MOTUS: New Sport Tourer built in Alabama

...and Hepco + Becker.

...and TRAX.

I'm guessing that HD probably still makes it's own bags at its fiberglass factory, alongside its fairings.

I have no idea about the Japanese. I don't keep up with them.

300 bikes in a year at an average of $34k - 2k dealer = 9.6 million dollars. Even if you cleared 5% in profit...$500k. Just spitballing some numbers, but they should be able to stay in biz if they can sell bikes.

I bought a Guzzi last year...exotic brand. I didn't feel like I was treated much different. Kinda like a Ural dealer.

They had to go third party for new-bike financing, and startup capital had to come from somewhere (looks like UAB, as it happens. University incubators are sweet deals). Someone plans to make money - I'm curious how they think that will happen.

Presumably, as a company Motus must make a profit eventually. I don't see that as very likely.

6% margin for the dealers? LOL!

I don't either.

Motus' business model was likely based on a better economy. Problem is folks have cut back on discretionary spending, especially high dollar motorcycles. Polaris is feeling the same pinch with Indian Motorcycle Company, which they acquired in April 2011.

Says who? Every Polaris business report claims better and better "on road" sales growth. Indian can't account for much but they are busy developing a "new" Indian (engine at least) to be released at Daytona later this year.

This is a valid point, but I don't see how they had any other option. Tooling alone for custom bags would add $thousands to the cost of this low volume bike. I think its a better option than just not offering bags.

Hmm, bespoke tires cut from GP slicks, perhaps.
And you complain about the pricing? :eek1

The victory brand has bikes that range from 12,499 up to 28,999. They have plenty of options at less than half the cost of the Motus, and the distribution muscle of Polaris.

I don't think anyone would hold the recent Indian lineup up as an example of success - I can't imagine the brand could survive with the current offerings without the support of the parent company.

I'd like to think there is room for the Motus offerings in the marketplace (as well as room for an American option at a more competitive price with sport-touring machines from Yamaha, Honda, and Kawasaki, but that's because that's what -I- want), but for an independent company to release upscale boutique bikes (at upscale boutique prices) as their sole offering (okay, two of them) is risky as hell.

So what...double it? That,s why it's called spit balling. There is over 1 mil to play with. How would you split it?

What do you expect, that they'll hold the loan notes on bikes themselves? It's a little premature to be looking for Motus Financial Services.
Who does financing for Guzzi or Triumph? A bank probably, just like Motus.

outside investment is outside investment. Nevermind the startup capital for development and wages for employees to get the first year's bikes out the door.


I have no clue what the margins are for Motus's bikes, and probably no one in the thread does. The bikes haven't been tested yet (and demos cost money), but when they are it doesn't seem that likely that they'll be worlds apart from the sport-touring options already out there, so they'll be pushing a superpremium product in an already small market.

There is room for superpremium in any market, especially in a nation as wealthy as the United States, but startups that offer them are taking an especially big risk.

Motus currently has 11 dealers, if we assume 300 bikes then each dealer needs to sell 27 of these bikes. A year.

Putting your $1M into the 300 bikes would move the margin up to about 16%.

That would be a minimum margin I'd expect to see on a premium product.

First off, I want Motus to succeed even if I can never afford one.

I have also read some articles about their marketing plan. But if they think that just 11 dealers will sell 300 bikes averaging 27 per dealer, they will unfortunately not succeed. 5-10 bikes per year per dealer is more realistic. And even that might be tough for some dealers in some markets. They will need more dealers to achieve their sales goals.

The Ducati/Triumph dealership I frequent used to sell MV Agusta. Now there is a brand with a heritage, more than one model, great reviews in the press and an obvious lust factor. But the dealer was only able to sell something like 3 or 4 bikes in two years and dropped the marque. Now that dealer did change ownership and moved to bigger quarters after the MV fiasco, but I am not sure if the deeper pockets of the new owners would have faired much better. They certainly haven't picked up MV again.

It will certainly be interesting to see what happens when and if Motus ever reaches production. Hell, in 10-20 years we may be looking back at Motus as an American success story or we will be saying Motus who?

Rick G

Plastic. FRP. Whatever. They have thier Tomahawk plant for producing bags and fairings...

You know that.

I guess you don't know that the MoCo uses the word "fiberglass" on its own website:

But you should.



http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US/Content/Pages/Factory_Tours/tomahawk.html
("Employees manufacture plastic and fiberglass parts, including saddlebags, and windshields.")

Triumph uses Freedom Road Financial, the same lender that is working with Motus. Even my new Yamaha was financed thru GE.

I want them to succeed too, I'm just doubtful.


If you look at their dealer locations, it is hard to imagine where they could fit more. Maybe Chicago and Denver, perhaps.

In most smaller metro areas it's going to be a lot harder to sell more than one or two bikes in that price range, especially if you look at maps of concentrations of higher incomes ( http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?services=da76de09076b4959ad005e1dc2c48049 ). For people earning less than 100k (a category I am squarely in, if in the lower fraction), ~30k is a large chunk of money, and it is hard to argue that a Motus is "equal" to an FJR and a three month trip. People that want pure toys are probably as likely to get something less touring-capable (and "sexier").

I hate to make a car analogy, but I must: this scenario would be like an American company coming up with a sedan that is as technically capable as a Honda accord or 3 series BMW at a cost of around $60k, where the only real selling point is the brand and image (the car itself isn't likely to outperform all sedans, it is a robust market segment. Is it luxury? hyper luxury? exotic?)

Only instead 100,000+ sedans sold per year in the USA there are, what? 400 new 1000cc+ sport touring bikes sold per year in the USA? 600?

in 2011, all "on highway" bikes tallied to 312,124 bikes. What percentage of that is big sport-tourers (especially once full dress tourers are subtracted back out - Motus won't be snagging many Goldwing or RT sales)? 1%?

If anyone has better industry data that can be shared, please do - I can't find a "units sold" figure for any of the big four in the USA.

Business reports tell shareholders and analysis what they want to hear. Trust your eyes. I see very few Victory motorcycles on the road around Chicago and Milwaukee or at major rallies.

Harley stopped using fiberglass 2006, about the same time they moved away from carburetors.

Don't forget that there are 200,000 HD's per year for 20+ years? You'll never see a lot of Victorys .
Most of those 4MILLION Harley's look pretty similar .