Damon motorcycles

Some GTAM members have deposits in already. Looks good. I'd be shocked if some of the advertised features (like on the fly configuration) make it to production but even without the frills it looks like a solid bike.

Damon Motorcycle

Hi Guys, Still waiting to order S1K RR since there is a stop-sale order due to recall then I stumbled on Damon Electric motorcycle and it really looks interesting. Can anyone provide any input? They are accepting downpayment now. Danny
www.gtamotorcycle.com
 
TwistedKestrel said:
That announcement does absolutely nothing to dispel the feeling of vaporware
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And given the low amount of money required up front, it also does little to gauge demand. Many people may have thrown in $100 as a lottery ticket. If it comes out and is awesome, a quick flip to someone that wants one but is years behind on the waiting list is possible. I don't know about the majority of people on the list but I don't have $30K hanging out in my toy budget. Throwing in $100 now to keep the option open may be a smart play but when it came time to pay the rest, there is a high probability that I would pull out.

I hope they focus on getting a real bike to market and drop the transformer crap. It's interesting but driving up cost and complexity and imo exponentially increases the odds that they never get a bike to the public.
 
TwistedKestrel said:
I'm not crazy right? Does this feel bizarre to anyone else? Like the church of Scientology is in the motorcycle business now
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This reeks of political skeet. Lots of "made in canada" tech. Huge building, promises of hundreds of jobs (office outnumbering manufacturing more than 2:1) and not a single production ready motorcycle built yet. Probably tons of government money (from all levels) flowing in their direction for this.

Yet another company that needs to let go of the ego, pull their head out of their ass and get someone like Multimatic to make things for a few years while they get the design and manufacturing process dialed in. Then they could bring manufacturing in house. This stupid moon-shot of transformer, self-driving, built-in-house is doomed to failure.
 
How do I pull a sick wheelie on these things? Didn't see it it the feature list.
 
xfactor said:
How do I pull a sick wheelie on these things? Didn't see it it the feature list.
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With computer control of the everything, self-driving and electric drive, adding "sick wheelies" to the feature list would be pretty easy. Hopefully they have a good way to deal with "oh crap, the noob fell off".
 
GreyGhost said:
With computer control of the everything, self-driving and electric drive, adding "sick wheelies" to the feature list would be pretty easy. Hopefully they have a good way to deal with "oh crap, the noob fell off".
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BMW figured this out already. GS just says, "okthxbye":

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As someone watching with interest...I still have concerns and doubts. They need to be buying all the common bike bits from existing suppliers and ditching some of the gee-whiz features from the first model. The KISS principle still applies. Concentrate on powertrain and chassis. Get something production-ready and get the tooling built. It's nowhere near as complex a vehicle as a car.
 
I hope they succeed spectacularly, and remain Canadian owned and based.

I'd buy one, functionality being comparable to the competition.

But with sport bike sales slumping and the breed seemingly out of favor, why is the first-look bike aimed at that segment?
 
xrljoel said:
I hope they succeed spectacularly, and remain Canadian owned and based.

I'd buy one, functionality being comparable to the competition.

But with sport bike sales slumping and the breed seemingly out of favor, why is the first-look bike aimed at that segment?
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Imo, Partly for wow factor, partly for looks, all for ego. Their on the fly ergonomic changes are not nearly as impressive or necessary if you started from something like an adv bike that is comfortable out of the box. The bike looks great, most adv bikes look meh. I suspect the founders like sport bikes. This bike is an ego project first and foremost.
 
GreyGhost said:
Imo, Partly for wow factor, partly for looks, all for ego. Their on the fly ergonomic changes are not nearly as impressive or necessary if you started from something like an adv bike that is comfortable out of the box. The bike looks great, most adv bikes look meh. I suspect the founders like sport bikes. This bike is an ego project first and foremost.
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Yeah, I see what you're saying and it makes sense. Michael Uharlik is their head designer (I think) and he certainly does have experience designing them.

I hope it's not driven by exclusively by ego though. At some point a smart business mind decides that some troublesome or extremely complex feature is a bridge too far at that point in time and kills/defers it to move closer to a finished product because in the end the entire point of the venture is to produce and sell a finished product.
 
xrljoel said:
Yeah, I see what you're saying and it makes sense. Michael Uharlik is their head designer (I think) and he certainly does have experience designing them.

I hope it's not driven by exclusively by ego though. At some point a smart business mind decides that some troublesome or extremely complex feature is a bridge too far at that point in time and kills/defers it to move closer to a finished product because in the end the entire point of the venture is to produce and sell a finished product.
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They should have crossed that bridge years ago and canned the transformer features. Even the self-driving should probably have been axed from this bike (keep it under development). For a first cut, release a kickass electric bike with cruise, TC and ABS. You can buy the electronics from others that have been improving them for years. As I said before, building it themselves is likely a game to get money out of government and I suspect another giant pain point on actually getting bikes to market. It seems like every time they have a choice to make, they pick the one that is less likely to get a product to market.
 
If you want to impress people with the performance (and you do, especially for a first product), it needs to be in something that will showcase it.

EVs need good aerodynamics ... not a bolt-upright rider without a windscreen in front of them and without something to deflect the air stream around their legs. Naked / Adventure ... Not compatible with that objective.

It needs to be in a market segment whose customers do not have visions of having 800 km of range without stopping and charging up in 15 minutes or whatever. Touring bikes ... Not there yet (although the smoothness of an EV powertrain is a natural fit once charging infrastructure improves some more).

It also needs to be in a market segment whose customers don't have visions of crossing the Sahara Desert without stopping. Adventure bikes ... Not there yet even though I betcha most customers don't do 200 km at a time.

I hope they succeed.
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