The new aquisition by LiveWire promises to supercharge the upcoming Dust Moto Hightail and more.
Our friends over at Dust Moto just got some of the best news a startup could hope for. Official as of May 19, 2026, the company has been fully aquired by LiveWire Group, Inc, aka the all-electric branch of America’s most iconic motorcycle manufacturer, Harley-Davidson.
Some of you may find this news jarring considering HD’s infamous history with a certain Alta Motors, but after sitting down and speaking with both Dust Moto CEO Colin Godby and Jon Bekefy, LiveWire’s Head of Global Sales and Marketing, we’re convinced this is great news for the industry as a whole.
According to a recent press release from LiveWire, the decision to aquire Dust Moto came from the brand’s desire to “grow beyond on road electric motorcycles and address the rapidly expanding electric off-road market.” In other words, LiveWire wants a piece of the eMoto pie that’s currently dominated by brands like Stark, Surron, and Bonnell, and they believe Dust Moto’s upcoming Hightail electric dirt bike is the right machine for the job.
This is good news for several reasons. The first is that LiveWire has been abundantly clear on one point inparticular: they aren’t looking to derail Dust Moto’s momentum with the upcoming Hightail. According to Jon Bekefy, the plan is to give Dust Moto the resources they need, and then get out of their way so they can bring the bike into production.
Naturally, some of those resources are purely financial. The constant need to secure funding is a major hurdle for any small company, especially one like Dust Moto, which operates with a 4-5 person team and an extremely lean budget.
“That’s the reality about being a startup. Around every corner you unlock these awesome customer milestones, but you still have this existential threat which is that you have to keep funding the business.” said Dust CEO Colin Godby. “Frankly, that’s been a full-time job for me in addition to actually building awesome bikes and getting them to customers.”
Godby says the guananteed funding will give him the breathing room he needs to fully focus on getting the bike ready for production and large-scale commercialization. Those who have been eagarly following the development of the Hightail will also be pleased to hear that Godby is equally excited about getting access to LiveWire’s R&D department.
“The existing resources are amazing. The engineering and test facilities at LiveWire are so far beyond what people imagine.” said Godby. “Plus, if there’s a sticky problem with manufacturing, we’ve now got 20-30 year manufacturing veterans just a phonecall away to help get us through it.”
The aquisition is a smart fit for other reasons as well. The first and most obvious is that Dust Moto is an American company that operates out of Bend, Oregon, something that fits in nicely with the Harley-Davidson/LiveWire “made in America” ethos. The Hightail itself is also a perfect fit for LiveWire’s current product line, which has a massive gap to fill between Stacyc children’s bikes and the LiveWire One and S2 street bikes that are aimed at adults 30 and up.
So what comes next? It’s too early to say whether Dust Moto’s most recent estimates for production and delivery will be impacted one way or the other (the original plan was to start delivering bikes to initial backers during Q1 of 2027), but according to Godby, there’s no doubt that final product will benefit greatly from the aquisition.
“A big piece of this next phase for us is getting imbedded with the greater LiveWire team.” said Godby. “A lot of that will actually be leveling up beyond where Dust has already been in terms of standards, reliability, quality, and supply chain. So naturally there’s gonna be a refactor and resetting of what exactly the final launch timeline looks like.”
During our recent sitdown, LiveWire’s Jon Befeky also hinted that there’s no reason to think Dust’s Hightail (or any of its future models) won’t find their way into Harley’s massive network of showrooms and dealerships. Be sure to check out the podcast for the full discussion, and stay tuned for updates as more news develops.
