Re: Erik Buell Racing has ceased operations.

As is the normal practice when such deals happen, Erik will have signed a NDA which would be pretty comprehensive, therefore he will not be forthcoming with explanations. Even if the company goes into receivership they still need to deal with Erik's 51% share. As I mentioned in a earlier post, companies cannot buy a culture of innovation, they need to create it, they need to imbibe it into their DNA.

Einstein said "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them". When this is applied to Hero; it is amply clear that in its single minded pursuit for capacity, volume and profitability it ignored the innovation part as it was getting ready products for cheap or throwaway prices from Honda. Once the split happen, it became abundantly clear that there is huge weakness in their organisation which needed to be addressed as quickly as possible. Once again the thinking that brought about this problem was used; buy innovation from somewhere else.

Well, the problem is that as one of greatest geniuses of human race pointed out, it cannot work!

Re: Erik Buell Racing has ceased operations.

Called it!!! And this is what Indian manufacturers have to learn the hard way. Stop outsourcing R&D to foreign companies and setup local facility and hire local engineers who are happily migrating to countries like Japan, Germany and USA to work for big manufacturers like Nissan, BMW and Ford! There's no scarcity of engineers in this country. Your development costs will drastically fall and you have more in depth understanding of the local consumer's demands. Most independent small time European or even Japanese R&D companies shut down eventually and its back to hunting for new partners. This cycle is never ending and will also hurt the products eventually!


Also called it! Looks like Hero is poaching the EBR workers now that they are out of job. No wonder Eric has declined to comment on anything regarding Hero.

But the question is, would stock market falls impact Hero, the largest manufacturer to not pay EBR for their development costs? $20 million should be nothing for a company worth billions isn't it?

Re: Erik Buell Racing has ceased operations.

Well, you know what sells in India and Hero is definitely working toward that and still has the %age to claim its leadership. Innovation in our country is known as Juggaad so that's how it works.

Dude you are way out of your or anybody' league here. The problems you are quoting are 2 decades old, now we have all bright engineers working for investment bankers right here in India. Nobody want's grease on their sleeves!

Re: Erik Buell Racing has ceased operations.

I would want to take this opportunity to add my two paisa here: (Most of which I heard from friends and may sound speculative so please pardon.)

From what I have heard, HX250r is still being tested and is plagued with reliability and refinement issues. It is almost like the bike is 90% ready since ages and only 10% is keeping them from getting it to showrooms.

The other fact is the heavy-handedness of Hero bosses who are driven by sales and money with little technical know-how. Word is that they ruined ZMR with their inputs which they forced on engineers and designers.

My personal inference: It may well be the brooding and frustration on delays which may have led to this extreme step. EBR has no experience of small capacity bikes and there may very well be a deadlock. If this ends bitter, it will only strengthen the belief that R&D is non-existent in Hero and there is no intent to build that.