American Sport-Tourer

AMERICAN SPORT-TOURER

ROUNDUP

Alabama-based Motus shows its V-Four MST and hopes you'll take a ride with them

STEVE ANDERSON

YOU MET THE MOTUS MST ON THESE pages early last year (Roundup, April, 2010). At that time, it was a motor mockup, a styling sketch and some nicely rendered CAD drawings. But Motus principals Lee Conn and Brian Case rolled out the running prototype this past spring. The first example will be the sport-touring MST model pictured here. Why a sport-tourer, a motorcycle category that anyone familiar with the industry will tell you has always been on the fringes of market acceptance? Because that's what the two of them like to ride, and Motus is all about building what you know. An industrial designer with training from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh,

Case was Chief Designer at Confederate and the man who saw the Wraith into production. Conn, an engineer and a pilot, comes from a family steeped in aviation manufacturing, owning a company that dominated the hot-air-balloon market. When the two got together to build an American motorcycle, they went looking for very experienced partners to speed the project on its way.

They found them in Katech, a company specializing in racing versions of Corvette pushrod V-Eights, and in Pratt & Miller, an engineering consulting company with its roots deep in endurance car racing. Katech designed the 1650cc, 90-degree V-Four engine to fit

Case’s requirements of efficient packaging. It borrows the best design elements of American pushrod racing engines, with a single camshaft in the center of the Vee and two valves per cylinder.

But, like NASCAR engines, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a high-tech design. It also uses as many off-the-shelf high-performance components as possible: GM hydraulic lifters, Cadillac forged pistons, Corvette sensors that can be bought at the local NAPA store, etc. Redline is 8000 rpm, and the engine uses (still extremely rare in motorcycling) direct cylinder fuel injection, with that system’s advantages in power, efficiency and drivability. The longitudinally mounted

engine drives a right-angle gearset on the end of its crank to allow use of a three-shaft, transverse gearbox and chain final drive.

While the industrial design work on the motorcycle was all done by Case, the detailed design of the gearbox and the stress analysis of chassis components were left to the engineers at Pratt & Miller, whom both Case and Conn said embraced this project like no other.

Case is proud of the result, claiming the prototypes have north of 160 horsepower atop a fat torque curve that peaks at 122 foot-pounds, combined with a relatively short, 58.0-inch wheelbase, a long swingarm and a curb weight of just 500 pounds—a combination of features that would make for a very high-performance sport-touring machine. There still remains a lot of work to be done before the bike reaches dealerships—little things like getting past noise and emissions tests, setting up a production facility and building up the dealer network itself. But Case and Conn are determined to achieve those milestones over the next year and hope to have the sport-touring model in production by the end of 2011.

Realistic? “We always set ambitious goals,” says Conn. “That’s how we’ve gotten as far as we have. But if production doesn’t start this year, then first or second quarter next year. The bikes have to be right.”

Initial production is set at fewer than 500 units per year. And while the machines are meant to be premium and distinctive, Motus intends to keep the price out of truly exotic range. The sport-tourer will be followed by derivatives, including a naked streetfighter.

One of the more interesting tidbits? Conn is already pointing out that the engine can be expanded to 1850cc and can tolerate an insane 300 hp as a turbocharged variant. Now, that is an enticing statement from an ambitious startup.