Will Hero Re-create the Magic with EBR?
Posted on
Adil Jal
Darukhanawala delves deeper into the alliance between Hero MotoCorp and
Erik Buell Racing from USA and traces the possibilities that lie ahead
for both the entities
As a diehard motorcyclist I welcome the
announcement of a bike maker aligning itself with a specialist genius
with racing in his DNA. The obvious delight of riding a high performance
machine is second to none but the requisite skill and survival sets for
the riders to really feast and thrive on the obviously extreme of such
bikes is something only a minority can handle, let alone master.
The words Erik Buell makes me drool because here is
the Yankee master of the superbiking art. A man who has fused venerable
bent twin irons made by Harley-Davidsons into sweet handling chassis
meant to propel riders quickly around a race track in time honoured flat
out form. It was this American alternative to the Japanese Big Four and
the artistically inclined European bike makers, which made Buell
distinctive. So much so that while his bikes were no winners in the
aesthetic stakes, they were pretty effective around a race track, on
their day.
Erik Buell gave new meaning and zing to archaic
Harley-Davidsons and America’s long standing bike maker reveled in this
new found feeling. However there is only so much you could do with the
motor you have and even with innovative chassis and suspension systems
plus a whole new approach to the art of the superbike, the entire Buell (Read : History of Erik Buell Racing)
superstructure couldn’t quite match the ambitions of Harley-Davidson. I
must digress here and state that what Harley-Davidson saw in Buell was
good enough for them to buy it lock, stock and barrel. The honeymoon was
great and everyone expected the offspring to be even lustier
thoroughbreds.
Expectation is one thing and reality is quite
another. Of course time is also of the essence and nurturing a brand
alien to the parent brand’s DNA takes even more effort. The Buell brand
didn’t survive long within Harley-Davidson and more than that it didn’t
have the gravitas of other vee-twin engine superbikes the world adores,
viz Ducati. Given the fact that there wasn’t much which made sense to
the balance sheet, Harley-Davidson just jettisoned Buell in the blink of
an eye and while enthusiasts around the world, like yours truly
included, were saddened by the treatment and the abrupt manner Erik
Buell and his small team were told to pack up, the situation was just
about irretrievable. Heck, just think that Harley-Davidson also had
picked up none other than another iconic Italian bike maker in the form
of MV Agusta and they didn’t have any hesitation to consigning it off
when it didn’t make sense.
So what became of Erik Buell one might well ask and
the fact is that he went back to his roots – the racetrack. Keeping his
1190RS superbikes (Read : About The Buell 1190RS)
, a large shed with a handful of CNC machines and a small staff
component, he began to get back to making Harley-engined superbikes on
special order. And also to help some of his customers hit the racetracks
with them. Once a racer, always a racer, I say.
And that’s where he stood in my mind, a hero of
sorts for many who looked at him as a forlorn David taking on the
Goliaths of the superbike world. Until today afternoon that is when Hero
MotoCorp stunned everyone when they announced “an alliance” with EBR. I
don’t know of a marriage or a flirtation that is so skewed but maybe
this is the reason why opposites could attract and should have been the
catalyst for such an alliance.
The Hero MotoCorp pres note clearly mentions and I
quote “HMCL will receive support in terms of cutting-edge technology and
design to develop future models from EBR, a firm which specializes in
designing and manufacturing powerful and high speed motorcycles.’
All well and good so far and also completely contrary to the “fill it, shut it, forget it” Hero
mantra stands for. And what I find even more baffling is the fact that
while I hold Erik Buell in very high esteem for what he has done with
Harley-engined sports bikes on the racetracks, there never was a bigger
racer and racing enthusiast in the two-wheeled world than Soichiro
Honda. Wonder why this aspect wasn’t taken cognizance of all these 27
years the Hero-Honda JV was in existence.
Here is where the prudent mantra of horses for courses was so overwhelmingly a Honda
strength and approach as also the need to just do what it took and not
more to make those cleverly simple bikes that put billions of
impoverished Indians on the move. Sad to say this is an area where Buell
has next to no experience of. I may be wrong if I have made such a
statement but the world hasn’t seen much from Buell on this count. But
then the ethos and the essence to do high performance machines is so
much an art and a passion as well as a science which is all about high
tech engineering, precision craftsmanship and modern technology. In
contrast everyone in the automobile world always says that it is easier
to do a sports car than a small family hatchback and the same analogy
holds good for what we see unfolding here.
My statement can come a cropper though if only for
the welcome reason that Hero MotoCorp does intend to make superbikes and
if that be the case, they have a modicum of potential to go down this
route with Buell. However, the bikes would need to be made in India if
they have to be cost effective, not to mention have an aura around them
with Hero writ large in the sub-conscious otherwise it will be like
Chinese-owned Italian brand Benelli which is floundering.
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