intake filter retainer

The stock Motus air intake involves two snorkels that take air from around the head light and feed the K&N oiled filters. They also make great bug catchers.

The original headlight is gone on my bike, so a different filter retention is needed.

 The factory air scoops. These funnel air and bugs directly into the air filters.

 Air intakes off the bike. 


















K&N filters attached to the airbox without retainers. Time for some R&D.

 Taking the original scoop and some other dimensions came up with the prototype cover in orange.

The cover will be 3D printed in black with the logo insert laser cut from stainless steel. The insert 'floats' under the retainer.

 Damn close fit except for the corners by the mounting tabs.

 Tab modification is also in order

Research and Destruction...












Second revision of the retainer in black. 
This will be the final look for the retainer. The insert will be stainless steel laser cut.











Filter fits perfect and snug.













Test fitting...

Tabs will need some adjustment to fully cover the insert with bolts in place. Time for a third and maybe final revision.











The end look...starting to come together.

I like getting calls from my laser cutter...

Pretty close to the end product.

exhaust modification

The Motus factory exhaust uses high-end Akrapovic slip on mufflers. Akrapovic is a Slovenian exhaust manufacture with mostly motorcycle systems. Motus uses titanium on the MST and carbon fiber on the MST-R. The cans are fairly expensive on their own and one of mine was damaged in the low-side crash.

I toyed with the idea of a custom fabricated exhaust similar to the Fuller Motus (as it is called) that had a larger head-tube design custom fitted. I would use stubby carbon cans instead of a stainless straight pipe to keep the noise to a more manageable level. 

 The Fuller Motus is a bit more touched than my bike will be. Custom headlight, custom tail section, custom exhaust, repainted everything...

I do like the crossing pipe look, but not at this time for my bike.

Looking at this pic makes my ears hurt.

 The low-side crash of this bike caused some decent inner damage, but the end caps were in great shape.

 Pipes off, time for some modification.

The plan is to take the one good pipe (left side), cut in half, and make two shorty pipes from it.

The pipe construction is simple- end caps are riveted to a titanium tube. Drill out rivets, remove banding, and the end caps come right off.

The exit end is a stainless pipe end with a carbon fiber cover. 

 Drill out the inlet end and pull the cap, perf tube, and packing out. Do not cut the packing retention tape or disturb it if only making the cans shorter.

The biggest challenge is getting the inlet tube off of the outer can. Be careful with using a rubber mallet on the center perf tube, but it can be done with no damage.

Half of the center perf tube will be cut off anyway, but make sure other damage isn't caused by beating the heck out of the center tube.

 The center perforated tube is welded to the inlet end and is covered by a more dense metal screen, metal packing, and another dense metal screen. This is then tack welded to the ends to hold in place. 

The welds are easy to break and pull the tube screen material off the center perf tube. Both will need to be cut down using the cutting wheel.

 Both pipes drilled and pulled apart.

Cutting the non-damaged can in half. A grinder with a cutting wheel is used due to the titanium. An industrial band saw was considered, but the cutting wheel was the correct choice. 

Titanium tends to melt more than cut. The edges needed to be dressed with a file as the molten metal 'rolls' over and tends to be quite sharp.

 Cans cut, center perf tube cut, metal mesh also cut slightly shorter to match original ratios.

 Packing is easily cut with a scissors. This task is MUCH easier if the original retention tape is left in place. I had to re-bind the material together when I should have left it alone.

Make sure you wear gloves, mask, and a long sleeve shirt as the material is very much like fiberglass.

Slide the metal mesh over the perf tube, slide the packing over that. Put the can back over the packing. The exit cap goes on last.

Cut down pipe next to the stock can length. 

Can complete with stainless rivets. 
They look more 'right' on this bike. 

I wouldn't suggest this mod if running luggage as the plastic cases may be damaged by exhaust heat. I won't be using this bike for travel, so the mods will be more hooligan based.

The nice thing about these cut down pipes is that I can still use the DB killer if I need to be more kind to my neighbors...

faring removal, headlight install, dash mount

The naked Motus isn't the first one. The factory built a supercharged naked, Fuller Motus built a more 'touched' naked, and the factory had built a naked prototype to gauge interest. Not sure if there are more out there, but the likelihood of more naked Motus' with only 200 total bikes built seems small.

 Start at the start...

• Remove farings, latch clips, faring stays
• Remove dashboard and headlight surrounds
• Remove headlight and windshield assembly. This was incredibly easy as the entire assembly is held to the head tube by two bolts and a stout mount. Very compact and intelligent design.
• Remove Helibar adjustable handlebars. These are very comfortable for long distance riding, but are far too 'clunky' for the naked I am going after.
• Remove intake 'snorkels' that were feeding air from around the headlight to both K&N air filters. 

Fit, re-fit, and re-fit 'low bar kit until the hose and cable routing is what I need. Over, under, back over, re-feed, re-route...
OCD is a bitch.

This is a Rizoma bar kit that the factory sold for a more 'sporty' ride. It's a bit low for me on long rides, but this bike isn't going to be that kind of bike. It looks good.

 Headlight fitted. This required 53mm fork tube brackets that clamp directly to the Ohlins forks. A standard 7" generic headlight is used which takes your eyes away from the 'busy' triple trees that are around the frame head tube.

The mass of equipment, cables, and mounts is only going to get more cluttered as shown below.

 I was finally able to get the bike lift cleared of another project to work around the bike a bit easier. Final hose, cable, and wiring routing is found.

 A few hit and misses of cardboard cutouts and the final design comes forward.

53mm fork clamps used for steering dampers were re-purposed for a dashboard mount. One on each fork.

A hand built aluminum plate connects the left and right fork clamp with a few screws. 

The factory dash display that has a lot of data is retained. The display is made by Murphy and is used for industrial interfaces. It is also NEMA 4X rated... basically waterproof.

the display has many mounting options. I selected the gimbal mount as it is a direct bolt-on for Ram-Mount branded products.

Both the display and Ram-Mounts are US made. Stainless hardware to be fitted.

Ram-Mount base and short arm on fabricated plate. These are very useful for nearly unlimited position options.

Everything fits together and is fairly hidden from view.

The original Powerlet is retained that can be used to charge a phone or power a GPS. Both are unlikely on this bike.

Final routing of the cables, hoses, and wires comes together.








Powder coat was applied to the fabricated bracket and fork clamps.

Having a PC gun and oven in your garage is very handy and not very expensive.

Stainless hardware throughout.

The backside of the display is...industrial ugly. A different kind of ugly.

A 3-D printed display skirt was designed by a die maker friend. Design body dies by day, prototype one-off parts by night.

More on this part later, but it will be used to hide the connector backs of the display.

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...