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[wavelet]

Well yes.  The first 25 premier bikes are now called the founders editions.  They were custom painted to the buyer's choice, and yes sold out.
Now they are offering the Premier bike in two color options.  Arctic Sun and Midnight Sun.  Those are said to be "limited".
All you need to do is put down a $1000 deposit and pick which of the two you want.  Now the total will be around $40k but "if" the thing can do 200MPH and about* 200 miles of 60MPH range, then that's not a bad price for the top of the electric motorcycle food chain.  IMO

So no actual news at this point.
While they're certainly better at demonstrating progress than The Company Whose Name Begins With L  ,
their timeline is still very aggressive (IIRC, it was end 2020 and now pushed back to 2021);
Forget the goals of 200mph, or 200kg for a faired bike with 20kWh battery.
I've done my share of embedded systems development & integration; the situational awareness system alone should be many years of work for a large, well-funded R&D organization -- a lot of which would be a lot of testing & tuning of many prototypes on many actual roads under a variety of conditions -- esp. if it's to work well under a full  envelope of sportbike riding conditions. After all, it would be the first system of its kind, and is a safety feature (if it's not 99.9999% reliable, it'll kill people who'll get to rely on it, like the current car L2 autonomy systems promoted as if they were L4/L5).

The adjustable ergonomics also need lots of testing -- think of a failure mode where a faulty relay causes one of the relvant motors to move seat or bars back & forth continually, or not synchronize properly between pegs, bars & seat.

Not saying they can't do it, but I'll reserve judgement until I see a fully working prototype tested by a least a couple of motojournalists.

[NEW2elec]

Quote: The adjustable ergonomics also need lots of testing -- think of a failure mode where a faulty relay causes one of the relvant motors to move seat or bars back & forth continually, or not synchronize properly between pegs, bars & seat.

That part seems easiest of all.  Really nothing more the the power adjustable seats in any car with a saved memory function.  I've never had a car seat fold me up into the steering wheel.

As for range well...
The same L company told Jay Leno that a bike going over 200MPH would have a range of about 26 miles.  Now going by Zero's posted numbers (not real measured capacity) a 14.4 battery with a 3.6 power tank can do 200 city miles.  That's for a non faired bike.
I want to say Damon just states an over 20 kWh battery so "maybe" 200ish miles at 50ish MPH.  I want to be free from thinking about how my speed is killing my range on normal 70-80 mile rides.

As for the copilot warning system, well first I don't really care about that at all.  If the motor can do what they say then everything behind you will stay that way.    I would think it would give off a lot of false positives more than anything but hey if insurance companies believe it makes you safer and counters the motor speed then it gets a thumbs up from me.

P.S.  The other news was they bought the Mission Motors IP I don't know if you saw that part or not.

[princec]

Insurance companies will be much more interested in the very detailed logs recorded by the bike of what you were doing just prior to wiping out.

Cas

[NEW2elec]

Here is a write up from Ride Apart talking about what Damon has been up to since CES.  They think they may have 1000 orders by year end so they're still at it.


https://www.rideapart.com/articles/422179/damon-motorcycles-interview-with-jay-giraud/

[NEW2elec]

This is from Electrek talking about how Damon is going to be able to use V2H (vehicle to home) to keep your basic electric needs going for a few days because hey why not.

https://electrek.co/2020/06/25/damon-motorcycles-announces-vehicle-to-home-electric-motorcycle/

For some reason I felt a need to listen to an old Beatles song called "Don't let me down".

[JaimeC]

The more I read about this bike, the more I'm reminded of the Lightning Strike.  LOTS of promises and unbelievable specifications at an amazingly low price.  The bikes that were actually delivered were nowhere NEAR what was promised.  I'll believe this when I see Morgan and Brandon do one of their THOROUGH reviews on one and not one SECOND before.

[NEW2elec]

Well I have my concerns as well but a few things to add.
First, to me backing a new company-product-idea is like cheering on a little kid playing baseball.  I don't want to stifle innovation and improvements by stating the safer bet that maybe the big leagues isn't in their future.  As the kid hits high school ball you should still cheer them on but if they are batting .190 you want to make sure they have a backup plan in life.

Damon is taking small deposits as a way to weed out some of the pure BSers which is understandable from my point of view.  But it is kind of like hitting high school ball already so it's about time to show me a little something more.  To be clear they also state that it's the $40k plus bikes that will come out first (and maybe only, we'll see) so all those features at $40k seems doable.

Now as I've posted here there are a few impressions at the end of a test rides from a few people so I do believe they at least have a working bike.  They have also showed a team of people working together to make and improve the bikes while Lightning has only ever featured Hatfield.  I think if they can keep the money coming end from inverters the bike can be pretty good.

I've posted on here with Morgan that I would love to see there take on it and he has been in at least some communication with them about it.  Of course the whole covid situation slows everything down.

[NEW2elec]

ADVRider's Baldy interviews Damon CEO Jay Giraud.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

I watched that interview. Here are my comments:

• This company is taking way too much on at once.
• The ergonomic ideas are valid, but the CEO clearly can’t restrain himself from expanding the scope.
• They call out the software QNX which is valid and way better than almost all automotive kernel software, but the sheer scope of what this system will be managing and the issues involved in electric powertrain safety mean this is just way out on a limb.
• I just can’t figure out how these bikes will survive in the real world, with weathering and vibration impacting all the high end components and integrated systems with connectors. The moving component count alone sounds like a mess.

The CEO's demeanor and history seem like a real concern to me. He's an adrenaline junkie who can't focus, and one of his closest inspirations was experience at/with Skully, which isn't incriminating per se but it's not necessarily a breeding ground for a good perspective. The ideas are valid (though I disagree that the use of cameras will accomplish more than it risks in complexity/failure modes).

There's a lot of risk here that should be taken seriously.

[NEW2elec]

Valid points.
But it's not likely you get a (claimed) 200mph electric motorcycle company off the ground from an old "safe road" successful CEO.  He is saying the same things I've been saying on here for years.  For the masses to get on board it has to be better than a gas bike in all ways.
A real 200 mile range at 60mph alone is huge, like he said I don't want to stop and charge at all. 
 
Did Elon set out just to make an electric car that could drive?  No he make the quickest sedan in the world with the most range the fastest charging and built in plans to drive itself.

I've heard before one of their main business strategies is to license the safety tech to other major brands which is why I guess he said the other top brass said they liked it and it worked as it should.

The Shift modes are huge if they work as advertised.  It shows the truth that people don't want to be hunched over all the time and value the idea of being a badass sport bike rider more than doing it all the time.

I think if they can put the bike they have talked about on the road the company will get bought up in a year.  The specs on the Hypersport are just head and shoulders above the rest.

It will still come down to money which will be in short supply pretty soon.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

The range and performance figures are a totally independent set of goals to achieve than the customizable rider ergonomics and the visibility/awareness system.

Targeting both of those goals raises the moving component count and system complexity, and doing it in one initial release raises the risk dramatically.

His pitch that dealers will sign up to service the bikes without ever having sold them is another risky bet.

I'm just saying that this is a lot of risk to take on, and says something about him and how he's running the company. Motorcycle companies are much cheaper to start than car companies, but motorcycles are much riskier than cars to put out in the field.

[Crissa]

It depends on whether the cost of a tech doing training vs the profit of service contracts is more or less than buying an expensive exotic bike and trying to market it yourself.

He sounded pretty excited and well spoken to me, although I do doubt on the basic ability ti make these things happen.  It's all at the edge of current technology.

But it would be cool.  Changing posture could help with streamlining.

-Crissa

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

He sounded too excited. Like he doesn't know how to back down from an opportunity or weigh options or just tell people bad news like that their pet idea needs to wait.

Things that a good manager/leader has to do to keep a company from drowning in risk or taking on massive downsides in the future.

[Richard230]

I think the company is primarily developing a technology demonstrator and will likely attempt to sell off various tech concepts that seem to work out on their bikes. Kind of reminds me a bit of Mission Motors - and of course, Skully Helmets. 

[shayan]

I think the company is primarily developing a technology demonstrator and will likely attempt to sell off various tech concepts that seem to work out on their bikes. Kind of reminds me a bit of Mission Motors - and of course, Skully Helmets. 

Isnt Damon the leftover of Mission Motors?