Trent Dingman: Building Project Ares From First Principles
Real Motors wants to build an electric motorcycle that feels like a motorcycle, sounds like a motorcycle and doesn’t bury the rider under a pile of technology. But when the team started developing Project: Ares, none of them had ever ridden one. Just a group of engineers chasing a sci-fi vision and willing to question everything.
That unconventional starting point has produced one seriously wild-looking bike. We've already taken a closer look at the Project: Ares prototype, but can a radical idea make the jump from prototype to production? How do you build an electric motorcycle without years of riding experience to guide you? And when can the rest of us get our hands on one? We sat down with Real Motors CEO Trent Dingman to find out.
“Well, I have news to break to you. Everyone on the team for Project Ares that started, never rode a motorcycle before.”
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No Motorcycle Experience. No Rulebook.
Real Motors calls its team a bunch of “rogue engineers”. Their brief? Build the kind of sci-fi machines they grew up watching on screen, then make them real. Project: Ares is what happens when that idea meets a motorcycle.
As Trent explains, they wanted to take those childhood fantasies and turn them into something you could actually ride.
"We said to ourselves, as engineers and powertrain experts, ‘We want to build a really cool sci-fi machine that people are going to absolutely love.’ We explored all kinds of potential vehicles. When we landed, we said, ‘I think the Café Racer is objectively the coolest thing we could ever do.’"
Big sci-fi dreams are one thing. Building a roadworthy motorcycle that actually works is another. Surely, you’d want a few seasoned riders in the room, right? Not necessarily, says Trent.
"I've done other projects in the past with a similar approach, with different types of vehicles. But we were not motorcyclists. So you go into this with first-principles. Every single thing needs to be questioned."
Questioning everything is great until you’re designing a motorcycle for people who know exactly what they like about riding one. The team still had to figure out what riders wanted to keep, what they were open to changing, and where the clever engineering might miss the mark.
So they went straight to the people who actually ride. They listened to experienced motorcyclists and put their developing machines in front of riders who could give them an honest verdict. That included motorcycle experts at Michelin North America, with the bikes getting a chance to prove themselves on track.
“We wanted riders to feel heard. We researched what people were saying online. We wanted those people to feel heard.”
Somewhere along the way, the project got its engineers hooked on the very thing they were trying to reinvent. Dingman says he’s now a biker convert, and Real Motors has continued refining the bike with experienced riders in the mix, including Vance Strader, who later joined the team.
Electric Power, Analogue Attitude
“Let's focus on the responsiveness, the feel.”
Real Motors calls it "electric analogue". The idea is simple, forget piling on screens, software and gadgets for the sake of it. Real Motors wants to build an machine that puts the rider and the ride first.
That means prioritising instant response and feedback through the machine, with a chain drive, reduction gearbox and minimal gauge all forming part of the plan. Get on, ride, feel what the bike is doing. That's the idea.
“We want to remove all of that junk technology. Let's focus on the responsiveness, the feel, like it's part of you, an extension of you. So with this electric analogue approach, you feel everything.”
Project: Ares is air-cooled. Dingman says it helps keep costs down, while sticking to the team's preference for keeping things simple.
Of course, a stripped-back philosophy doesn't guarantee a great motorcycle. Power delivery, cooling and real-world reliability still have to deliver. In a market obsessed with screens and spec sheets, the focus on the rider is refreshing.
That Noise Isn’t Coming From a Speaker
“We just don't want anything synthetic or fake.”
Here’s where the philosophy gets particularly interesting. We asked Trent what Project: Ares sounds like on the road. It has a distinctive mechanical soundtrack, he says, and no speaker faking an engine note. Thank God.
At low speeds, Dingman says the bike is quiet, like most electric motorcycles. Get above roughly 30 mph, and the chain drive and gearing begin to make themselves heard. The sound has been shaped through the choice of chain, sprocket ratios and reduction gearbox, with even the position of the fairing playing a part in how it carries.
We're trying to go for a little bit of this Star Wars noise, a little bit of airplane turbine noise.
That might sound like a strange thing to engineer into an electric motorcycle, but it fits the wider idea. Real Motors isn’t trying to recreate the combustion engine note. It wants the machine to have a sound of its own, generated by the hardware doing its job.
Dingman says he experienced the effect riding through downtown Atlanta, where pedestrians turned to look as he accelerated away from corners. It’s an anecdote rather than an independent sound test, but it gives us a sense of what the team is aiming for.
Whether riders love that turbine-meets-space-opera soundtrack will be a matter of personal taste. But we like the thinking, and that the sound comes from the machine itself.
Six Prototypes, 100 hp and a Production Target
“We said that we're doing a production run of 250 units. We opened up pre-orders, and we've gotten pre-orders.”
For all the sci-fi inspiration, Real Motors now has to get Project Ares through testing, manufacturing and homologation, and turn that prototype into 250 bikes destined for customers. The company has already opened pre-orders for its first 250 production bikes, with deliveries planned for 2027.
Six prototypes have been built, and the latest has just rolled off the line and into evaluation. If it passes muster, the next step is tooling, followed by production in South Carolina. That's the plan, anyway. There's still a fair bit of engineering between the latest prototype and a finished bike rolling out to a customer.
Real Motors is aiming to get the first US bikes into customers’ hands in February or March 2027. That's not far off in motorcycle-manufacturing terms, particularly with testing and tooling still to come. The date is a target, not a guarantee.
The headline number is 100 hp, with two battery options planned and the larger pack offering 15 kWh. Dingman puts its estimated range at 120 to 140 miles. That's a promising figure, but it's still an estimate. Until somebody puts some proper miles on a production bike, we don't know what it'll deliver out on the road.
You can explore the specifications we have so far on BCB Bike Compare. With Project: Ares still in development, some details are yet to be confirmed.
European riders will have to be a little more patient. Trent says homologation on that side of the Atlantic is a bigger undertaking, although Real Motors wants to sell the bike globally and is looking at a possible European introduction later in 2027. No firm date yet, so don't start clearing space in the garage just yet.
Australia is on the radar, too. Real Motors is willing to get creative with the regulatory process if enough customers want the bike. In other words, if you're an Australian rider with your heart set on an Ares, the company sounds open to finding a way to make it happen.
Building For Riders, Not a Spreadsheet
“Our objective is to get bikes out to customers, people that are going to love our vehicles.”
Real Motors wants Project: Ares to be a bike enthusiasts can get excited about, not an expensive design exercise built for the well-heeled. Trent is pushing back against what he sees as an “EV tax”, arguing that a simpler package can help keep the price in check.
Real Motors also wants to talk about what goes into the bike, not just how big the numbers look on a spec sheet.
“We spec a little bit more detail, like the materials that we use, because I think that's fun for us. Our spec sheet should almost look like that of a watch company. You know, this is what we use.”
There's a balancing act here. Good materials and clever engineering might get enthusiasts interested, but riders still need the numbers, including weight, charging times and price, before they can decide whether the bike fits their lives.
Real Motors also has bigger ambitions than one café racer. Project: Ares is supposed to be the first of a wider family of future machines, with other vehicle types also on the drawing board.
The BCB Take
Project: Ares has something many electric motorcycles struggle to find: an identity beyond the fact that it’s electric.
The team’s lack of riding experience makes a cracking story, but it’s not a badge of honour. Motorcycle design is full of lessons learned the hard way, and there’s a reason experienced riders and engineers spend years getting suspension, ergonomics, power delivery and handling right. Question convention, absolutely. Reinventing the wheel for the sake of it? No point.
But Real Motors hasn’t simply locked itself away and declared victory. The prototypes have been tested by motorcycle experts, including people at Michelin, with Vance Strader now bringing more riding experience into the team. That’s how you challenge convention without flying blind.
Now the bike needs to deliver. The engineering has to work, the chain-driven soundtrack needs to hit the mark, and the production version needs to be every bit as compelling as the prototypes.
We’re keen to try that electric-analogue approach for ourselves. A 100 hp electric café racer with a mechanical soundtrack and attitude to spare? That's a bike we'd love to throw a leg over. Real Motors will be at EICMA in November, and BCB will be there to get the latest details and pictures.
RM has our attention. Now build the bikes, get them into riders’ hands and let the riding do the talking. That’s Real Motors’ next mission.
Ride safe, folks.
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