Word: bike
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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What's going to motivate you to get on the bike again? Anna Beukes, CAPE TOWN...
...Buell designers own their parts through the manufacturing process. "If your part design isn't working, you have to go over to the line or to the supplier and face the person," says Buell. "People come back with a whole different perspective of how important their job is." Each bike requires 450 parts, so an employee possesses about 30 parts on average per new bike. "If your team doesn't deliver the right part, you live with it, and that can be painful," says Abe Askenazi, senior director of analysis test engineering process...
...down-home, out-of-the-box thinking, Buell serves as a testing ground for new ideas. At its core is a small-town team designing and assembling motorcycles in ways that give every employee ownership and even resonate with customers. And Buell gives Harley entrée into the sport-bike market and access to its insanely loyal fans, who might cross over to a Harley cruiser once they tire of Buell's adrenaline rush...
Buell's collaborative style has led to some of the most innovative designs in motorcycles in recent years. "More than any other place I have been, we have a real blank-sheet-of-paper approach," says Stefanelli. Buell was the first to fit an exhaust underneath the bike so the weight stays low for better control. It was the first to put oil in the swing arm and fuel in the frame to distribute weight more evenly. And it pioneered a perimeter brake disk--replacing a central disk around the hub--that weighs a third less than the standard system...
...have made some progress. You can often find me sporting Converse sneakers (laces self-tied), and if I were unfortunate enough to live in the Quad or have an athletic bone in my body, you can rest assured that I would be the proud owner of a two-wheel bike. I can stay afloat in a pool, and somehow I did learn to do a cartwheel. I even welcome my future of battling photocopy machines and printers with open arms (I make no promises regarding fax machines however—these remain a mystery...