This sounds like fun...

My bike stable was a solid one through 2018. I had acquired a long time dream- a Motus MST-R that was originally out of my price range new (~$37k). A well healed rider had bought it, put 2700 miles on it, and traded it in due to a medical issue. I was lucky (quick) enough to pick it up for a very nice price. I had been following Motus since they announced the intentions of building a from scratch American sport touring machine. The story of that bike is HERE...

Another Motus showed up on Ebay. This one had been laid down on it's right side with some cosmetic damage with only 630 miles! Motus has ceased operations a few months prior and the insurance company ended up taking a total loss on the bike. I negotiated with the holder of the bike and decided to NOT fix it up and make it a naked bike instead. 

I already had a full faring Motus, so a naked bike with some mods seemed like a good idea. Ideas were floating around my head during a long Michigan winter...

• remove farings, remove headlight, remove windshield assembly
• Add a big round headlight like my old Guzzi Griso
• Make some loud (but respectable) pipes
• shorten up the gearing to make it more hooligan (wheelie prone)

I made a deal with the seller and decided to pick the bike up in St. Louis on my way to a rifle match in Texas. The week in Texas would be fun, but bike thoughts were always on my mind. What I started with...

Solid example of a Motus MST. Everything straight, nice color, good starting point.

 Very good looking bikes in person

The damaged side...the bike seems to crash well. The rider couldn't have been going too fast.

 Hard to see in this pic, but the adjustable bars made contact with the fuel tank cover. This will be fixed and repainted.

This is the main reason the bike was not fixed. Faring damage was substantial and recently became unobtainable. That situation has recently changed, but bodywork is expensive and I already have one of those.

 The bike loaded up and ready to head out of St.Louis. The bike straps down very easy...once you take the farings off and get at the triple tree.

One-off trailer towing a soon to be one-off Motus. 

 What's this? A KTM? The trip to TX ended up taking my old KTM back after the rifle match. Nothing like 265HP worth of motorcycles heading back to MI...

Note things are green and there is no snow... why we come to TX for a week in Feb.







Both are back home. Seems Motus may have lifted some design details from an Austrian bike MFG...