Recently The guys from Motus stopped here in (near) Nashville to show off their new prototype motorcycles as part of their V4 Sport Tour across the country. I was there to see the bikes and talk with Lee Conn, President of Motus, and we posted the interview with Lee a few days ago. A few of our regular forums posters were there as well and they got to see and sit on the bikes and also got to listen to Lee talk about the bikes. Now there are a lot details about the bike on the Motus website and there are ride reviews popping up already in print and on the web. There were some other details that we learned that evening about the bikes that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere so I wanted to share with our readers some of the things I found interesting about the bike and what I think makes them special.

First thing that caught my attention is the engine. The 1600cc V4 is certainly the party piece on the MST which not only delivers quite a bit of power and torque but is quite a good looking engine as well. In fact I'd say it would be criminal to have wrapped it in plastic and hide the head covers from the world. This is obvious in any photos that you see of the bike. What is not so obvious is the way the engine and transmission are connected on the V4 power-plant.

The engine design is from Pratt & Miller who also design, among other things, racing engines for Corvettes. On the Motus engine this car engine pedigree shows itself in that the transmission is a separate unit from the engine. A such the engine has it's own oil supply and the transmission has it's own fluid. This eliminates the need to use motorcycle specific oil that plays well with both components. Also, the engine can be almost completely disassembled (around 90%) while still mounted in the frame which makes maintenance easier. While on the subject of maintenance, the valves on this push-rod engine are hydraulically actuated so they never need adjusting.

Adding to the car-like nature of the engine design is a belt driven ( I assume it was a belt under the cover) alternator that looked like it came from a small car. Again it is easy to access and I'm told it puts out 750 watts of juice which should be more than enough to power GPS's, cell phones, heated gear, extra driving lights, and even a small microwave oven. Ok that last one may be a bit of a stretch (or maybe not!) but Motus designed the bike to be a sport touring bike and they didn't neglect the touring aspect at all. That power is available through two outlets on the bike so electric will be available wherever you need it.

One of the aspects that was very important to Motus for the MST is that it be comfortable and to that end all the controls are adjustable. The ability to adjust the clip-ons rivals that of any aftermarket adjustable units. Once can change the height, the angle of pull back, and the angle of the bar itself. When all these are used in concert one gets about 6" of adjustment for placing the grips right where one wants them to be. The rotating parts involved are all on splines so once tightened down after adjustment they will stay in place firmly. The foot controls are adjustable as well. Where one can usually adjust the height of the shift lever on a typical bike, on the Motus MST you can even adjust the distance of the shifter peg from the footpeg. A nice touch that can truly help one customize a Motus ST to fit a wide variety of riders.

Important for the comfort of any rider is of course the seat and Motus doesn't skimp here. The seats on the two prototypes are from seat maker Sargent and they should be standard equipment on all Motus MST's. There were also two seat heights available to accommodate the vertically challenged but this may not be as necessary as it is with other sport touring bikes. The Motus MST is incredibly narrow where the seat meets the tank. I personally ride a Suzuki SV650 which is pretty narrow itself but the Motus seems even more slim and this makes getting ones feet down at a stop very easy to do.

All of these features (and others I'm sure I forgot) are what I feel makes Motus' bikes special. Their intent is that when you purchase one of their bikes you won't need to purchase additional accessories to personalize the "fit" of the bike to suit. Now with so many adjustments and such available one might be able to spend quite a bit of time setting everything exactly where you want it but that's a small price to pay for the personalized machine you'll end up with.

That brings us to the price of course which is the biggest question for many potential buyers right now (myself included). There are no hard numbers right now but speculation has run from 20,000.00 dollars to over 30,000.00 dollars. No one can (or is ready ) to say yet what it will be but my personal opinion is that the price will fit the product. By using top notch components such as Brembo, Ohlins, etc and making all the aforementioned accessories and adjustable bits part of the standard package (that's right, all that stuff is standard!) prices in the range speculated don't seem so steep in the end.

So if those reasons aren't enough to make the bike special perhaps this parting observation will. When I spoke with Lee during their visit he was exhausted after having just ridden straight in from Denver. Even as tired as he was you could see the excitement in his eyes when he talked with me about the bike (both on camera and off). This is not just a business to him but a dream coming to fruition. He loves to ride as much if not more than any of us and that enthusiasm is going straight into the Motus MST and it shows in the details of the bikes I saw. As you can tell some of that enthusiasm has rubbed off on me and I won't deny it. I've sat on the machine and listened to it run and poked and prodded all the nooks and crannies and I was impressed at every turn. If you get the chance to see them on their remaining stops of their tour this fall do yourself a favor and check it out for yourself and then try to tell me my enthusiasm is misplaced.