The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Mo2or Picks the Design for Their First Bike

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Mo2or Project 1 by Arnau Sanjuan
Mo2or Project 1 by Arnau Sanjuan

It was only a couple of months ago that we pointed you to Mo2or and their crowdsourced motorcycle design project. Many of you had reservations about how well it would work and I had a few of my own so it was interesting to hear from Steve Prichard, founder of the project, who wanted to give us an update. They had quite a few design submissions and the favorite was chosen by vote. The winner was Arnau Sanjuan and his design is now the number one bike in pre-development and eventually, if everything works out, headed for production.

The specs are:

  • 883CC Air Cooled, Fuel Injected V-Twin
  • Steel Trellis Frame with an adjustable sub-frame & double sided swingarm
  • Fully adjustable upside down front forks + Rear Mono Shock
  • Fully adjustable Rear-sets + Clip on Handlebars
  • Analog Speedometer & tach

It’s actually not a bad looking bike. There’s still much to be done and you can follow along and add your input on their site. I’ll be interested to see how this turns out.

Link: Mo2or

Comments

  1. Beautiful bike, and great idea… but. See, my only issue with a “crowdsourced” motorcycle is that you have to take into account what “crowd” you’re sourcing. It looks like the “rider” crowd was only small percentage of the “general public” crowd on this first attempt, as would be expected. I only say that due to the complete lack of anything practical “riders” might want. The footpegs look to be in a cramped position, the tank makes the old Harley “peanuts” from the Sporty line look huge, and even the riders that don’t have a need to carry a passenger aren’t always comfortable with their tail hovering precariously over a slab of spinning tire. Now that I’ve mentioned the “H” word, we have to accept that’s probably where the motor will come from, unless Mo2or has deep enough pockets to design it’s own “883cc V-twin”. In which case it will just be another variation on a theme. Don’t get me wrong, it looks like it would handle fantastically; I would just rather see more “real” bikes like the Motus, MotoCzysz, and EBR in the market and fewer “boutique” bikes marketed as what “the people” want.

    • I second everything you have said, except I think it is ugly! The HD connection was also very aparent to me and kind of leeds me to think that was the kind of rider who designed the bike.Nuff said just going to ruffle feathers with anything more.

    • I hate to break it to you, but it appears that we have nobody to blame but ourselves, being a crowd-sourced motorcycle. I forget what the engine options were on the survey. Did it specifically call out an air-cooled 883 or just something similar like air/water cooled and a displacement range?

      • Well, as I mentioned, the choice of group is what I was questioning, not the concept. Neither of us has data on where the concept was submitted, but I hadn’t heard of it until now. You can’t very well say “we have no one to blame but ourselves” if “we” didn’t participate. Just looking at some of their raw data, it would appear the target market was probably the 18-30 crowd, if their opinions on clip-ons and single seats are any indication. I haven’t seen any info about the bike, and I try to keep up on a variety of moto publications, so I’m not sure where they got their group from. But even the company has strayed from their “crowd-sourcing” goal a bit, as they decided to go with a double-sided swingarm when single was the clear winner, and an 883cc v-twin as opposed to the 800cc decided on in the contest. My main point was that I agree the industry needs new ideas, but I feel it needs new ideas that are useful as opposed to new ideas for the sake of being different or “cool”.

        • I remember voting for a single in the 600cc (I think with a turbo) range with an underslung exhaust and clipons. I don’t remember what else I voted for. To be perfectly honest, I can’t imagine it’s fair to cry foul if you didn’t vote (if that’s what you’re implying), being a crowd-sourced design. However, the numbers pointed towards a bike with these characteristics, and voters voted for this sketch, and furthermore you simply can’t please everyone. I only voted on the specs, not the sketch so I can’t complain about it. I tried to find the second and third place sketch on their site to check them out, but to no avail.

    • That’s what I thought too… I really do like the looks, but the price has to be right or I no buy…

  5. um….. so if this is what the “crowd” wanted, where is Buell? Not trying to be a jerk here, but I’m definitely surprised that this won. Wouldn’t that have made Buell a very-very popular concept and brand of bike? Seems to show what previous commenters mean by taking into account who the “crowd” was. I would much rather see the 2-stroke project Mo2or mentions somewhere on their site, using a clean-burning 600cc E-tec rotax engine in a road/emissions legal bike 🙂 A super lightweight literbike crusher that revives the road going 2-stroke anyone?

  6. Everybody’s different, so I really question the possibility of any consensus. I think the down-draft air box on the Wakan looks like a frog with tits. Its not natural…may as well put 4 into 1 exhaust on it, too.

    This bike look good for a blurry sketch, but (sadly) my chinese scooter would kick its ass off the lights.

  8. When I checked all those boxes on the survey I had more of a BMW F800RR or Husqvarna Nuda in mind. This doesn’t look anything like what I’d want to or be able to ride very long.

    It’s really a shame that all the proportions are out of whack on the sketch as well. I have a hunch it won’t look a whole lot like it when it’s done. If it does remain true to the design (but not the original brief) I bet it won’t be a viable production motorcycle.

    Good luck to them and thumbs up to them for being able to build greater awareness on their custom bike build.

    -todd

    • I like the idea of a small v-twin Buell. Maybe that’s what Buell should have done instead of the single 500. “Less practical” sounds good too, more of a pure sports experience than sports tourer, nothing wrong with that. A Wakan with an 883, what a brilliant idea somebody should have done this ages ago. A reliable low tech torquey Ducati rival.

  11. The crowd must have been from a Space Invader convention .OOch,the pain of that seat and exhaust. It will be a great picture for a wall poster though.

  12. To much like the Confederate, a bike that had a certian cool flair but very unpractical. The seat design, footpeg placement and bars are not something that works together. I guess you have to start somewhere but mistakes are costly. When you design to a small nitch market that is what you end up with. But hey, what do I know.

  13. And with the crowdsource bike comes crowdsource funding. Theres no way in hell they will be able to produce this in a manner to get us, the consumers, a decent price.

    I would love to see it in my garage though……

  15. I’d like to see a person drawn upon this thing. The crowd scorced size please. The bike looks to tall and to squat at the same time. Looks hard to flick thru the Ss.

  16. The crankshaft is higher than the axles? Drop the engine mass down a bit and there might be room for some fuel to actually run it. But I’ll pass on the pushrod vee-twin. I’m just too attached to my big, smooth i4.

  18. I think it is amazing what Steve and his company is trying to do. The amount of work to get any vehicle into production is monumental. As to the winning design,calm down, it’s only a drawing. No, the tank’s not big enough, hmmm, that space frame lends no structure, yes, the engine is high and the counter shaft sprocket is not in the correct position relative to the swingarm pivot. So what? It is a stylised drawing which had generated much comment. It’s now up to the actual designers and engineers (as opposed to stylists) to take that drawing and create a motorcycle with the same feel. Add into the mix manufacturing techniques, materials, international design standards etc and you can see if they get anywhere near to the feel that the competition winner is hoping to achieve they would’ve done an amazing job.

    On top of this it give a hopeful a chance to get their dream design into reality and to learn a heap on the way. I’ve been in the lucky position twice in my life to see a project I’ve worked on roll down the road (or on the track) and I would not deny anyone the chance to experience that!

  19. The problem with this “crowdsourcing” idea is that there is no guarantee that the crowd that is coming up with the ideas is actually going to buy the bike. I see this as a great way for a business to go broke. On the other hand, if the builders are basically just taking the various suggestions from the crowd survey and allowing them to influence, rather than dictate, the sort of bike they want to build in the first place, then that’s a horse(power) of a different color. Either way, I don’t see this as a particularly original idea, as a number of people here have already pointed out. It also isn’t very practical. I don’t have any problem with a Harley engine (I own one, and it works for me, though I like other bikes, as well, and have owned many), but I agree with most of the comments I’ve seen here about comfort, fuel capacity, and so forth. And yes, it looks just like a Confederate, which, if you gave me one of those, I would sell in order to buy several other bikes, or maybe a really nice new truck. I’m still waiting for the return of the lightweight, affordable, mid-displacement standard.

  20. I agree with those that say it looks like the Confederate. Though specifically, it looks like the original Hellcat rather than the goofy stuff Confederate started to do to fix an unbroken Hellcat.

    By going in goofy directions, Confederate left the door open for someone else to jump in and do what they should have done with the Hellcat.

  22. Interesting concept, but too many flaws. Ground clearance and center of gravity look pretty bad….suspension angles are iffy…gas tank is…well, isn’t. Oh well, I suppose it is a concept, production should fix these I hopes….

    Looks like styling cues came from Confederate, Britain and Ducati.

    I’m on the fence on this one.

  23. Sorry, but I get the creepy feeling that “crowdsourcing” had nothing to do with this. It appears to me all that was crowdsourced was the illusion of popular support.

    Looks like an attempt to re-market Buell XB9 engines. How well did that work with the Blast engine for MAC?

    • Funny, I voted, and with some of the other design options given I was under the impression that it was exactly that. Rigged, but looking like that is what “we” asked for

  24. I’m not sure if anyone else noticed it, but as an engine designer, this engine would have to have “2” crankshafts. The cylinders do not come down to a common point. Maybe we should just consider this as a first concept idea napkin?
    Brian

    • I noticed that too. Is it possible to locate the centerline of the crank offcentet of the cylinders? I suppose it is, but how much before the crank hits the cases?

  26. is this the only thing we can come up with is a warmed over sportser is this what happened to the imanagination of the riders of the U.S.A.

  27. So, these people wants to build a bike for the masses. But they don’t have a design, nor do they have the money to build it. They make a contest and crowd source the design, this is the winner. Now they wanna crowd source the capital for the upstart, with no return on the investment.
    Appears like a lot of BS to get some money.
    Sorry, usually I don’t make comments unless I have something positive to say, but this just rubs me the wrong way.
    By the way, I have a design, and I’m working hard to make it with what little I’ve got. I hope to have featured here one day.

  29. I’m also not digging the seat (is that really ‘Cafe’?), but overall it looks fantastic. Any ideas on pricing? I wonder where It’ll be manufactured.