We love different. We love entrepreneurialism. We love maverick. But we're not sure what to make of Erik Buell who has made a living from having a healthy dose of all three.
You may not have heard of the Buell Blast but it was a bike that Buell have been making for 9 years. An entry-level 492cc, single-cylinder four-stroke, with an easy-going 34bhp and 30lbft torque. Low seat height and a relatively light 170kg, so on paper it looks like the ideal learner bike.
However in a damage limitation excercise, Erik Buell has crushed the Blast, quite literally. It seems that Buell were worried about their image suffering because of the Blast, so they've decided to can the model and crush the whole range.
We don't get the Blast over here in the UK, so I haven't ridden one but crushing it seems to me like a funny thing to do. If you're going to crush a bike because it's damaging to your range, why stop at just one in the Buell family? We'd happily vote for the Buell Ulysses as next up for the crusher, the Buell Useless - as it's known by journos - posed about as much threat to the BMW 1200GS as an assassination attempt on Barack Obama using a cheeseburger as your only weapon.
And let's just hope none of Buell's executives join any other manufacturers, or they could end up crushing half of Honda's mid-size fleet. Or indeed crushing the whole Hyosung factory.
Erik, are you feeling ok?
