We haven’t heard a lot about Motus lately, but the company has been busy shoring up their dealer network, and setting land speed records.
While Motus builds sport tourers, not drag bikes, streamliners or other machines generally associated with high-speed antics, they recently took a stock MSTR motorcycle to Bonneville and managed to set records for the fastest American production motorcycle at the AMA-sanctioned 2014 Bonneville Speed Trials; they took home top place in the P-PP and P-PG classes.
Considering the small size of the company, and their juggernaut competition for made-in-America speed records, that’s impressive. But even better, Motus didn’t just beat their made-in”Murica competition, they also set a world record for the fastest speed by any production pushrod-engined motorcycle in the world. Of course, it helps when you power your bike with half a small-block V8 …
To put that in perspective, other manufacturers have been in business for decades (or over a century!), with factory racing budgets, and Motus beat them. Not bad for a company that doesn’t even have a dealer in every US state, and none in any other country, as far as we know.
Motus’s only mods for the record-setting runs? They took off the blinkers, mirrors and licence plate.
