In 2016, Harley-Davidson’s sales were flat, Indian motorcycle sales were up, but Victory Motorcycles was still unprofitable. This forced Polaris to close Victory and bank all its motorcycling hopes on Indian, thus an American motorcycle manufacturer bit the dust. To top things off, the people behind Erik Buell Racing saw the writing on the wall, and they have decided to close up shop as well. This has made the American-made motorcycle and even rarer breed, but there are a few U.S. marques left, and one is coming to Colorado!
Colorado Gets a New American Motorcycle Company
A chance meeting in 2006 led to Brian Case and Lee Conn sharing their love of motorcycles and manufacturing. They lamented about how the type of bike they would love to ride didn’t exist, so the two got together and did something about it. Two years later, they started Motors U.S.—aka Motus—and they’ve been producing the sport tourer of their dreams ever since.
Motus launched its first consumer model—the MST—in 2012. It has a 90˚ V4 engine that’s described as a “baby block” based off of the famous American V8s that have powered American muscle cars for decades. Using off the shelf parts and ingenuity, Motus made a 180-horsepower motorcycle that broke land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Now, this new American bike company is coming to a dealership in Dolores.
The Vincent Works motorcycle shop will now carry Motus motorcycles. The Motus dealership is called Four Corners Motus, and it will be the hub for these American motorcycles right here in Colorado. Since Motus is still such a small company, only around 100 of its bikes are out on the open road, and each one is hand built. These machines are so rare, visitors from Alaska and Albuquerque have already journeyed to Four Corners to see them, but there are still a few questions to be answered.
Will Motus be able to grow into a company large enough to compete with the giants in the motorcycle industry? What do you think about this motorcycle and its unique engine? Tell the motorcycling attorneys at the Metier Law Firm what you think by heading over to our Twitter and Facebook pages.