MOTUS: New Sport Tourer built in Alabama

The MST has a claimed 165 and the MST-R has a claimed 185. These have been the numbers tossed around for a quite some time now, so it's nothing new.

Source

Ugh. Can't believe there is a Virago photo in here.



There... That's better. I've liked the Motus since I first saw the concept drawings, and would love to buy one. However it's about 4.5 times more than my bike budget right now.

Maybe in 5 years I can find a nice used specimen for a better price. Then again I am cheap, plenty of people spend LOTS of money on motorcycles, so why not a Motus? That engine noise alone is worth the price of admission.

How did the $40k+ price tag get thrown into the mix? The base is $31k and the fancy model is $37k.

Options and/or after taxes fees?

I like the Motus and was looking forward to seeing one in the flesh. So I rode down to Barber for the Vintage festival and from there into Birmingham for the event they had at a pizza place.
Both bikes were sitting unattended out front while the Motus guys were eating and talking. We went across the street to eat and the bikes were still there. So I sat on the lower spec one.It was pretty nice , but no one tossed me the key.
Finally I went up to the patio and asked one them if we could hear it run. He came down and started it and reved it up a few times.I was standing off to the left front so the pipe music was directed away from me. the overwhelming sound from my vantage point was gear whine. I guess it has to be expected with the big 90 degree bevels in there, but it was a little off-putting for me.
I do wish them luck and hope they build thousands and send out a demo truck to a dealer near me.

You've never ridden a Triumph triple then either I'd guess. They have a distinctive whine that some people can't stand. To me it's just mechanical music, especially at around 8,000rpm. For the Motus the symphony just kicks in a little sooner.

You guessed wrong.
I rented a T-bird back in '97 for a week in California. Did about 1100 miles on it. I've test ridden several others from the Tiger and Speed Triple to the Rocket 3.
None of them have anywhere near the gear whine of the Motus.
Heck, my '75 Z1B Kawasaki had more primary gear noise than the Triumphs. I also have a bevel drive 860 Ducati , those motors have multiple sets of bevel drives to the cams plus gear drive primary. You can hear it all and it is lovely music.
The Motus primary , not so much.

When can we buy one?

No word from the mothership themselves.

That above statement didn't suggest that they ran out of money and folded...why that seems to be the first thing that some go to, I have no idea.

According to the website, late 2012. That gives them another 19 days to get them to one of the dealers listed here:

http://www.motusmotorcycles.com/locate.php

Methinks they won't make this timetable

So the one in GA is at European Motorsports... lol

This is starting to remind me abit of the Norton V-8, the Bimota V-Due, and many more "failures to launch" that I can't recollect right now. I wish them luck

First, you and a few others are saying "over $40K", when it isn't. The base model will be about $30K, and the fancy version $36K.

Second, you don't have to be rich to afford that. That's about the *average* cost of a new car; I bet there are tons of people here who have cars worth more than that, and not a few who have spent more than that on boats. It depends on what you want. I'm not "rich", but I make a decent salary, and I intend to give the Motus a serious look when it comes out. There's another $30K+ bike on my "give it a serious look" list as well, the Bimota Tesi 3D. Not everyone is stuck on '80's cruisers.

PhilB

I really hope Motus is able to get off the ground and launch their bike. This looks to have a lot of promise, and maybe when I'm ready for my next, next bike, I'll be in a position to buy one.

If they do, and if I am, this will be the next bike in my parking space.

From my perspective, you would have to be pretty well off to afford something like that. I am blue collar (and damn proud of it) non union, and it would take the better part of a years pay to buy one of those out the door, by the time everything got added on. In my state the sales tax alone would put the fancy version at $40K. And IF these things ever actually ever go up for sale, I am expecting more price increases by that time.

I do not own an expensive car. The most expensive car (actually a truck) that I ever bought was a new '93 Chevy S10 back in 1993. It was a 4.3 5 speed Tahoe model, and I paid just over $11K off the lot. The most expensive motorcycle I ever bought was my current Kawasaki Vulcan 750, at almost $7K OTD. I only paid $5500 for my used '95 Goldwing with 63,000 miles on it. So I am obviously not the target customer of this thing.

My Vulcan 750 is an '02 model, but is an '85 design. They were made completely unchanged from 1985-2006 except for paint and graphics. I have owned 2 new ones, a '93 and this '02. Together I have over 160,000 miles between them. They are super comfortable, have plenty of power and storage room for solo touring, and they are a proven design. And they require almost no maintenance.

In addition to the 3 sport tourers I've already mentioned, you can also get a brand new R1200GS for $20K Or if your the Harley type, you can get several models, including a fully equipped touring bike (fairing, bags and trunk) for that.

You do not have to be rich, or even financially well off to enjoy riding. All you really need is a bike and some time. And I see no reason why a bike needs to cost whatever this Motus winds up costing. There are a lot of VERY desirable bikes for WAY less. And while I cannot afford to even spend $20K on a bike, it sure sounds a lot better than almost twice that.

But an even bigger point is that everybody is arguing over a bike that may very well never be available. I don't know how long this forum has existed, but was there ever an Excelsior Henderson thread on here?

Then you are not there target market. It doesn't matter how many people won't buy it. It matters how many people will buy it. And there are people who will gladly drop that type of money for a bike. People spend $40 grand on a new Mustang or Camaro as a second car all day long(or even more for a corvette), I'm sure a hand full of those guys would buy a Motus instead.
And please- let's stop using this $40k number. Because if someone is cost conscious they are going for the base model at $31k+.

I'm not even a huge fan of this bike, but these types of arguments get really old really fast. "Need" this, "need" that. All you really "need." Are you speaking for yourself or for every human being on the planet?

What metric are you using to decide what a motorcycle needs to cost? Does an R1200GS Adv cost more than it needs to cost? Does an 1199 S Tricolore cost more than it needs to cost? What about a CVO Harley? Or the EBR 1190RS? Where do you draw the line? Everyone one of these bikes has a lower cost alternatives, so should that be the standard of measure? How about with automobiles where even "mild exotic" companies like Mercedes and Audi offer top of the line models that cost more than many people's homes? Honestly, how much does a car really "need" to cost?

As someone that has a hard time spending any more than 10K on a bike, the Motus is far beyond my price range. However, if they can hit their target sales numbers, they've succeeded, even if there's a bunch of angry people on ADVRider who are left out. Listen to some of their statements, and you can quickly pick up that MST/MST-R was never meant to go head to head with a 15K sport tourer from Japan or Europe. They may offer another, lower priced model somewhere down the line which would be nice.

30K is steep for a motorcycle, but it's not beyond the reach of the working class assuming one actually wants it; especially when the average cost of an automobile sold today is around 30K, and people will routinely drop nearly 50K+ on something ridiculous like a Suburban.

Motus is beyond my price range, but not beyond my 'need' range.

Do you mean need range, or "want" range? Everybody wants expensive stuff, but most can have just as much fun with something a lot cheaper.

Really,at the end of the day,if you have to ask,you cant afford it. 30+ grand is indeed the price of an average new car. A good mountain bike with no engine starts at about 3 grand these days,and quickly hits 10 grand if you want a real good one.
Toys are pricey and nobody Needs one,its the "want" where it gets tricky.

A decent used ST1100 can be had for about 3 grand ready to hit the road,some people can just barely afford that but they're still out there riding which is what counts.
Some people can buy a Motus on a whim to go with their latest Ducati/KTM. There's all sorts of folks with all sorts of incomes,quibbling about what or why a Motus should sell for X amount is just babbling on and on.
Limited production bikes arent cheap,never have been,its a push rod V-4 that hauls ass.
Which other company is building a modern pushrod engined sport touring bike?.................. hmmmmm



None. Its not a boring Honda,I like that. It has panache and its American made.