What I found most interesting was that Buell proposed an electric motorcycle to Harley Davidson YEARS ago, and he was rejected. Buell also had an adventure-style bike (the Ulysses) in production at the very beginning of the Adventure Bike craze, and my local dealer said it was the hottest selling bike they carried (even more so than the traditional Harleys on the floor), yet Harley shut them down just when they should've been trying to expand their market rather than cling to their aging (and dying) core market.
I think it's a good idea to NOT concentrate on high-performance, high-priced bikes and instead concentrate on practical and affordable. The big issue NOW is going to be marketing. Outside of a very small sphere of enthusiasts, who has even HEARD of Erik Buell? The article in Forbes magazine is a good start but they need more publicity outside of the traditional motorcycle marketplace to become successful.