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Damon Motorcycle

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The only one i have ridden is the EM5.7 trials. It has 3 power modes. On the pro mode it's scary how much torque there is. On noob mode, it's just perfect for a lot of riders. The new models are awesome with long range batteries and gearbox/clutch. If it has been available last year, i would have bought it instead of the Beta.
 
The problem with electric for sportbikes is the current tech doesn't do well at WOT for any extended time. There's a reason Tesla marketed the crap out of a drag race in 'Ludicrous' mode, but wasn't lining up any circuit races. Even Moto E, with less powerful bikes than this one claims to be, could only do 7-9 laps with diminishing power at the ends of races. Making the battery big enough to last longer just adds even more weight to bikes already on the heavy side.

Electric makes a lot of sense for short-trip commuting, where speeds are steady and in some cases, dirt, where WOT isn't a regular occurrence (trails, not MX). If someone can develop new tech for cooling or more efficient high power discharge, then watch out. The characteristics of an electric motor can be incredible...
 
Circuit racing or track days, yes, that's a while off. For a street bike, that spends most of the time at part load, what we have today is decent enough. Someone on a Zero joined in on a ride that I did last year, and it made it to the end, and this has a bigger battery. I think the best thing for Damon would be for one of the existing manufacturers to buy them out and finish development.
 
Brian P said:
Circuit racing or track days, yes, that's a while off. For a street bike, that spends most of the time at part load, what we have today is decent enough. Someone on a Zero joined in on a ride that I did last year, and it made it to the end, and this has a bigger battery. I think the best thing for Damon would be for one of the existing manufacturers to buy them out and finish development.
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All very true. I'm (finally) a believer in electric as a viable tech for some bikes, even as is. But this is being marketed as a hypersport with matching ergos and design. The challenge for any e-bike maker now is to find a design that's both useful for what the bikes can actually do, and still has enough design drama to capture imaginations. Selling this as a sportbike replacement right away may set expectations they can't meet...

These are very obviously very early and still in the sizzle-selling phase, so I get the desire to make them look fast. I'm not sold on the variable ergos (adds weight and complexity and makes the fairing a poor fit for one position or the other), but the sensor feedback could be interesting (this seems to be their main calling card). Shooting for zero crash fatalities is an ambitious goal, if a bit pie-in-the-sky (2030 is the date on their roadmap for that)...
 
Priller said:
All very true. I'm (finally) a believer in electric as a viable tech for some bikes, even as is. But this is being marketed as a hypersport with matching ergos and design. The challenge for any e-bike maker now is to find a design that's both useful for what the bikes can actually do, and still has enough design drama to capture imaginations. Selling this as a sportbike replacement right away may set expectations they can't meet...

These are very obviously very early and still in the sizzle-selling phase, so I get the desire to make them look fast. I'm not sold on the variable ergos (adds weight and complexity and makes the fairing a poor fit for one position or the other), but the sensor feedback could be interesting (this seems to be their main calling card). Shooting for zero crash fatalities is an ambitious goal, if a bit pie-in-the-sky (2030 is the date on their roadmap for that)...
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The muscle cruiser that transits from the garage to tim hortons is a great fit for electric (other than the missing sound). You can beat anything light to light, range is not an issue and it would be reliable and save on maintenance. Repackaging an electric powertrain should be easier than trying to do the same thing with ICE.
 
GreyGhost said:
The muscle cruiser that transits from the garage to tim hortons is a great fit for electric (other than the missing sound). You can beat anything light to light, range is not an issue and it would be reliable and save on maintenance. Repackaging an electric powertrain should be easier than trying to do the same thing with ICE.
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On paper, this would be an ideal fit.

In reality, there's no racket when you endlessly blip the throttle, and from what I've seen, this seems to be the primary draw for a lot of muscle cruiser riders. Maybe the inevitable stereo blasting AC/DC could be combined with the various sensors on this bike to automatically emit an intermittent ear-bleeding racket when it senses nearby pedestrians, just to scratch that peculiar itch...
 
GreyGhost said:
The muscle cruiser that transits from the garage to tim hortons is a great fit for electric (other than the missing sound). You can beat anything light to light, range is not an issue and it would be reliable and save on maintenance. Repackaging an electric powertrain should be easier than trying to do the same thing with ICE.
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I suspect Damon needs some degree of aero to achieve adequate range. Same reason a Tesla Model X/Y SUV is of the swoopy-roofline variety as opposed to the big-square-box-SUV variety.

They've probably thought about this a bit. The cruiser market nowadays is fixated on appearance and sound, a wildly different EV simply doesn't fit that (and there's always the Harley LiveWire). The touring market wants enormous range to go cross country ... the quiet and smooth nature of EV fits that well, and those bikes have full-enclosure bodywork anyhow, so that's a good fit, but it brings up the whole "range" issue ... as charging infrastructure gets built out, this will become less of an issue with time. The ADV market wants to at least project the image of going off into the quasi-wilderness for days, where there are no charging stations yet. A naked upright no-fairing bike is no bueno for aero. A sport bike lets them showcase the power output, and sport riders generally don't do enormous mileage in single trips. Track usage is an open question ... theoretically it will do it, but you'll get two or three sessions in and be done.

I'm not convinced about the powered on-the-fly riding-position changeovers, either. I'd be happy with having it manually adjustable, in the interest of less cost and less stuff to go wrong.

Nevertheless - A little more evidence of production actually starting, and I'd be pre-ordering a duplicate of Yellowbalt's ... and be prepared to wait until 2023 for it ...
 
how on earth can you guys afford a $25,000 USD bike????? I'm definitely not in the right profession...
 
I really think that their board members, if any, are waiting for the market-reaction on pre-order/popularity of their product to come into fruition. The more pre-order, the higher percentage that they will survive. Looking at the agreement of pre-order from their webs-site, the downpayment is fully refundable while on pre-production. I was just worried that they might increase their price when they see that there is a real market demand and having a downpayment might hopefully secure the original price.
 
ifiddles said:
how on earth can you guys afford a $25,000 USD bike????? I'm definitely not in the right profession...
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no kids? no million dollar mortgage?
 
Scuba Steve said:
2 kids and mortgage I probably don't make any more than I fiddles.

Sent from my couch using my thumbs
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just imagine how many more 25k motorcycles could have been in your life without either.
 
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