Motus Motorcycles
At 2 p.m. today, the American motorcycle company Motus will publicly launch its MST series (prototypes) at the Progressive International Motorcycle Show in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The Motus MST series features American-made sportbikes powered by the "first gasoline direct injected* engine," the KMV4 – a liquid cooled, 1650cc V4.
Each MST sportbikes focus "squarely on performance, comfort and range." The MST series was developed at the facilities of Motus’s partner, Pratt & Miller Engineering in New Hudson, Mich., where the series was first privately unveiled.
Lee Conn (Motus President) says: "We are so proud to show the world the MST series. We poured our hearts and souls into these motorcycles and hope that it shows in terms of the quality and character of the machines.
"The MST’s are exhilarating to ride- a very powerful experience unlike any other motorcycle I’ve ever ridden. There is usable power everywhere in rev-range, excellent feedback from the road, very responsive to inputs and….the sound of the KMV4 still gives me goose bumps every time one cranks."
The base-model MST and upgraded MST-R prototypes are expected to enter production in late 2011, but will first undergo "extensive testing and refinement." But Motus is doing more; co-founders Lee Conn and Brian Case are piloting some MST prototypes around the US on an "American Sport Tour" to ensure the pre-production machines are durable.
Brian Case (Vice President & Director of Design, Motus) says: "There is just no better way to make sure the MST’s meet our standards of durability, comfort, and performance than to personally ride the machines and iterate them as we identify issues. Along the way, we are meeting with friends, supporters and high quality dealers that have inquired about carrying Motus in their area.
"We decided early on that no corners would be cut with the MST series. Motus is about precision, quality and attention to detail rather than speed to production. We are more focused on building great bikes than rushing to meet artificial deadlines.
"Rather than hype the brand with computer renderings of a bike we hadn’t even built yet, we engineered the bikes to be functional and actually work first, and then show the world what we have done so far."
The Motus MST prototypes were built using a "combination of sophisticated computer aided engineering tools as well as rapid prototyping processes." The company says the transmission, chassis and bodywork were all purpose built at Pratt&Miller Engineering for high performance, durability, all day comfort, and long range.
Brandon Widmer (Director of Business Development at Pratt & Miller Engineering) says: "Motus came to Pratt & Miller with some very ambitious engineering and technical challenges and we felt we had the right tools and resources to exceed their expectations in terms of a high level of work in a shortened period of time.
"The MST project has been exciting and challenging allowing us to employ many of our core strengths including complex chassis engineering and optimization, gearbox design and testing, metal and carbon composite fabrication and vehicle validation that is taking place now."
Gary Pratt (Co-founder of Pratt & Miller) says: "The MST project has been an absolute blast for us at Pratt & Miller. The work ethic and intensity of the guys at Motus meshes well with our mindset and it has been gratifying to apply some of the skills and technologies we have developed from our endurance racing programs to this new American motorcycle."
*Gasoline direct injection is a proven technology where fuel is digitally atomized at extremely high pressures and injected directly into the combustion chamber, as opposed to conventional port fuel injection where fuel is applied in the intake ports.
Through the use of highly advanced engine management systems, fuel delivery can be precisely optimized for increased power with better fuel economy and reduced emissions. The highly atomized fuel also cools the air-fuel mixture, allowing increased compression for better power and efficiency.
Direct injected engines can increase power and torque by up to 10%, while reducing emissions as much as 25-percent during cold starts when most harmful exhaust emissions are typically created.
