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Interesting news, but not completely surprising to me. The sport bike market is very competitive, and other than Buell, they are all imports. I don't know for sure, but I would speculate that Buells being made in the US, had a much higher cost structure than a Suzuki or a Kawasaki. But of course, they were expected by consumers to compete with these brands on price. We already saw an example of Buell giving up on competing in beginner bikes when they eliminated the Blast. From everything I've read, these lines are typically the least profitable for companies.
With HD struggling financially, they chose to focus future investments in what they do best, which is HDs. While one can speculate that better marketing would have helped, I wonder whether it would have helped enough. What they needed was a reputation like Ducat where they could demand higher out the door prices than the competition.
Anyway, just a lot of speculation on my part. I am sad to see the company stop producing Bikes though.
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