Industry Insights | Dust Moto

In this installment of Industry Insights we talk to the CEO of Dust Moto, Colin Godby, about creating an American electric dirt bike, what the feedback has been, and what he believes the future holds. 

For the full interview, check out the Vital MX podcast right here. If you're interested in the condensed written version, scroll down just a bit further.

Jamie Guida – Vital MX: What's going on, Colin?

Colin Godby: I'm just getting off the road from doing some testing in Utah.

Vital MX: Electric motorcycles are gaining popularity, and a lot of cool technology is being developed, but before we get into Dust Moto, tell me about your background. Where did you grow up, and what's your history with dirt bikes?

Colin: I was born in Florida but spent most of my childhood in Southern California in Orange County. I moved over the hill to the Murrietta and Temecula area in High School and was surrounded by the moto scene. I grew up driving by McGrath and Emig's compounds. I broke my arm at 3 ½ years old on a bike with training wheels, and I later got into BMX when I was ten and fell in love with competing on two wheels. My dad came home with an XR80 about the same time I started BMXing, and my mom said, "Take that thing back. My brothers have been riding motorcycles and getting injured, and I don't want my kid to die in an accident on the road." That was the beginning of my relationship with motorcycles and realizing there was some risk involved. Growing up and getting better at BMX, dirt jumping, and mountain biking, I always jumped at the opportunity to ride with my buddies. I would get out on the trail or track, such as Milestone, with my friends, but I never really got into the sport until later in my career. 

Vital MX: You have twenty years of new product development with big consumer tech brands, which includes ten years of electric vehicles. How did you get involved with electric vehicles?

Colin: One of my first jobs out of college was with a company called MillenWorks. It was as a mechanical engineer developing various vehicle technologies and vehicle demonstrators. We had contracts with Toyota to make concept cars, Lockheed Martin, and Textron to build military vehicle demonstrators and new technologies such as electric armored vehicles. I also worked on theme park rides. 

Vital MX: How did you, COO Neil Tierney, and Head of Design Jarett Volkoff develop the idea of Dust Moto?

Colin: Neil, Jarett, and I all met at UBCO. Neil was the CMO there, and I had hired Jarett as the Senior Industrial Designer to be based out of our Bend, Oregon, office. We all connected and hit it off strongly. We realized electrification was struggling on the core powersports side of things and wanted to understand why. We've built a hypothesis around several reasons. Something is interesting happening with Sur-ron and these other Chinese brands opening up the low end of the market to new riders. I like to joke that there have never been more people who can wheelie a motorcycle in the history of the world, and I feel that's because of Sur-ron. So, what's happening with this new blood entering the space, and why haven't powersports embraced it in the traditional sense? While we were at UBCO post-Covid, we had the opportunity to ask, "What should we do next? We understand this marketplace better than a lot of other folks. There could be something here." It hit us in the face that nobody is currently building an American dirt bike. The caveat is the people at Cobra, who are awesome and extremely important to the sport but aren't making dirt bikes for the adult market. It's a unique opportunity, so let's give it a go. If we can build an American brand closely coupled to the industry where the cultural epicenter is here in the U.S. and the bulk of enthusiast sales globally are here in the U.S., we can tap into that. The electric perspective doesn't have to come to the table as this divisive conversation about obsolete gas. Rather, we can approach it as "Powersports and moto are amazing sports and industries. Can we build an interesting, fun product that adds to it rather than subtract from what people love about it?" 

Vital MX: You had a prototype built within six months. Josh Hill, among others, has ridden it. What's been the feedback?

Colin: Getting Josh and our buddy Tucker Neary, an electric bicycle rider from Electric Cycle Rider, to throw a leg over it in the first couple of days was a fun story. We had just finished the bike 48 hours before. Justin Hill also jumped on it the first day. The feedback was, "This is a real motorcycle. It doesn't feel like a toy or a mountain bike." That's exactly what we were going for, but at the same time, they were saying, "It is different than a full-size bike." We wanted to prove the hypothesis that electric tech could be the answer for this performance play bike segment right now. Instead of trying to replace the 250 or 450 on the track or a big enduro ride, there are a lot of cases where a smaller, lighter, but capable bike could fit the bill and have the electric performance shine. Backyard tracks, ripping single track, and especially out in the hills practicing whips, this bike is kind of 'fun sized' for a high-level rider. It still has a 21" front wheel and an 18" or 19" rear. It's about 2" shorter on standover and 2" shorter on wheelbase. It's in between a full-sized bike and a supermini. Their feedback was, "This works. I don't feel cramped. It feels like a motorcycle. I feel I can get around and move on it and attack corners and other features that I might not be comfortable with on a smaller electric bike." 

Vital MX: I think about how tunable the electric bikes are. A kid learning to ride could get one and have it turned down until he advances in skill. He wouldn't have to buy a 110, then a 125, and on up to whatever.

Colin: It's a big part of our positioning. We kind of think of this performance middle market like a Chevy Corvette where a race car driver could jump in at Laguna Seca and turn some wicked lap times, but someone could also take it to the coffee shop. Two days ago, in Southern Utah at the Palmer Compound with Tyson and Kaden, they took the bike and sent their backyard triple, and we will have some footage of that coming out. Then we packed it up and returned to the Airbnb, where some college kids we've been working with on data acquisition for their senior project were. I asked if anyone wanted to try it before we took it apart, and one of them said, "Yeah, I want to try." I asked if he'd ever ridden a motorcycle, and he said, "No, never." We have three ride modes. The Palmer boys were in mode three, so I switched it to mode one. I was able to teach him how to ride a motorcycle in a few minutes because of the platform's flexibility. We're in a unique space where we can allow people to jump on a bike and ride it super aggressively, and the next day, a new rider can jump on and learn. 

Vital MX: My MotoXpod Show cohost, TJ Smith, is a huge fan of electric bikes. He wants to know what improvements are coming regarding battery life versus charge time and more advanced battery tech, such as solid-state batteries. 

Colin: The obvious answer that everyone hates is that it depends. If you're doing pulls up and down the sand wash all day, it will be a lot shorter ride than if you're riding around doing single-track and not getting on it. With us, we've indexed on lighter weight, play-oriented performance bikes because we see people out who want to ride sessions where you're on the trail for one to two hours, you're in the backyard, or you're up in the hills as a great after work or weekend session. It's not a six-hour enduro ride or turning motos at the track. We've found it's one to two hours of good riding in various conditions. If you're just ripping laps, it will be a short duration of 20-25 minutes. What's cool is we have a swappable battery that people can drop in if they want. The charge time we are currently targeting is two hours. The battery tech is developing rapidly, but we're still behind the total storage capacity of gasoline. It will be another five to ten years before we get there. The battery tech is not there if someone is looking to completely replace a specific gas experience. That's why we've indexed towards doing something different as an addition rather than a replacement. Battery tech is moving, and it will be exciting to see with solid-state or other chemistries. It will get weight and price down, but right now, we're trying to find a balance of a bike you can ride for one to two hours, weighs about 200 pounds, and can hit all the terrain you're looking for. 

Vital MX: I think this is really cool. Go to DustMoto.com for any information you want on the bikes. Is there anything else you want to say about the bike before we go?

Colin: This has been awesome, and I'm excited about the opportunity to help positively shape the sport's future. We want to come in and partner with the industry, core riders, and people who have made the sport so awesome already. We want to offer something new and exciting. A storyline has been going about, "What is the future of the sport? Are we losing riders or relevance because fewer people are getting into riding? We're losing riding opportunities, and opening tracks is harder." If we do the right things and build the right types of products, we can help re-energize the sport by bringing new riders in while allowing the things we love to stay the same.