Onyx Motorbikes is back: its founder returned a year after the owner died with no will

Onyx builds retro 1980s-styled electric motorbikes with wooden body panels, made in the USA and sold to a devoted customer base.

A cult e-bike brand left with no will, no succession plan and angry creditors could still be revived by the founder who first built it.

Tim Seward, who had designed e-bikes for Bird and Ubco, built the first Onyx e-bike, the RCR, in 2016 and launched the company with an Indiegogo campaign in 2018.

In 2019 Seward offloaded his stake to his friend and former co-worker James Khatiblou, who stumbled as a first-time owner and built a web of legal and financial troubles. Khatiblou died suddenly in 2024 with no will and no succession plan; operations, deliveries and creditor payments all ground to a halt. Creditor Oxygen Funding claimed $2.2M and petitioned to control the estate; per a 2019 operating agreement, Kenneth Ames and Troy Smith held a 37.5% interest in Onyx LLC, the entity owning the brand.

Seward announced Onyx's resurrection with backers on LinkedIn on 23 December 2024, selling about 100 RCR electric dirt bikes to start; the probate fight was still unresolved and it was unclear whether the first units were new or from the supplier batch held in limbo.

The company had no succession plan despite being wholly identified with one owner, so a sudden death froze payments, deliveries and the brand itself.

Brand equity outlived the mess: the founder could raise backing to revive the same name even while creditors went unpaid.

The estate fight shows how intangible assets — branding held by an LLC with minority holders — complicate revival.

A company that lives inside one person dies with them: without a will or succession plan, deliveries, payments and the estate freeze — and even the brand gets stuck in probate.

As of 24 December 2024, Onyx was selling about 100 RCR electric dirt bikes under Seward's revived ownership. Oxygen Funding's probate petition remained pending with no court date, its $2.2M claim unpaid, and the involvement of Onyx LLC's minority holders was unclear.