Real Motors leads Reload Land Silent Ride through Milan during EICMA
While EICMA 2026 filled the halls of Fiera Milano, a group of electric riders took to the streets of Milan instead. Reload Land, the Berlin-based electric motorcycle festival, organised a Silent Ride through the city, and American start-up Real Motors rode at the front aboard its ARES electric café racer, finished in Helvetica red. LiveWire and riding gear brand REV’IT! also took part.
For Real Motors, Milan marked the first European appearance of ARES, a few weeks after the bike was shown at the Barber Vintage Festival in Alabama (9–11 October 2026).
From the halls to the streets
The Silent Ride took motorcycles out of the exhibition setting and onto public roads. Real Motors says it sees itself as part of a new group of manufacturers more interested in shaping the next generation of motorcycle culture than in reproducing the last one.
The LiveWire connection
LiveWire’s presence at the ride has an obvious link to Real Motors. Vance Strader, formerly CTO of LiveWire, is now CTO of Real Motors. He started his career at Buell, then worked on Harley-Davidson’s electric programme from early development through to the launch of the first LiveWire in 2019. At Real Motors his job is industrialisation: building the supply chain, manufacturing processes and quality systems needed to produce ARES consistently and in volume. THE PACK reported on Strader’s appointment earlier >
Project ARES
ARES is a retro-styled neo café racer built on a modular electric drivetrain, and Real Motors describes the riding experience as inspired by analogue bikes. Power comes from a 65 kW permanent-magnet synchronous motor fed by a 13.4 kWh NMC battery pack.
The first production batch, Lot 01, is limited to 250 units at US$20,000 each. Reservations take a fully refundable US$500 deposit. ARES is also meant to be the first test case for Manufacto, a facility Real Motors is developing that will combine manufacturing, rapid prototyping and R&D under one roof.
About Real Motors
Real Motors is an engineering company based in Greenville, South Carolina. Engineers Trent Dingman and Michael Feng founded it in 2022. The company calls its products “Future Machines” and its design approach “Electric Analogue.” It treats motorcycles as a starting point rather than an end goal, and says its wider aim is to restore the emotional connection between people and machines through design, engineering and new experiences.
THE PACK is media sponsor of Reload Land since the beginning.
Images: © fotomotor Moritz Thau for Reload.Land
