American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 247 February 2020 | Page 22

SHOW The 'Shape Shifting' Electric
ZONE Hypersport Pro with 'CoPilot'
MAY
Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este
Lake Como, Italy • May 22-24
Bike Shed
London, GB • May 23-24
FH-DCE Super Rally
Oland, Sweden • May 27-31
Bike & Art Moto Brasil
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil • May 28-31
Euro Bike Fest
Pasohlavky, Czech Republic •
May 28-31
Gerardmer Motordays
Gerardmer, France • May 29-31
JUNE
Isle of Man TT
Isle of Man, GB • May 31-Jun 14
Street Vibrations Spring Rally
Sparks, NV, USA • Jun 5-7
Custom Bike Show
Norrtälje, Sweden • Jun 6
Wheels & Waves
Biarritz, France • June 10-14
Magic-Bike-Rally
Rüdesheim am Rhein, Germany •
June 11-14
Republic of Texas
Austin, TX, USA • June 11-14
Laconia Motorcycle Week
Laconia, NH, USA • June 13-21
European H.O.G. Rally
Portoroz, Slovenia • June 18-21
Hamburg Harley Days
Hamburg, Germany • June 26-28
Punta Bagna Valloire
Valloire, France • June 26-28
Born Free
Silverado, CA, USA • June 27-28
Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
Colorado, USA • June 28
JULY
Prague Harley Days
Prague, Czech Republic • July 3-4
American Tours Festival
Tours, France • July 3-5
Custombike Summer Days
Mannheim, Germany • July 17-19
World Ducati Week
Misano, Italy • July 17-19
Fuel Cleveland
Cleveland, OH, USA • July 25
Bike and Music Weekend
Geiselwind, Germany • July 30-Aug 2
Polish Bike Week
Karpacz, Poland • July 30-Aug 2
AUGUST
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
Sturgis, SD, USA • Aug 7-16
Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials
Bonneville, UT, USA • Aug 29-Sep 3
22
Among other motorcycle industry
related initiatives at The Consumer
Electronics Show at Las Vegas in
January, Vancouver, British Columbia
based Damon Motorcycles will unveil
what it describes as "an entirely new
kind of electric superbike - one that
addresses age old problems in
motorcycling that have long been
ignored, namely rider safety and
comfort."
Dom Kwong, Chief Technical Officer of
Damon Motorcycles, says that their
flagship motorcycle, the 4G connected
Hypersport Pro with 'CoPilot',
"expands the reach of your senses in
360 degrees, giving you that one extra
second you need to react to keep you
safe on the road."
'CoPilot' is said to employ "radical
innovations in sensor fusion and AI,
including radar, cameras and non-
visual sensors to track the speed,
direction and velocity of up to 64
moving objects around the
motorcycle. To keep the rider’s
attention forward where it is needed
most, 'CoPilot’s' forward collision
warnings are delivered with patent-
pending haptic vibration in the grips.
"Blind spot alerts are delivered with
amber LED lights at the left and right
edge of the windscreen. Rear collision
threats, which make up 11% of
motorcycle accidents, are delivered to
the rider with a bright white LED on
the windscreen’s edge and are
reinforced with high definition visuals
on its 6 LCD display - which doubles
as the Hypersport’s instrument
cluster."
Unlike collision warning systems found
on modern cars, Damon’s CoPilot
"intuitively monitors traffic in 360
degrees, forming a bird’s eye view of
itself to anticipate the behavior of cars,
bicycles and other objects to alert the
rider before it’s too late."
To address the issue of comfort,
Damon’s next generation motorcycle
features 'Shift' - electronically
adjustable ergonomics that lets riders
adapt to road and traffic conditions
while in motion. At the push of a
button, Hypersport’s windscreen, seat,
footpegs and handlebars move in
unison to adjust the rider from a high-
speed supersport position to a
comfortable sport-touring position, to
full upright commuter position for
dense city traffic." The company says
it’s akin to having two bikes in one.
To reinforce its position in the
burgeoning high-performance electric
motorcycle market, Damon has
announced electric powertrain veteran
Derek Dorresteyn to its team to head
up operations and powertrain
development as its new COO. "Derek
had the technical vision and led the
engineering and manufacturing teams
at Alta Motors from 2008 – 2018. His
vision was key to Alta’s podium
finishes against ICE [Internal
Combustion Engine] motorcycles."
Dorresteyn says that "for electric
motorcycles to go mainstream, they
have to outperform their ICE
counterparts. By marrying all-electric
high performance with rider aids like
CoPilot and Shift, Damon will redefine
the motorcycling experience. He is said
to "bring the project extensive
knowledge and experience in lithium
ion battery design, high voltage
systems and inverters, power dense
motors and high performance chassis
systems."
Alta Motors, Dorresteyn's 10-year
electric motorcycle 'alma mater', was
the business that Harley-Davidson
invested in to finish development of
the LiveWire - a project initially
developed for Harley by Mission
Motorcycles, another failed Bay Area
electric motorcycle manufacturer.
The denouement of Alta and Harley's
relationship is not thought to have
been a happy one with a promising
business going to the wall and the
(coincidental?) establishment of
Harley's Bay Area R&D Center not long
after at the end of 2018.
www.damonmotorcycles.com
EU Motorcycle Tariffs still on USTR Agenda
The MIC in California says that
the U.S. Trade Representative
finally published a formal notice
effectively advising that the
beef tariff threat is over.
However, the dispute over
airplane manufacturing tariffs is
not yet resolved, and the MIC
says that the USTR has also
proposed adding motorcycles,
parts and accessories back into
that airplane tariff dispute.
The beef tariff cancellation
notice follows a deal signed by
the U.S. and the European Union
AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - FEBRUARY 2020
on August 2,
which allows
for more U.S.
beef exports.
The MIC
government
relations team worked closely
with potentially affected
motorcycle companies to
achieve this successful
resolution, and the USTR's
action on this issue became
official on January 1.
But a large civil aircraft dispute
again threatens tariffs on
certain motorcycles, parts and
accessories from the EU. The
MIC's government relations
team has renewed its
opposition and submitted
comments to the USTR. The MIC
is also reaching out to members
of Congress to urge them to
oppose these tariffs.
www.AMDchampionship.com