to follow. Though Harley-Davidson felt it was best to completely shut down the marque, the motorcycle industry and the many Buell aficionados will keep the marque alive for years to come. And, if Erik Buell Racing has anything to do with it, we will likely see many Buell motorcycles on the podiums of the world's circuits. The company and its technology may have gone unappreciated for some time in the general motorcycle industry – Harley had no problems with disposing of the company even though several people and interests attempted to purchase the Buell brand from them – but Buell will never be forgotten, and its influence will continue to inspire motorcycle designers and builders for decades into the future. Hopefully, in its absence as a production company, and its success as a race builder, the collective hearts of the industry will finally give Buell its due respect…
