I've been working on a story for a number of months now, one that got behind the scenes of Damon Motorcycles. It was a profile all the trials the upstart electric motorcycle company has been through. It was a long look at the issues behind multiple things: Its constantly moving manufacturing facility; a number of unannounced layoffs; one of the co-founders peacing out and then returning in December 2024; employees who feared legal reprisals and only spoke to me anonymously, and just the general chaos behind the scenes of a company that was seemingly full of big promises and little else.
But I think it's time to address the elephant in the room: If you've given Damon a deposit on either its HyperSport or HyperFighter, it looks like you're probably not getting either of those 200-horsepower, 200-mile, safety system galore electric motorcycles.
I wish I had better news.
The reason I'm putting this out now, with portions of the original reporting I was set to include in the larger piece, is for two reasons. See, not only is Damon's stock price currently heading into Davey Jones' locker territory, but the company's CTO, Derek Dorresteyn—who was previously one of the chief architects of Alta Motorcycles—just left the company. That makes him the second high-profile executive to flee.
With Dorresteyn's exit—following in the exit steps of Damon co-founder Dominque Kwong back in 2023, who then proceeded to return in December 2024, and who then assumed the role of CEO—Damon doesn't currently have a chief engineer who could really deliver on the company's motorcycle promise.
If you recall, the initial promise was that the folks behind Damon Motorcycles wanted to make motorcycling safer. At least, they initially did.
As they told the story, co-founders Jay Giraud and Dominique Kwong had enough near-misses on their personal motorcycles that they decided to do something about it. With cameras, radar, and a host of sensors baked into its forthcoming “CoPilot” software, their vision of motorcycle tech was meant to ensure that motorcycle riders would be more aware of their surroundings, including when cars encroached into their safety bubble. In short, Damon’s mission was to give motorcyclists every tool available to ride safely.
“One extra second will make all the difference between an accident and a close call,” Giraud, who was then Damon’s CEO, told The Globe and Mail. It was an admirable goal.
But that admirable goal quickly changed, pivoting the brand’s messaging to attention-seeking horsepower, electric range, and high top speed. After six years of promises, pushed deadlines, and private deposits put down for motorcycles, it’s worth asking now more than ever: Will Damon Motorcycles ever actually deliver that electric bike or not?
Former employees described a hellish working environment, “petulant” executives, and a CEO (Giraud at the time) who made production almost impossible with his “egotistical” decisions. Then there were the unannounced layoffs in 2023 and 2024, as well as the decision to not move forward with its prized Vancouver manufacturing facility. Oh, and an IPO late last year.
Yet, there’s still no production motorcycle in sight as of February 2025.
The most recent blows to Damon's vision come with the resignation of Derek Dorresteyn. He was the company's most recent CTO, who took over the position when co-founder Dominque Kwong left the company in 2023. I reached out to Kwong for my original story, but he declined to speak to me about his time at Damon. Kwong, however, went on to return to Damon and assume the CEO role from Giraud in 2024.
Dorresteyn, who previously worked at Alta before that too was shuttered, was seen as one of the chief architects of Damon's engineering. And he and Kwong were also the men behind the vast majority of Damon's patents.
"Farewell, Damon," said Dorresteyn in a LinkedIn post dated February 11th, 2025, adding, "It’s been an incredible journey working with the talented team at Damon Motors, leading engineering and developing the revolutionary HyperSport and the groundbreaking HyperDrive platform. Realizing a vision like this takes passion, dedication, and a relentless drive to push the boundaries of possibilities in motorcycling. I am proud of what we accomplished together, including more than 40 patents issued or filed and the creation of an EV motorcycle platform and initial product that fundamentally changes range, performance, and cost while introducing innovative features that tech savvy consumers expect in product. We also took the company public on the NASDAQ. As I look ahead to new opportunities, I remain deeply committed to innovation in two-wheeled electrification. The road does not end here—exciting things are on the horizon."
He ended with, "More to come." But Dorresteyn isn't the only person, place, or thing that Damon's lost in recent years.
A few months ago, Damon’s video of its new manufacturing facility in British Columbia, Canada was removed from YouTube. Upon digging, RideApart also found that the facility was still under construction, and also that it had a completely new lessee.
Damon hadn’t publicly announced that its splashy new production facility was no more. No, the “announcement” came from Damon’s then-CEO, Jay Giraud, in a Reddit thread. There, Giraud told Redditors that Damon would no longer be manufacturing in Canada, but would instead be moving to California. The thread also revealed that Damon had gone through a series of layoffs in 2023—and those, too, hadn’t been publicly revealed.
“We're shifting production to our facility in California when we're ready to start production, which is delayed due to some challenges in 2022. The building here in Vancouver proved to be too expensive and unfortunately, the Gov of Canada and [British Columbia] are not providing any support to create jobs,” said Giraud, adding, “[The] US is WAY more supportive in that regard.”
That might not be the case moving forward given the new administration's war against EV mandates, tax incentives, and the idea of EVs in general. [Never mind its apparent beef with Canada, for some reason. jj]
Instead of announcing the production facility swap itself in a press release, or via any sort of public-facing announcement, there’s a single line in the company’s most recent press release talking about California: “With its offices in San Rafael, California and headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Damon is on a mission to cause a paradigm shift for safer, smarter motorcycling.”
These changes in production facilities have likely impacted the overall project’s deadlines. As has been reported before, the company has repeatedly moved production dates. The first of these moves was thanks to COVID-19. But then, following successive manufacturing delays and partnership shifts afterward, that deadline shifted from 2021 to what Damon claimed would be some time in 2024.
Giraud told Wired last August that Damon is “looking at production first quarter of next year (2024), with an estimation of about 1,000 units by the end of next year.” At the time of writing, it’s now the first quarter of 2025 and still, no bikes have been produced.
However, in an Instagram Reel announcing the brand’s IPO, Damon responded to one commenter’s question on delivery with, “As per the public filings, [the] estimated date is 2026.”
Now, there is an actual running prototype. It’s worth noting, though, that this prototype is a long way from the futuristic hyperbike Damon initially marketed. You might remember it as the one that can change its shape to suit different riding situations on command, and was replete with an entire suite of safety systems.
You’ve undoubtedly seen a working and running prototype of Damon’s HyperSport on social media. But at this point, only a few folks within the company have ever ridden it. And also, only one person outside of the company has been granted that privilege.
Writing for Wired at the time, RideApart contributor Tim Stevens actually rode the Damon HyperSport at Thunderhill Raceway Park. Stevens told me that a lot of the bike’s supposed big features weren’t on the prototype he rode, including the much-talked-about safety and adaptive features.
“I think my biggest disappointment on the day was the inability to test out any of the bike's supposed rider assistance features,” Stevens said. “I saw a demo of the [Adapt] system running on a stationary buck in their offices, but the bike I rode had nothing like that, not even basic traction control—which given the level of power and nature of that track meant I was definitely not comfortable pushing too hard on an invaluable prototype bike. It also lacked the powered pegs and bars, which was one of the more interesting features I had hoped to experience.”
Stevens said that Damon wouldn’t include adaptive features, i.e. movable pegs and fork, on the first bikes. He told me, “I was told that those features wouldn't be a part of the initial HyperSport release that would ship to the early backers.
So, not only were those features unavailable to test; they also won’t come to the first batch of customers, who are no doubt expecting them.
As for the question of other working motorcycles, “I saw one other running,” Stevens told me. “It was on a dyno and I saw it producing numbers that backed Damon's output figures for the bike. I also saw various other bikes, packs, etc. in various states of assembly/disassembly, some with more or fewer sensors and components on them. I was told there were other bikes running at other locations.”
One other note from Stevens should raise eyebrows, “The bike I rode had controls mostly borrowed from a BMW S1000RR.”
Now, it’s normal for a prototype to have unfinished parts. And many startup companies borrow components from other operations until they can operate fully on their own. See the original Lotus Elise-based Tesla Roadster, for example.
But for something supposedly so close to production to still be using donor parts, it doesn’t quite gel with the company’s outward statements about building everything themselves. Even if it’s now given the company an additional two years to produce the motorcycle. This also isn’t the first time that Damon’s used competitor parts for its display models. Early on in its product development, Damon used 3D-printed covers over existing parts from other manufacturers, namely a Zero Motorcycles power pack and a Yamaha R1 frame and swingarm.
And then there were two separate rounds of layoffs, both of which went unannounced.
The first occurred in late 2023, around the time that co-founder Dominique Kwong first left. According to one source, it involved about a dozen people. Kwong’s exit at that time was particularly significant, since he held most of Damon’s patents.
I asked Amber Spencer—who was Damon's Chief Marketing Officer until December 2024, when Giraud also left (and who was also engaged to Giraud)—about Kwong’s departure. She replied, “We are not at liberty to discuss personal matters related to current or former employees. However, all intellectual property [i.e. patents] developed by Damon employees during their employment remains the property of Damon Motors Inc.” That'll likely be true of Dorresteyn's patents as well.
Based on one source’s information, along with some LinkedIn sleuthing, it looks as if about another dozen people lost their positions as of May 2024, including engineers, designers, and more. Overall, it seems that Damon lost about 28% of its workforce between the 2023 and 2024 layoffs. Not including Giraud and Spencer.
So where does this all leave us?
There's more to my original reporting that I couldn't get to in this story. I spoke with a number of former employees, many of whom described a chaotic working environment that doesn't sound conducive to producing much of anything, let alone a motorcycle. And there's even more to be said about the constantly shifting production timeline, facility, and what the motorcycles even are from an engineering standpoint at this point.
Yet, even amid the challenges of layoffs, and a prototype that may not be far enough along, and mounting questions from reservation-holders, Damon Motorcycles’ most recent statements to the public still say that an “exciting time” is coming soon.
“For years now the motorcycle community has been asking about when Damon will become a publicly traded company, so they can help drive its success. I’m thrilled that we’ll soon be able to make it a reality,” said Giraud in a release hyping their IPO at the time. That IPO, however, hasn’t gone Damon’s way. At the time of writing, it’s value has sunk 80% since its launch and doesn’t look to be at the bottom yet.
And Damon has lost engineers, designers, and others with the skill sets needed to produce an actual motorcycle. That includes Dorresteyn. So as Damon gets further from its previously promised targets, leaving behind its initial goal of creating a bubble of safety around the rider, the hype surrounding its debut will continue to fade and more questions will undoubtedly arise.
As to whether we’ll ever see a production bike, one former employee told RideApart, “Will Damon deliver motorcycles to me and other reservation holders? Anything is possible but as a professional and considering the climate and circumstances, I would say the chances are low. Success depends on a large cash infusion.” And that doesn't appear to be materializing any time soon.
If you have more insight into Damon Motorcycles and want to chat, you can hit Jonathon up at jonathon.klein@rideapart.com or on Signal.
