Motus Demo Rides Elicit Praise

NASHUA, NH – Motus just may be the least known motorcycle brand in the U.S., but some astute riders traveled more three hundred miles this past weekend just to ride a few more on examples of the pricey American-made sport touring bike. Rocket Moto Sport, currently the lone Motus dealer in New England, hosted a two-day demo event and those who got to ride came away praising the bikes.

“It was a bit more raw than I was expecting. Way more powerful, way more sporty,” said Wally Thomas of Monroe, CT, who arrived on a 2008 Victory Vision touring cruiser. “It was a lot of fun. I would need to spend more time on it to ride it for what it’s worth.”

Wally Thomas of Monroe, CT

Thomas took out a blue Motus MST model, which features a 1,650cc liquid-cooled V-4 engine with 165 horsepower, a six-speed transmission, Ohlins forks, Progressive mono-shock, Brembo brakes, adjustable handlebars by HeliBars and Sargent seat. What impressed him about Motus’ base model were the speed and comfort.

“I just like how well they have done as a brand new company – the quality components. I sat on it and it felt like it was made for me. The acceleration was just so cool. It’s weird. The engine doesn’t sound smooth but it is smooth. When you’re riding it, it’s very smooth,” said Thomas, who added that he is considering buying one. “I like unusual and rare bikes,” he said.

Motus president and co-founder Lee Conn, who led the demo rides and who provided a backgrounder pep talk before each group went out on a demo ride, said the use of name-brand, high-end components was done on purpose.

Motus president Lee Conn (in white t-shirt) briefs demo riders.

“We’re the only consumers in the world that will go out and spend good money on a machine that you knew when you bought it there were parts on that you were going to replace that day. As motorcyclists, we’ve been sort of conditioned to sort of say, ‘That’s cool or fun.’ It ain’t cool or fun. It’s a bunch of BS because we just paid good money for that bike. Why are we throwing the mufflers out? Motus has a different philosophy of let’s just build a bad-ass bike,” he said.

Ernie Torizzo of Harwinton, CT and Tom MacBurnie of Winsted, CT got to ride a white MSTR model, which is Motus’ higher-performance bike. It boasts 180 horsepower, an Ohlins mono-shock and carbon fiber wheels.

Lee Conn, right, talks about Motus motorcycles as Tom MacBurnie listens

“It handles beautifully. It’s great on the back roads,” said Torizzo, who rode in on a 2015 Ducati Multistrada 1200 S. “The shifting is great. Braking is good.” He added that he’s used to more of a sport riding position than the Motus offered, but nonetheless dubbed the bike “perfect.” He is also looking at buying one.

MacBurnie, who came a on 2008 BMW K1300 S borrowed from Torizzo, was equally impressed. “It’s light feeling for the power it delivers. Throttle by wire was super sensitive; lots of low-end torque; accelerates really, really hard; handles as good or better than the K1300S.,” he said.

MacBurnie is a longtime motorcycle mechanic and knows bikes inside and out, which gives him added credibility. “It didn’t run out of steam at all. It handled well. It did everything you wanted it to do,” he said.

Motus Motorcycles is based in Birmingham, AL and prides itself on offering an American-made product. “We took a clean sheet of paper out about seven years ago and we said let’s build the most bad-ass bike we can possibly build for the kind of riding that we do. We live in Birmingham, Alabama.  We ride to Chattanooga, we ride to north Georgia. You’ve got to be comfortable because you’ve got to go on the Interstate a little while. Then when you pull off on the really pretty, good roads, you’ve got to be able to just absolutely rail, and that’s what this bike kind of  shines at,” Conn said.

The demo riders did do a little nit-picking, though.

Thomas’ gripe was the seat. “It felt like it had two different levels,” said Thomas, who chalked it up to the fact the bike was a demo model with a seat that had cradled many butts. “That was it. Everything else was fun,” he said.

While Torizzo liked the low-key approach to the demo event, he did wonder about the price of he Motus models. Both retail for more than $30,000. “The only question is whether you can justify spending that amount of money on a motorcycle,” he said.

MacBurnie’s complaint involved the instrument cluster. “I didn’t care for the dashboard. The dash seemed congested.  It was too colorful,” he said.

All of the demo riders agreed that it was worth the trip to ride a Motus. Rocket Moto Sport owner Adam Schoolsky played the genial host when he wasn’t busy capturing moments on video.

And the pizza cooked on premises by Fetta Di Casa sure was tasty.

Next week, RIDE-CT & RIDE-NewEngland will have an interview with Conn about Motus – how the company came to be and what the future holds.