Buell Turns $120 Million in Preorders Into Super Cruisers

Buell Motorcycle Co. logged over $120 million in Super Cruiser preorders in 2023, six months after a February reveal with designer Roland Sands. The first retail bikes left Grand Rapids on December 17, 2025, once the EPA and the California Air Resources Board signed off.

CEO Bill Melvin is trying to turn that paper queue into a factory cadence. The list price is $25,900, the plant still builds by hand, and public loans now sit behind the ramp.

Buell Logged $120 Million Before It Built a Cruiser

The company’s own newsroom said it had taken over $120 million in preorders for the Super Cruiser 1190 within six months of the February 2023 Long Beach unveiling. Melvin called the response “utterly unheard of for an American V-Twin.” Production, at that point, was still two years out.

That figure tracks the value of intended purchases, not cash in the till. A $200 production deposit is what the website charges now. Early buyers used even smaller holds to get in line.

At the low end of the original $20,000 to $30,000 price talk, $120 million equals 6,000 bikes. In June 2025 Melvin put the Super Cruiser queue at roughly 6,000 pre-orders, which matches that math. At the later $25,900 sticker, those same 6,000 bikes would be worth $155.4 million if every one is built and paid for.

THE SUPER CRUISER ORDER BOOK

The gap between a $200 hold and a $25,900 motorcycle is the whole wager. Buell still has to build, certify, ship, and collect the rest.

Roland Sands Drew a Cruiser Around a Race Motor

Sands, the Long Beach builder behind Roland Sands Design, shaped the Super Cruiser as a West Coast club bike with sportbike bones. The engine is Buell’s liquid-cooled 1190cc, 72-degree V-twin, the same family used in the Hammerhead 1190 and 1190SX. Claimed output is 175 horsepower and 94 ft-lbs of torque.

The 2023 concept was listed at 450 pounds. The production sheet on Buell’s reservation page now says 485 pounds. Seat height on the built bike is 32 inches. Fuel is 4.0 gallons. The wheels are 17-inch cast aluminum, a size that takes sport rubber rather than fat cruiser hoops, and the production spec calls out Dunlop SportMax Q5A tires, inverted Fox forks, and a monoshock.

WHAT THE PRODUCTION BIKE CLAIMS

• Engine: 1190cc liquid-cooled 72-degree V-twin, 13.4:1 compression.
• Output: 175 horsepower and 94 ft-lbs, as posted on the order page.
• Weight and seat: 485 pounds, 32-inch seat height.
• Price: MSRP starting at $25,900, with pricing subject to change.
• Build: Hand-assembled in Grand Rapids with Fox suspension and 17-inch wheels.

Melvin has said the Super Cruiser is 200 to 300 pounds lighter than Harley-Davidson’s heavy cruisers, and that about 60 percent of its parts are made in America, including Michigan tanks and fenders, Minnesota suspension, and Texas radiators. “Our customers want an American product, and we’re giving them an American product,” he said.

Harley still owns the volume cruiser business this bike is aimed at. Buell is selling a 175-horsepower club bike at $25,900 to people who already put money down before the frame existed in steel.

The Liquidator Who Now Signs the Tanks

Erik Buell, the racer and engineer who founded the company in 1983, is not part of this run. Harley-Davidson took control in the 1990s, then shut Buell in 2009 during the recession. Melvin’s firm, Liquid Asset Partners, handled that liquidation. Erik started Erik Buell Racing, which went into receivership on April 15, 2015. Melvin bought those remnants for $2 million in 2016 in Walworth County Circuit Court in Wisconsin, later secured the Buell name from Harley, and relaunched in 2021 from West Michigan.

He called getting the name back “a hallelujah moment.” The Super Cruiser is the product that finally gave the revival a crowd, because it looks like a cruiser and runs like the old sportbike shop.

HOW THE NAME GOT TO GRAND RAPIDS

1. 1983: Erik Buell founds the company around high-performance street bikes.
2. 2009: Harley-Davidson shuts Buell; Liquid Asset Partners winds down the assets.
3. April 15, 2015: Erik Buell Racing enters receivership.
4. 2016: Melvin buys the remnants for $2 million and keeps a small line alive.
5. 2020: The Buell name returns; the 2021 relaunch is based in Grand Rapids.
6. February 2023: The Super Cruiser concept debuts with Roland Sands.
7. October 2023: Buell posts over $120 million in preorders.
8. September 26, 2025: VIN 0001 is completed at the Michigan plant.
9. December 17, 2025: EPA and CARB approvals land and retail deliveries start.

The same man who sold off Buell’s first life is now signing tanks in Cascade Township. If the Super Cruiser stalls, there is no Harley balance sheet behind it this time.

Public Money Followed the Preorder Surge

Private deposits did not fund a 28,000-bike plant. Michigan and Washington wrote facilities checks while the queue was still mostly paper.

In 2024 the Michigan Economic Development Corporation put $3,992,000 of collateral support behind an $8 million working capital line, and Buell also took a $5 million Small Business Administration international trade loan. In May 2025 the company announced an $18.5 million expansion at 2700 Patterson Ave. SE in Cascade Township, including the purchase of an adjoining 120,000-square-foot building. The Michigan Strategic Fund added a $972,000 performance-based grant, and Michigan Works! put in $646,280 for training. The 162 new jobs were posted at $26.44 an hour to start.

On January 21, 2026, the Export-Import Bank of the United States approved a direct loan of nearly $10 million to Buell Motor Holdings, Inc. under the Make More in America program. EXIM said the money is for equipment, tooling, and building work to scale the Super Cruiser and SuperTouring, and it projected 244 full-time jobs from the loan. That 244 is EXIM’s projection. It is not the same figure as the 162 plant hires tied to the Michigan grant.

MONEY BEHIND THE RAMP

Melvin said a private bank would have struggled to write a $10 million check at this stage. “We are not a multi-conglomerate; we’re a privately-owned company investing in our and the future of Michigan manufacturing,” he said when the state grant landed. Taxpayers are now in the Super Cruiser queue too, even if they never put $200 down.

How Many Super Cruisers Can Grand Rapids Build?

Each Super Cruiser is hand-assembled. That sounds like craft until the order board says thousands.

In June 2025 the company employed about 50 people and talked about 300 motorcycles a month early the next year, then 28,000 bikes a year by 2028. Three hundred a month is 3,600 a year if the line holds. Twenty-eight thousand a year is about 2,333 a month. Those are different factories. The second one does not exist yet.

A February 10, 2026 company video, posted on the three-year anniversary of the Sands reveal, said the Grand Rapids crew numbered just over 60, including production, and was preparing to build thousands of units, then tens of thousands. Melvin later said 2026 output would run 25 times 2025, then declined to give the raw numbers. 2025 production started on September 26, so the base is a short season.

THE CADENCE MELVIN HAS PROMISED

• Order board: Roughly 6,000 Super Cruiser pre-orders, per Melvin in June 2025.
• 2026 month rate: 300 bikes planned, or 3,600 a year if it holds.
• 2028 target: 28,000 bikes a year, about 2,333 a month.
• Shop size: About 50 people in June 2025, just over 60 in February 2026, plus 162 jobs in the expansion plan.

At 300 a month, 6,000 bikes take 20 months to clear, and that ignores the SuperTouring, exports, and new deposits still being taken. Jason Anderson, Buell’s manufacturing and quality director, said the company chose “a deliberate path of ramping up production slow and steady.” Slow and steady is the right language for a 60-person shop. It is a hard way to print 28,000 motorcycles.

The wait was the knock from the first reservation week. Riders who wanted a test ride in 2023 were told the model year was 2025. After VIN 0001, people still asked whether the line was really moving. Super Cruisers have since shown up at U.S. bike nights, which answers the vapor question. The live question is volume.

What a $200 Deposit Locks In

Buell’s reservation page still sells a $200 production deposit against a $25,900 motorcycle. Production and deliveries to pre-orders, it says, have begun. Between September 12 and November 12, 2024, customers with an earlier pre-order could lock a $23,900 base price. After that window the public price was $25,900.

Company FAQ language has treated the $200 as a production hold, with half of it refundable if plans change, and older $1,000 deposits as a mix of $200 to start the sales order and $800 refundable until purchase. Those terms sit in Buell’s own order papers, not in a dealer handshake.

Buyers can take a bike direct or through Premium Service Centers. The December 2025 delivery notice put that network at more than 80 authorized shops, with a plan to reach 120 in 2026. Direct sales skip a classic dealer floor, which keeps margin in Grand Rapids and puts service distance on the customer.

VIN 0001 did not go to a paying rider. It was shown October 3 through 5, 2025, at the Barber Vintage Festival in Leeds, Alabama, then donated to the Barber Motorsports Museum. The museum already holds last-of-line bikes from the Harley shutdown. The new company sent its first frame to the same building.

First Customer Bikes Left Grand Rapids in December

Buell announced customer deliveries of the Super Cruiser on December 17, 2025, with EPA and CARB approvals in hand. Melvin said a Grand Rapids supporter named Steve took an early bike, with others headed to the East Coast, California, Wisconsin, Florida, and Michigan. The company said it would ramp through the first half of 2026 on purpose, and told anyone not yet called to wait for a build window.

It’s exciting to be delivering the bikes to the customers. It has been a journey re-growing Buell to this stage of production and now the customers can take their own journey on the Super Cruiser.

Bill Melvin, CEO, Buell Motorcycle Co. delivery announcement

The 2023 line was that Americans love style, muscle, and performance, and that Buell had nailed all three. The 2025 line is quieter: the bikes are leaving, the list is long, and the shop will not sprint.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The order book: Buell posted over $120 million in 2023 and later cited roughly 6,000 Super Cruiser pre-orders.
• The motorcycle: 175 horsepower, 94 ft-lbs, 485 pounds, $25,900, hand-built in Grand Rapids.
• The start of metal: VIN 0001 on September 26, 2025; retail deliveries on December 17, 2025 after EPA and CARB.
• The public stake: Michigan grants and training money, plus a nearly $10 million EXIM loan in January 2026.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• 2026 volume: Melvin said 25 times 2025 and declined the unit count.
• The 300-a-month rate: It was a 2025 plan, not a published 2026 scoreboard.
• The remaining queue: Buell has not said how many of the roughly 6,000 are built, cancelled, or still waiting.
• 28,000 by 2028: That target needs a second line and the 162 hires, not the shop that exists now.

The $200 button is still live. Steve has his bike, and the rest of the list is waiting on Cascade Township to keep wrenching at a pace a 60-person floor can stand.