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[wavelet]

There's the guy with the one-off 700 volt drag strip bike. Definitely not production.

That was user Jayski here and the following posts.
He's apparently happy with his bike, but as you said, it ain't no production bike.
And that's still the only report I've seen anywhere, anytime, with a first-hand report from an owner of any Lightning bike.

[Crissa]

I think I saw one on Hwy 9 at the summit once in a group of sport-bike riders, but they didn't talk outside their group.  I also couldn't hear whose motor was whose, since they traveled in a cluster and mostly kicked alot of rocks around.

But that's hardly evidence of sales.

VCs do not have to be transparent until they open up investment to the public.  So we don't have access to the internals of just any non-publicly-listed company.

-Crissa

[wavelet]

VCs do not have to be transparent until they open up investment to the public.  So we don't have access to the internals of just any non-publicly-listed company.

True, but I used to work at a VC, as well as consulting to several others, and was also in the management team of several VC- and angel-funded startups.

I have never encountered a VC hiding any investment they made(*). On the contrary, they're very prominently headlined, both by the VC so that its investors know it's actually investing the money it has and putting it to work, as well as by the recipient companies to gain respectability in the eyes of  customers, employees, and additional investors -- none of them is likely to take a company seriously if it's not clear it has enough money to keep the lights on. There's simply no motivation to keep investments secret.
(*)The only exception is startups in full-stealth mode, but Lightning isn't.

[HoodRichOG]

VCs do not have to be transparent until they open up investment to the public.  So we don't have access to the internals of just any non-publicly-listed company.

-Crissa

Yes and no.

I'm also in the business (VC) and the company receiving the investment would have to file Form D with the SEC.

It's a legal requirement to file Form D if you're a private company issuing securities or raising capital.

I just took a look at my database, Lightning did file a Form D once, back in 2015, when they raised $50K through debt financing, basically meaning they have to repay the creditor at some point, with the intention to raise a total of $2M.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1646406/000164640615000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml

[Richard230]

VCs do not have to be transparent until they open up investment to the public.  So we don't have access to the internals of just any non-publicly-listed company.

-Crissa

Yes and no.

I'm also in the business (VC) and the company receiving the investment would have to file Form D with the SEC.

It's a legal requirement to file Form D if you're a private company issuing securities or raising capital.

I just took a look at my database, Lightning did file a Form D once, back in 2015, when they raised $50K through debt financing, basically meaning they have to repay the creditor at some point, with the intention to raise a total of $2M.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1646406/000164640615000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml

What can a motorcycle manufacturing company do with only $2 million? And $50K won't even pay for the Christmas party.   

If I had to take a complete guess, I would bet that Richard gets his income from being some sort of consultant and building motorcycles is just a hobby when he has nothing better to do. 

[HoodRichOG]

VCs do not have to be transparent until they open up investment to the public.  So we don't have access to the internals of just any non-publicly-listed company.

-Crissa

Yes and no.

I'm also in the business (VC) and the company receiving the investment would have to file Form D with the SEC.

It's a legal requirement to file Form D if you're a private company issuing securities or raising capital.

I just took a look at my database, Lightning did file a Form D once, back in 2015, when they raised $50K through debt financing, basically meaning they have to repay the creditor at some point, with the intention to raise a total of $2M.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1646406/000164640615000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml

What can a motorcycle manufacturing company do with only $2 million? And $50K won't even pay for the Christmas party.   

If I had to take a complete guess, I would bet that Richard gets his income from being some sort of consultant and building motorcycles is just a hobby when he has nothing better to do. 

Yeah, it must be the best-kept secret in the industry.

Why announce serial bike production in the first place then? And take $10K deposits, too?

[Richard230]

VCs do not have to be transparent until they open up investment to the public.  So we don't have access to the internals of just any non-publicly-listed company.

-Crissa

Yes and no.

I'm also in the business (VC) and the company receiving the investment would have to file Form D with the SEC.

It's a legal requirement to file Form D if you're a private company issuing securities or raising capital.

I just took a look at my database, Lightning did file a Form D once, back in 2015, when they raised $50K through debt financing, basically meaning they have to repay the creditor at some point, with the intention to raise a total of $2M.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1646406/000164640615000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml

What can a motorcycle manufacturing company do with only $2 million? And $50K won't even pay for the Christmas party.   

If I had to take a complete guess, I would bet that Richard gets his income from being some sort of consultant and building motorcycles is just a hobby when he has nothing better to do. 

Yeah, it must be the best-kept secret in the industry.

Why announce serial bike production in the first place then? And take $10K deposits, too?

I wonder if he is a U.S. front for a Chinese electric motorcycle company that had plans to sell their bikes here before they got hit with import tariffs? (Just throwing thoughts at the dart board to see if anything sticks.    )

[Crissa]

If they had a foreign investor, that should be registered.

But not all loans have to be disclosed until they're a public company.

Which makes this an opaque mess.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Here's a little backstory about the CEO, in response to all the controversy. There's a video at the end regarding credibility that cites this forum.

https://longtailpipe.com/2019/11/13/scam-alert-tossed-at-lightning-motorcycles/

[Doug S]

That's just so sad. This field badly needs serious players, not play-uhs.

[Richard230]

The mention of Todd Kolin in the article referenced above made me queasy. He was the head of Electric Motorsport, based in Oakland, and was the person that I dealt with after I bought my 2009 GPR-S, which lasted 300 miles before the BMS caught on fire and the "custom" 2010 GPR-S that traveled 1300 miles before the batteries started going south. The retail dealer, The Electric Green Store, that was selling those bikes in Redwood City went under that same year. I still have a bunch of emails in my archives between myself and Todd regarding those two bikes.  Birds of a feather to my mind.

All I can say is I am really thankful that I discovered Zero. That changed my entire outlook regarding the electric motorcycle industry.   

I have posted this photo before, but here is a picture of Lightning's first prototype consumer electric motorcycle taken in 2014 that was going to be sold by them to the general public.  Anyone ever see one of these on the road?   

[SBK74]

https://electrek.co/2019/12/19/lightning-strike-electric-motorcycle-deliveries-secret-project/

Article on Electrek. Lightning claiming to have delivered Strike Carbon editions -slightly delayed- in September instead of July. Also their website seems to be updated. Man, these specs are to good to be true: the weight, the price, Ohlins, the CCS charge time. No rear ABS visible though .