Motus developed its bike while motorcycle sales were collapsing around the country. Between 2008 and 2010, new on-road motorcycle sales fell by nearly half.
BIRMINGHAM – Alabama entrepreneurs Lee Conn and Brian Case are out to prove that American-made motorcycles shouldn’t all have to look like the laid-back cruisers made by Harley-Davidson.
The founders of Motus Motorcycles are building a sport-touring machine, designed both for traveling in comfort over long distances and for more spirited riding once you reach prime motorcycling roads. Conn says his aim was to produce a motorcycle more in common with a contemporary Corvette than with a vintage Cadillac.
“It is a sportbike at its core, but it has an upright riding position, and a windscreen and luggage big enough for a full-face helmet,” he said. “This is a very popular style of bike. … But guess what, Harley-Davidson doesn’t make one.”
Creating a new American-made motorcycle designed to rival high-end machines from Europe and Japan may not have seemed like a priority amid the automotive industry’s hardships during the global economic recession. But to Conn and chief designer Case, the downturn presented an opportunity to tap engineering expertise in engine, component and chassis design that probably wouldn’t otherwise have been at their disposal.
“You can imagine what it was like in Detroit in 2008,” Conn said. “We showed up and did the ‘Aw shucks, we’re from Alabama’ thing and said we were ready to get started today.”
“What we found was a lot of doors just opened to us,” he said. “If we came to them today, they’d basically laugh at us.”
Motus’s chief technical partner is Pratt & Miller Engineering of New Hudson, Michigan, which also runs General Motors’ auto racing programs ranging from Nascar to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The target demographic is riders who might otherwise consider BMWs, Ducatis or other premium motorcycles, but are looking for something a bit more unique — and American made.
Starting at about $31,000 for the base model, the Motus also features an exclusive price tag that could hurt the company’s chances to move beyond a niche segment for potential customers, said Morningstar analyst Jamie Katz.
“Why wouldn’t they say we want the Honda bike that looks just like this at two-thirds of the price?” she said. “What is the bonus of switching to an unproven brand?”
Conn said Motus is aimed squarely at customers interested in something different than your standard fare from the traditional motorcycle producers — and it’s still cheaper by about half to the boutique custom bikes such as those made by Confederate across town.
“We hand-make things, we have very low volumes and a very high level of componentry,” Conn said. “There’s a certain rider that values the opposite of mass produced.”
Motus plans an initial run of fewer than 300 motorcycles. Since Motus isn’t trying to encroach on Harley-Davidson’s cruiser turf, it also isn’t trying to emulate the iconic V-twin engine for its motorcycle.
Instead, the Motus features a proprietary four cylinder, 1,650cc — or 100 cubic inch — engine capable of up to 180 horsepower. Case likens the company’s “Baby Block” engine to half of the V8s featured in Chevy muscle cars, scaled down to fit a motorcycle’s needs but maintaining a throaty roar at the twist of the throttle.
“We’re the only ones in the world who have an engine like this,” Case said.
Motus also plans to sell the engine as a stand-alone product for racing and retrofitting other vehicles.
Motus developed its bike while motorcycle sales were collapsing around the country. Between 2008 and 2010, new on-road motorcycle sales fell by nearly half.
“We were able to do a lot of this woodshed work when no one was watching,” Conn said. “And now we’re at the point where we can start pushing bikes out to dealers when credit’s getting a little better and people are feeling a little better about things.”
For now, Motus is putting the final touches on getting its federal regulatory approvals in order and looking forward to getting its production line going. Meanwhile, they’ve had the bike out at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where they’ve notched an early success: Speeds in excess of 160 mph set a record for production pushrod motorcycles.
October 9, 2014- -
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October 10, 2014- -
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