Sad news on an American Motorcycle Manufacturer.
https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/motus-motorcycles-ceases-operations-effective-immediately?utm_source=CJ&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=6153597&PublisherName=VigLink (https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/motus-motorcycles-ceases-operations-effective-immediately?utm_source=CJ&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=6153597&PublisherName=VigLink)
During the 2017 Colorado FJ Rally. A few of us got to actually see a Motus in Ouray. We were able to speak with the owner and learned some great information about the motorcycle. This is a sad day :sorry:
Fred
Wow. What a bike.
That is a shame. I do hope they can get back into business soon with a fresh infusion of $$$.
I've seen a couple MST's and 1 MST-R here is SoCal and speaking with their owners, they gush over their bikes, as well they should on a $38k motorcycle. I like the idea of a 1600cc V-4 with push rods and hydraulic lifters...no need for changing shims. Lot's of torque there.
Reality check:
For the price of a 1 new MST-R, I could buy 3 of these:
(https://www.cyclenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/2019-yamaha-tracer-900-gt-specs.jpg)
For the price of 1 Tracer 900, I could buy 4 of these:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/FJ1200_kalina.jpg/800px-FJ1200_kalina.jpg)
I love FJ's, but I really don't need 4 of them, so for the price of 1 MST-R, I could buy 1 primo FJ and have money left over for 1 of these:
(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/cars/2018/09/02/TELEMMGLPICT000172874240_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqVL8oSUgKiXiEYJogfatu2oSp5d-N7xkUuFehuz9gqf8.jpeg?imwidth=1400)
Begs the question: What would you buy for $38k?
Why do you want a chick car? :biggrin:
Ever drive one? I mean really drive, as in, drive one on a track, then you would understand.
FJ's and Miatas are great value for the money.
Why do we ride dinosaurs?
Quote from: Motofun on September 03, 2018, 02:43:01 PM
Why do you want a chick car? :biggrin:
My son is making his more manly...
http://www.speedhunters.com/2018/05/best-best-never-lift-half-mile/ (http://www.speedhunters.com/2018/05/best-best-never-lift-half-mile/)
Scroll down to chapter 4, "American Influence"
Randy - RPM
Quote from: racerrad8 on September 03, 2018, 03:31:04 PM
Quote from: Motofun on September 03, 2018, 02:43:01 PM
Why do you want a chick car? :biggrin:
My son is making his more manly...
http://www.speedhunters.com/2018/05/best-best-never-lift-half-mile/ (http://www.speedhunters.com/2018/05/best-best-never-lift-half-mile/)
Scroll down to chapter 4, "American Influence"
Randy - RPM
How did Ryan do?!
Americans are a crazy lot, no question.
Take for example: A perfectly nice little British roadster, the AC Ace with it's 2.6 liter I6 and turn it over to a crazy American, Carol Shelby....look what happened:
(https://silodrome.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Shelby-289-Cobra-5.jpg)
Fast forward 55 years...
Take a perfectly nice little Japanese roadster, the Miata, and turn it over to the crazy Americans in Colorado, look what happens:
(https://www.flyinmiata.com/V8/images/habu_engine.jpg)
https://www.flyinmiata.com/V8/index.php (https://www.flyinmiata.com/V8/index.php)
....and then...there is the special breed, like Ryan, who is not happy with a "normal" V8 miata that has a power to weight ratio of 4.5 pounds per rwhp.
650 hp in a 1800 lb. Miata, what's that, around 2.7 lbs per hp?
To put that into perspective, take a 400 lb super bike that puts out 200 hp...that's 2 lbs per hp.
Young Ryan needs a wing on the back of that car. Get that power to the ground.
Ryan loves wings, he told me so himself.....
I believe 167 was all he could get on the weekend. As he began turning up the boost the charge pipe kept blowing off the throttle body.
He is going to go to a V clamp at the throttle body since every other connection is already.
Here is a video of him gapping a Z06 vette even after the pipe blew off. I think that run was like 145ish.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiR5r-WlTPE/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=wmr7rvz53vwo (https://www.instagram.com/p/BiR5r-WlTPE/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=wmr7rvz53vwo)
No wings or front bumper/valance and still stuck to the road...a wing will only add drag and slow it down...
It is down for now, the rear subframe has failed and will need to be a fabricated. The stock unit he modified to fit the mustang differential is not sturdy enough to handle the power.
Randy - RPM
Miatas can kiss my ass. They're like gnats on the track.
Quote from: ZOA NOM on September 04, 2018, 08:44:06 AM
Miatas can kiss my ass. They're like gnats on the track.
You mean that a bunch of 911s buzzing around the track is not? Running for cover now.....
No, no Markus...Porsche's most definitely don't buzz around the track, they howl.
The wail from their finely tuned flat 6 while in the kookaloo zone, is music. They sound really really bitchen, and haul ass.
I know what Rick means.
Spending your money for track time, then trying to turn a fast lap while having to deal with (drive around) slower Miata's is a pain.
I wish I could afford a track Porsche.
Quote from: FJmonkey on September 04, 2018, 03:05:00 PM
Quote from: ZOA NOM on September 04, 2018, 08:44:06 AM
Miatas can kiss my ass. They're like gnats on the track.
You mean that a bunch of 911s buzzing around the track is not? Running for cover now.....
Not even in the same league. Miatas show up by the hundreds and sound like an angry beehive, and drive like they're all in a NASCAR race.
This thread turned sideways.
My Yamaha could purchase the Motus motor rites and build a new FJR since the new Transcontinental will end up in the toilet.
I've heard Spec Miata racing described as "Ben Hur meets 101 Dalmations." They definitely do better on smaller tighter tracks than on big open sweepers.
My brief hankering for a big Jaguar is subsiding, and the new 7,500 rpm Miata looks like a good fit for 95% of my driving in the forseeable future. I'm still kicking myself for not being in the right spot financially to pick up my friend's dad's '88 Targa with 100,000 miles for $27,500, and I'm mad at everyone I know who *could* afford it but didn't buy it.
Shame about Motus. I wish those bikes looked as beautiful as they deserved to look, I think that's a big part of the problem. (Except, I cannot explain all the BMW R/GS bikes or those Harleys with the fairings that look like a rhinoceros.) I firmly believe that a $38,000 motorcycle that sounded like a Motus, rode like a Motus, sport-toured like a Motus, and looked like an MV Agusta would have sold a lot better.
I kick myself for never going over there when I worked in Birmingham.
I'd love to see those guys and Erik Buell build something.
(https://i.redd.it/qo2bauwfafk11.jpg)
Pat, I gotta give you props, that just made me ugly laugh :rofl:
Sorry to see them go.
I liked the looks and the sound, and everything I read.
Never was going to buy one at those prices sadly.
I like the Buell-Motus idea someone mentioned, but I have an early Buell so I would.
I have done a decent bit of riding lately on the FJ and the 998, with Andrew riding one bike while I ride the other. The FJ gets all the love from old guys on ADV bikes telling me "I first saw one at the Motorcycle Show in 1984, finally got myself an '87, never should have sold it!" or something. But I took the 998 to work in the city Wednesday and it got a lot of thumbs-up, remarks, conversation, from a whole bunch of people who weren't in the middle of a 4-Corners Ride or a Saddlesore.
And it was easily the slowest, least-reliable, most-overheaty bike I saw the whole way home, and there were a LOT of bikes out in Atlanta Wednesday.
My marketing / business classes are kinda outdated, they all took place 20 years ago when Harley-Davidson was cited as an example of a company doing things well and being profitable as a result. But I am pretty convinced Motus could have sold a lot more $38,000 motorcycles if they were gorgeous-looking to normal people, passers-by who didn't know "the engine is based on half a Corvette engine, and it was built by Katech, the folks who make Corvette engines into Le Mans winners." If Motus had gotten, say, the guy from Connecticut who did the Tesla designs to take a crack at drawing a more-shapely Motus? That guy drew a $90,000 sedan and a $120,000 SUV that are lust objects to people who can drop $90,000 to $120,000 on a car, I bet he could have drawn a $38,000 sporty/toury motorcycle that was an object of desire to everyone who saw it.
The guy in my parking lot asked me about the 998, "is it as fun as it looks?" Now, I don't Harley at all, but for those of you who do, is that what people think about when they think about Harleys? Does it look "fun" to people? I was able to tell the guy, "It's every bit as fun as it looks - in the exact way you think it's going to be when you see it. It delivers on every promise it makes with its looks."
I want to live in a world where Motus sells every bike they can build because they all *look* like they're going to be as fun as we all know sport touring rides can be. They could build bikes that look like an American performance bike, a Corvette Z06 or Mustang Bullitt or Tesla roadster on two wheels, where people who don't even ride motorcycles think "MAN i want one of those, don't even know why, but suddenly two weeks comparing the twisty roads in the Rockies with the ones on the California coast and in New England seems like a really good way to appreciate America this summer."
Combine that with, say, Erik Buell coming up with a way to - shit, I dunno, make the chassis serve as an oil tank? Make a single giant brake rotor bolted to the spokes near the rim instead of the hub? Some other kind of Erik-Buell-engineering/magic that enhances a bike's sport touring ability, maybe a catheter and a catalyst that lets you use your pee as fuel?
Yeah, I prefer that alternate-universe to the one where neither Erik Buell nor Motus can make a living building awesome motorcycles.
Meanwhile, the closest thing we have that I can think of is Ducati Dave in his garage south of Memphis with some time on his hands, some booze, some coffee, a welder, the carbon-fiber 916 bodywork I sold back to him, two Fazers, three GTS1000s, and the voices in his head.
Don't think that catheter thing is going to help sell any bikes, not to me anyway.
Everything I read about Motus bikes said they were very nice. Making them more aesthetically pleasing might have sold a few more but the high price was the deciding factor. The market for bike sales is getting smaller and those buyers who can afford a $38,000 bike is smaller yet.