When it comes to technology, the evolution of elements at play is always changing, adapting and improving. With the rise of artificial intelligence in all facets of daily life along with machine learning, we are seeing great improvements in both safety and efficiency. This can be translated directly to mobility and transportation for humans around the world.
With that said, we are very excited to have had the opportunity to interview the team at Damon Motorcycles (PDF) which is based in Vancouver Canada. The owner of the company also happens to live in Lower Lonsdale North Vancouver, which is how this interview came to be. We want to let everyone on the North Shore know about how amazing and safe these electric bikes are and encourage those who ride to check them out.
How did the business get started and how did you come up with the name Damon Motorcycles?
There are more than 160 million two wheeled vehicles sold each year in the world (2X cars) and our Hypersport electric bike will set a new standard— smarter, safer and connected.
While on a trip to Indonesia Jay was amazed of the vast dependence of two wheeled vehicles compared to North America.
Giving it considerable thought based on his experience leading several transportation companies, Jay had a vision that he could rival existing gas driven options that ultimately had no safety standards.
Through common interest in motorcycling Jay Giraud and Dominque “Dom” Kwong met in 2017. Jay has a legacy of leading several transportation companies including MOJIO, REV Technologies and Yamaha Ventures.
Dom brought a legacy of hardware, software, AI, industrial, data science, deep learning and cloud computing. Together they decided to transform two wheel transportation and aim to prevent accidents on the road.
The company name Damon is Jay Giraud’s first name.
In terms of the motorcycle being safer and more intelligent, what does that look like for riders?
The future is bright for both novice riders and more experienced. Now for the first time the Hypersport is the only high performance, fully connected electric motorcycle on the market and has disrupted the marketplace very similar to how Tesla did.
The Hypersport is the world’s safest, smartest, fully connected electric motorcycle. The electric superbike boasts well over 200hp and 200nm of torque delivered at zero rpm, a top speed of 200 mph, a range of more than 200 highway miles per charge, and is outfitted with the cutting-edge CoPilot™ 360º advanced warning system powered by BlackBerry QNX technology that sets a new standard in motorcycle safety, awareness and connectivity. Some of the key features include:
● CoPilot™ Advanced Warning System powered by Blackberry QNX technology that uses radar, cameras and non-visual sensors to track the speed, direction and velocity of up to 64 moving objects around the motorcycle.
● Shift™ – Damon’s patented rider ergonomics that lets riders electronically adjust the Hypersport’s riding position while in motion.
● Hypersport’s powerful all-electric performance.
● Hypersport’s embedded 4G connectivity and onboard AI
“We’re on a mission to unleash the full potential of personal mobility for the world’s commuters, while reducing rider incidents on the road and to address this, we spent the last three years developing an AI-powered, fully connected, e-motorcycle platform that incorporates CoPilot, our proprietary 360º warning system. By building it on BlackBerry’s best-in-class technology that is safety certified, Damon Motorcycles will be the safest, most advanced electric motorcycles on the market.”
Jay Giraud, co-founder and CEO of Damon Motorcycles.
Do you have plans to offer a variety of different models in the future?
The Hypersport is our flagship motorcycle, designed as a multi-variant motorcycle platform, so you can anticipate other mobility offerings in the future.
Since CES 2020 we have received overwhelming adoption of the Hypersport selling out in a matter of days.
If some of our readers want to buy your motorcycles, what does that process look like?
We are sold out of the first Hypersport Premier models and will be introducing new models online. A $100 deposit is required to finalize a pre-order for your motorcycle. Visit the website below for more info.
Have you ever ridden one of your motorcycles to Squamish and back, how was that trip?
Probably hundreds of times, yes. Its more of a short jaunt than a trip, and certainly one of the most visually stunning rides in the world. For a great ride you can go onto highway 1 in North Vancouver and head out East into the Fraser Valley and onto the Coquihalla highway.
In your spare time outside of running the business what do you do for activities?
Jay is an extreme sports enthusiast which includes lots of motorcycling and snowboarding. In fact, he has travelled the world as British Columbia’s top-ranked professional snowboarder in all four freestyle disciplines in 1998. Jay has been riding motorcycles for over 20 years and has ridden hundreds of different motorcycles on track and the road.
Is there anything else you might want our readers to know about you or your business?
Damon is on the fast track to deliver on our mission and will have the first Hypersports on the road in 2021.
Damon Hypersport recently received a CES “Best in Innovation” award from the prestigious CES Innovation Awards Program, a Digital Trends Top Tech 2020 CES Award, and has also garnered critical acclaim from media outlets around the world for the its innovation. You can read the articles below.
The Hypersport will be built in Canada and bypass many of the challenges of building a product manufactured overseas.
People interested in ordering, partnership or investment opportunities can contact us at info@damonmotorcycles.com and also visit our website and connect with us on social media using Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
The head office is located at 708 Powell Street in Vancouver.
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