MOTUS - It's almost time

Pop-quiz: Name an American sportbike manufacturer?

Chances are most of you would have said Buell. Sadly, Eric is no longer making bikes for general sale, so no points there.

And if any of you said Harley, despite the name "sportster" in their range, again, we'd have to dock points. The closest they come to clip-ons are easy remove saddle bags (and they're not that easy to remove).

But that's about the change. MOTUS Motorcycleshas been promising an all-American, all-performance V4 sportsbike for a few years now. At Laguna Seca on July 19th, that wait is over.

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To be fair, it's not an out and out sportbike. It's not intended to take the R1 on corner entry speed and is more of a sports tourer.

Powered by a 1650CC V4 rumoured to make around 165bhp (or 185 in the R spec), it shouldn't be too much of a slouch though. MOTUS originally touted all day riding comfort for canyon carving. In other words, a comfy sport tourer. It looks to be aimed more at the Sprints and K series BMW riders than any thing else.

More specs than that are hard to come by though as MOTUS themselves have taken down their website and replaced it with mostly just the above video in anticipation of the big reveal. There's no price, performance and indeed any other figures at this point aside from what was announced last year. But if you listen to the video, the exhaust note alone is building anticipation.

They seem excited and let's hope it's all they promise.