It needs a lot of chutzpah to manufacture electric motorcycles in California. The state is expensive when it comes to labor and environmental norms. But what if you design the product in such a way that assembly becomes easy? Ryvid did that. The whole frame is a stainless steel monocoque – everything is stamped out of 4 x 8 sheets and then fastened together with PEM nuts. The underslung battery can be detached and attached easily.
What is fascinating is that Ryvid maintains this cool simplicity throughout their design process. In the end they created a motorcycle that can be DIY maintained including things like removing and replacing the motor and controller.
This is in a time and era where everyone else is running after complexity.
Deepesh Rathore: Dong Train, its great to have you here. Ryvid has been on my radar since the very first media reports. It’s a beautiful motorcycle, and I’m incredibly impressed with the frame — we’ll talk more about that.
What’s also interesting, as I mentioned before we started recording, is that while many passionate startups are coming out of North America, very few have actually reached the stage of commercially producing and delivering motorcycles to customers.
Before this interview, I also took a look at some Reddit forums to see what customers were saying about Ryvid, and there’s been a lot of positive feedback — so clearly, you’re doing something right.
I’m really keen to hear the full story. Can we start from the very beginning? Where did the idea come from, and what’s your background, as well as your co-founders’?
Dong Tran: Sure. Ryvid has four co-founders — three of us are Vietnamese — and we each come from very different backgrounds.
My background is in mechanical engineering. After that, I went to automotive design school and became a car designer. I worked for a range of OEMs — Honda, Toyota, General Motors, BMW — so I’ve been exposed to a wide spectrum of automotive companies.
Eventually, I shifted to aerospace by joining a startup called Icon Aircraft. I stayed with them as they grew to nearly a thousand people, then left to start my own product development company. That company did a lot of design and engineering work for automotive and electric mobility firms — including companies like Zero Motorcycles and some early-stage electric two-wheeler startups.
That’s really where the idea for Ryvid was born — not initially for urban mobility but for electric powersports.
Through that venture, I met my co-founders. One of them comes from a logistics and supply chain background, as well as from aerospace. Another had been working in the semiconductor industry, which is quite different from automotive — he specialized in making large tools for chip manufacturing.
Our fourth co-founder has a military background; he was a submarine guy in the U.S. Navy on a Virginia-class submarine. He’s deeply experienced in nuclear and mechanical engineering, so quality control and operation are a major focus for him.
So, between us, we had complementary strengths: supply chain, quality, process engineering, and design. That combination helped shape the way we approached Ryvid — with a focus on differentiating ourselves through design and manufacturing.
We officially founded the company in 2021, but I’d been working on the idea in my spare time since around 2017. That’s how Ryvid really got started.
Rathore: Were you guys already based in California, or did you relocate there to start the company?
Tran: Yeah, that’s right. We were all based in California except for Eric — he’s from Texas. He was actually our first angel investor as well. All of us invested in the company, but Eric put in enough to take it from just an idea with a few design studies to something real — an actual project.
Rathore: Eric’s the submarine commander, right? Good on him.
Tran: Believe it or not, we really did start in a garage — I know that’s a bit of a California…
Rathore: Cliché. Yes, absolutely.
Tran: But it’s true. We built the first two prototypes at my house. We ran very lean for a long time because we just wanted to prove the idea out first.
Rathore: Correct me if I’m wrong, but Ryvid also manufactures in the U.S., right?
Tran: That’s right — we build everything here in California.
Rathore: For the Anthem, I think the first thing that stood out to me was the unique frame. If I remember correctly, the whole structure weighs just around 5 kilograms. How is it made, and what’s the design philosophy behind it?
Tran: Yeah, that’s right — and it’s an interesting story. I had a previous company that created sculptures out of folded paper — I actually have one here. It’s a flat sheet with a patterned design that, when folded, becomes a strong, three-dimensional structure. It was incredibly cheap to make and surprisingly sturdy once assembled.
That concept stuck with me. In aviation, especially when we were building carbon fiber aircraft, we used a similar approach — everything was bonded and riveted together, with no welding or fasteners. That background inspired the idea: What if we could apply this folded-sheet concept to a vehicle, specifically a motorcycle?
So that’s how the idea for Anthem’s frame came about. There were a lot of strategic advantages. For one, we completely eliminated welding. There’s no robotic welding and no need for highly skilled welders, which helps reduce manufacturing costs. If we’re building bikes here in the U.S., they have to be easy to assemble.
The entire frame is cut from standard 4×8 flat stainless steel sheets. We cut out the patterns, drill the necessary holes, and use PEM nuts (self-clinching nuts) — which are essentially integrated nuts that are pressed into the frame — so there’s no need to reach in and hold a nut while tightening a bolt. Everything is self-contained within the structure.
Rathore: That’s clever.
Tran: Yeah, and it makes assembly incredibly easy. We can route the wiring harness through the frame because it’s essentially a hollow monocoque — but achieved without casting or any overly complex processes. We use 316 stainless steel, which is extremely strong, corrosion-resistant, and lightweight.
Now, that design came with a fair number of challenges. Since it’s not a traditional frame and there’s no welding, we had to figure out how to mount critical components like the swingarm and front fork assembly while ensuring they’d remain structurally sound over more than 100,000 miles of vibration and use.
It seemed simple at first — just like folding paper. But once we got into the engineering, it became clear that everything had to be rigorously tested and re-engineered. We spent a lot of time refining the frame. But now? One of our guys can assemble the entire frame — with all fasteners and internal components — in just 30 minutes. And they can do it here or anywhere, even in a garage.
Rathore: That’s impressive.
Tran: Yeah — even our very first prototype used the actual production frame. We didn’t need any custom tooling or fixtures. That realization accelerated everything else. Beyond the frame, there’s also a lot of innovation in how we lay out other components — the way the motor is mounted to the swingarm and frame, and, of course, the removable battery.
Rathore: Speaking of the battery — it detaches easily. Can you talk a bit more about that package? It’s 4.3 kWh, right? Are you using cylindrical cells?
Tran: Yeah, 4.3 kWh. We use NMC pouch cells from Farasis, like Zero and Mercedes P58. They’re not great for packaging but very good for power density and have a high C rating. So we get very good power. We have 260 Amps of peak output.
We can charge pretty quickly without overheating or needing liquid cooling. One of the biggest things about the battery is that it is independent of the bike. So you can use the battery on the bike. It has an onboard charger that’s 3.3kW, and we’ve been able to package that in a tight package.
It comes with an easily detachable methodology, so no tools are involved. There are no straps or anything. You can unlock and unlatch the battery, and the whole thing tilts down. Batteries are heavy. So, our battery pack is 80 pounds. You’re not going to lift it off like many bikes here; they try to make you pull the battery up and over the bike.
But our battery has a lot of weight, and you tilt it on the ground, and it’s about 20 to 30 pounds to lift it off, so most people can do it. One of the advantages of having the battery come with its own charger and then work on other bikes is that we can sell the battery separately. It’s kind of like the idea of an AAA battery…
Ryvid’s battery is attached through a latch system, making it easier to remove and deploy.
Rathore: Yeah.
Tran: So, we’ve already rolled out two different models, and a third is on the way. All of them share the same battery, which means they’re interchangeable. You can even use the battery off the bike — just plug in an inverter and charge a laptop or power other devices. That was always part of the idea behind the battery design.
Rathore: I think that’s a really neat design — you’ve got the battery and charger integrated into one removable unit, and once it’s out, what remains is just the frame and components. It’s a clean setup.
Removing the battery seems easy — how about putting it back in? Is it just as straightforward?
Tran: It is! The battery hooks in using a latch system. It’s a one-handed action when you lift it — and it’s only about 20 pounds you’re lifting, which is less than half the battery’s weight. You lift it, and it automatically locks into place—no need to hold it up awkwardly or align bolts.
It takes me about 15 seconds to remove and reattach it. For others who aren’t used to it, maybe a little longer, but it’s still pretty straightforward — especially considering how large and heavy the battery is.
Rathore: Right.
Tran: That’s a key point — most removable batteries are much smaller. Some are just 1.8 kWh packs that need to be split into two parts to manage the weight.
Now, most customers don’t need to remove the battery regularly. But we made it removable for several reasons. One of them was manufacturing — separating the battery from the rest of the bike makes the assembly process easier.
And that’s part of our whole production philosophy. The bike is divided into five subassemblies that can be put together independently. Then, at the end, everything gets integrated. That parallel process means we can assemble a complete bike by just one person in about an hour and a half.
Rathore: Wow. That’s not bad at all.
Tran: And that’s all manual labor — no robots involved.
Rathore: Impressive.
Tran: Even better, that person doesn’t need prior experience building motorcycles. That was a major goal for us — how do we design this so someone without a background in motorcycle assembly can still put it together correctly and efficiently?
It’s simpler than a gas-powered bike, but it still requires precision. I’m personally really proud of how we’ve structured the production — the components are grouped in a very deliberate way to make the process clean and repeatable.
There is a focus on DIY service: One can remove the Motor Controller
Rathore: So, Ryvid started in a garage — and now you’ve scaled up but kept the manufacturing as simple and elegant as possible. Where are you producing the bikes now? What’s the size and capacity of your current facility?
Tran: The building I’m in right now is about 10,000 square feet. From here, we can produce up to 100 bikes per month. It’s not a huge number, but it’s aligned with where we are in terms of market demand and our current marketing efforts.
That said, we’re moving into a new facility — around 100,000 square feet — to significantly expand our capacity. Once that’s up and running, we can multiply our output by ten. But we’re pacing that growth carefully. You can’t eliminate fixed costs, so we want to scale when the demand is really there.
Rathore: And that new facility — is it also in California?
Tran: Yes, though in a part of California where costs are slightly lower than where we are now. Still expensive, but relatively better.
Rathore: Right. So, you’ve got two models out now — the Anthem and the Offset, and the third is on the way, and then all of them share the same battery and frame, but essentially the same components, but different body styles.
Tran: It’s about 80% the same components across. The third model is basically a mini. It has 15” wheels, similar in size to a Honda Grom, slightly smaller than a full-size motorcycle. But performance-wise, it is very similar. The cost will be the big difference. That product will be much more entry-level, at a USD 5,000-ish price point for the US market. So that’ll be an interesting product. Truly getting down to the right price point.
Rathore: I see a lot of manufacturers going towards these mini bikes like the Honda Grom style.
Tran: The Honda Grom is one of the most popular motorcycles in the United States.
What is important is that the small bikes bring new riders. The big bikes bring experienced riders, but the small bike really brings a lot of new riders, and it brings riders who just want to get around lightly. We see that in the data. All of our customers are either first-time riders or very experienced riders. The experienced ones – where they’ve tried every bike, they want to try something different.
Yeah, we have a saying here that it’s much more fun to ride a slow car fast than a fast car slow.
It’s my background also.. I’ve been riding since I was about 14 years old, and I started out riding very big bikes. My first bike was a 750 GSX-R, and then I went immediately to 50cc mopeds. I completely fell in love with the small bikes. It may be because my roots are from Vietnam, where I grew up.
The Ryvid is kind of right in between. It’s not a big bike, but it’s not a tiny bike. It’s some right somewhere in between, more like a midsize.
Rathore: It looks compact, but you’re still riding on what? 17” wheels? So its not really compact.
Tran: It’s 17” wheels. Yeah, and it has a 27 kW drivetrain, which can get you up to 80-85 mph on the freeway. So, probably has a lot more power than most people need, but for the US market, I think middleweight.
Rathore: Moving on from the battery, motor, and frame, what about the controllers? I saw that on your website, you’re offering multiple options for controllers. There are actually a lot of customization options available right now.
Tran: There are many motor controllers out there for E2W; I think they are really a commodity. You don’t really want to just design your own motor controller because there’s so much that goes into something like that, and there are so many companies that do it very well.
Rathore: Yes.
Tran: We tapped into a few. So, we use a Votol for the lower-end controller, and then we use BAC 8000 from a Canadian company, Accelerated Systems Inc. (ASI). They actually provide controllers to a lot of companies, but no one talks about it. Yeah, we advertise it because we’re very proud that we can use two different controller options on the bike.
We have a third one on the way that we’re experimenting with. But really, for the controller, firmware and integration is what we care about; the hardware just needs to be validated and relatively robust in the field.
The motor was the same. So we use QS for our motor supplier. We developed a cooling fin that is built into the outer casing to aid cooling. Their stock motor doesn’t cool that well for our use case. We wanted to ensure our motor can be properly cooled throughout the use cycle. Because we don’t use water or oil for cooling, we employ aerodynamics to route the air around the battery and in from the bottom into the back of the motor cooling fins.
So, if you look at our side panel, it has these little inlets. and it’s able to keep the fins that we designed on the motor, to keep the motor cool for the entirety of the ride. No matter how hard you push it, the motor stays cool enough to perform well. So, it was very much of a let’s design this thing to do exactly what it was intended to do without any more complexities. That’s what we did with the motor.
Rathore: How big is the motor? I mean, what’s the power output there?
Tran: So it’s 27 kW at peak. It’s about 15 kilowatt nominal and 27 kW peak.
Continuing the DIY focus, the motor can be replaced by the customer.
Rathore: Did you have to go far for the other components, or was it a simple choice there?
Tran: We have forgings, we have diecasts, and we also have injection-molded parts. We design all the tools ourselves, but make parts in China, where the tools are made, and that’s where you get the parts. I think the design and the integration are what’s really important, so it doesn’t matter where we make the parts. We did try to find suitable US-based companies that can do this at the scale we need, with little success.
Overall, it’s pretty simple. A lot of off-the-shelf components that are modified for our use are modified off the shelf for us.
Yeah, I want to loop back a little bit with one of the things that we did with the motor. We mounted the motor so that it moves with the swing arm. I think there are a few other companies that also did that as well.
Rathore: Can-Am has done the same, but obviously, they came much later.
Tran: Yes. They’re a much bigger company, and I’m a little bummed out because we don’t talk about it (the motor placement) as much. Then we saw Can-Am talk about it, and I thought, “Man, we should have talked about it more,” because there are so many advantages. I mean, not having the belt stretch and the anti-squat property of it makes the bike handle incredibly. We designed the bike to have a perfect 50/50 distribution, so we placed all the components right where they needed to be.
One thing we really optimized on was how the thing handles and how it feels riding it, and so we placed all the components in a very strategic place that when you ride it as a new rider, it feels friendly. As an advanced rider, it’s very stiff, and it handles very well.
Rathore: So I want you to dial a little back on the frame side. You said these are 4×8 stainless steel sheets. What is the thickness of the sheets?
Tran: So we use 3mm thickness on the main frame, and we use 2 mm on the sub-components like the controller mounts. We have aluminum as well for material, but that’s only on the (new) mini. We’re going to use aluminum to make it a little bit lighter, and we don’t need as much strength on the Mini as we do on the bigger bikes.
One of the advantages of sheet metal is that you can make it out of anything. We have military bikes that we’re looking into titanium for.
Rathore: Exactly.
Tran: It’s basically just bent sheet metal. You make it out of anything.
Rathore: How has the response been? I know the customer feedback is pretty positive, but where are you with your sales numbers, and how do you see growing in the future?
Tran: Overall, I think the market has been very receptive to a product like this simply because I think it makes sense. It’s relatively reasonable compared to, let’s say, a Livewire or a Zero. I think they’re extremely high-end bikes. They’re great bikes, but if I were the consumer, I wouldn’t buy a bike for that price because it doesn’t make sense if it’s too much money. I think we’re at the edge of what’s possible.
Rathore: Yes.
Tran: I think USD 8,000 is high. If I could, it would be USD 5,000, but that would not make financial sense where we currently are. So, we’re trying to balance running a business versus what I think the customer really wants. At some point, we can start working down to that. But where we are at this point, we need to at least break even or make a little bit of money.
We have good traction. The response on the internet about Ryvid- I think we put a lot of care into that because I think a lot of brands miss that. They don’t care as much about the customer post-sales. We spend an enormous amount of time dealing directly with customers online on a personal level because we’re a DTC brand, and this is the difference required.
We’re a new company, and service is a big challenge. When you’re building a prototype, you don’t see certain issues until you have nearly a thousand customers — all with different needs. So, we built serviceability into the product from day one. For example, how easy is it to service the battery? You just pop it off, send it to us, and we’ll send you a replacement.
It’s those little things that really improve the customer experience. Hardware always comes with its share of problems — that’s inevitable. What matters is how you handle them. We go the extra mile. We have a 3D parts catalog where customers can explore every nut, bolt, and part on the bike. It’s fully interactive — you can do exploded views and everything.
We’re not shy about showing what we do or about selling individual parts directly. I think that openness makes customers happy — and that helps build the brand.
Rathore: When we were looking at customer feedback across various electric motorcycle brands, a common complaint — especially on online forums — was dissatisfaction with after-sales service. But it looks like you’ve taken a very DIY-focused approach to solving that. Would you say that’s part of your strategy?
Tran: Yep, 100%. That’s exactly what we’re doing — keeping things simple enough for customers to do it themselves.
Rathore: Keeping things simple so that anyone can service it?
Tran: Exactly. If you go to our YouTube channel or website, we’ve got detailed videos showing you how to take everything apart. We even tell you exactly what tools to use. As a company without a dealership network — we don’t have a single dealership in the country — this is crucial.
Of course, not every customer wants to do it themselves, and in those cases, we’ll help. But many of our early adopters are very capable. The key is to make it simple — if it’s too complex, no one will touch it. For example, our controller is mounted with just four fasteners. That sort of thinking must start at the design level, not after the fact.
We’ve seen a lot of companies design things that look cool but are hard to manufacture and impossible to service. We took the opposite approach: we asked, “If this part breaks, can it be replaced easily?” That mindset informed us how we designed the frame and everything else.
I care deeply about that. If customers can work on their own bikes, it makes our lives easier, too. We also kept the voltage low at 72 V to manage it more easily.
Rathore: Like Zero or LiveWire? (about companies designing cool but hard to manufacture and repair)
Tran: Exactly. Zero and LiveWire don’t support the right-to-repair approach because their systems are too complex. It becomes a major liability — if someone opens up the bike and bricks it, that’s a big problem.
Rathore: I totally agree. But the difference is that those companies have deep pockets. They can afford to operate that way.
Tran: Yeah, and people often forget that. They think certain companies are scrappy startups when they’re actually massive — backed by giants.
Rathore: That’s what I’ve seen, too. We often hear, “Oh, there’s a new California-based electric motorcycle brand!” but then realize it’s just the founder in California and the bikes are made in China. But you’re actually building your bikes in California.
Tran: We are, and that’s rare. Zero’s the only other one doing that — but even they couldn’t make it work. They had to move part of their production to the Philippines. It’s the complexity that kills you.
Rathore: Right. A complex factory, high-spec equipment — it gets expensive fast.
Tran: Exactly. We designed complexity out of our product. If you need a large, expensive, specialized factory just to make your bike, you’re in trouble — whether you’re in California or anywhere else in the U.S.
Rathore: And on the battery front — you mentioned moving from NMC to LFP for high-volume markets. I’m guessing your 4.3 kWh LFP battery pack would cost around $400.
Tran: That’s right — not including the charger or accessories.
Rathore: So there’s definitely potential for major cost savings.
Tran: Absolutely. Battery prices have dropped so much. We’re glad we designed our bike to accept different battery types. At USD 400 per pack, that’s wild. Companies in India — how they’re pricing their bikes with subsidies disappearing — it’s a tough game.
Rathore: Right now, India’s biggest incentive is road tax exemption. Starting April 1st, the government subsidy is just about $60 per bike. Not much.
Tran: So how can a company build something at that price and make money?
Rathore: They don’t, really. Not on a net profit basis. Most Indian electric motorcycle makers are still in the red. It’s all about showing volume to attract investment.
Tran: Yeah. It’s all about pre-orders and momentum.
Rathore: Exactly. It’s like: “Can I show 100,000 units sold?” That’s the pitch. Get the customers first — figure out how to make money later.
Tran: But the demand is definitely there. Everyone who sees the bike wants to buy it. We just need to get out there and grow the buzz around Ryvid. Interviews like this really help, so thank you for taking the time.
Rathore: My pleasure! It was great talking to you, Dong. Not often do I meet someone in this space who’s so enthusiastic, practical, and grounded. Most startups just want investors — even if it means selling at a loss. It’s all about the rat race.
Tran: Yeah — I’d rather sell zero bikes than sell 100,000 at a loss. You end up working harder just to lose money.
Rathore: Right. And the big names — Zero, Ola, Gogoro — they’ve soaked up so much investor cash that there’s very little left for newcomers.
So, the final question before we wrap up is about your Asia expansion. Are you looking for partners? Investors? Or do you want to go solo?
Tran: We’re currently talking to a few investors and strategic partners. In Asia, I believe partnerships are essential. We’re in conversations with companies in India and the Philippines for manufacturing and distribution. Ideally, we want a strategic investor — someone with skin in the game. They understand the local market better than we ever could.
We can help them set up assembly and service systems. So yes, it will mostly be through strategic partnerships — joint ventures where both sides are invested in the outcome.
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