Wild Conjecture: The Harley-Davidson Livewire

I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings but us oldsters are through. Our time has passed. No one cares if we like electric motorcycles or have range anxiety or just don’t like the silence. They don’t care. Bemoan the new kids all you want but we are dead-generation walking and the future always bats last.

Harley-Davidson, having had their finger on the pulse of the American motorcyclist for more than 100 years, can feel that pulse weakening. They get that Easy Rider means a mobility chair to anyone under age 50. With the Livewire H-D is busting out of the leather-fringed, concho-ed cage they so carefully crafted for themselves and it’s about time.

Electric motorcycles just make more sense than electric cars: City-centric, short range, narrow and easy to park. E-bikes comfortably fit into the existing technology envelope as it stands today. While always appreciated there’s no need for advancements in battery technology. E-motorcycles work right now, man.

Generation X, Y, and Z are down with plugging in electronics equipment wherever they go. They grew up watching battery level indicators like we grew up watching fuel gauges. They don’t have the same history or values that we have and they’d be a pretty sorry generation if they couldn’t come up with their own idea of fun.

As usual on Wild Conjecture we have no factual information on the Livewire so the first thing I noticed is that the thing actually looks good. The heavily-finned battery compartment is kind of huge so maybe range will be decent (100-miles would do it for me).  Large diameter dual discs means this may be the hardest stopping H-D yet. More than likely the rear disc will be assisted by regenerative braking because it’s fairly easy to do and adds a few miles to the range.

The rear suspension resembles Yamaha’s Monoshock system from 40 years ago except with a much shorter shock absorber. The frame appears to be cast aluminum, a construction method that eliminates costly, complicated robot welding machines and messy human interaction. Forks appear standard and I don’t see any way for the front wheel to charge the battery under braking.

One of the problems I see with electric motorcycles is that they try to be like internal combustion motorcycles. They measure their range against gasoline mileage. They pit their performance against machines that have had 100 years of refinement. For the most part they stack up so-so. E-bikes should embrace a less costly approach; give up a few miles of range and a few miles per hour for a faster charge time. Maybe cheaper, quick-change batteries so commuters could keep one at home, one at the office and one in the motorcycle thereby eliminating the wait time for charging.

The Livewire is an even bigger leap of faith for H-D than their ADV bike (which breaks no new ground) and I’m not sure it will sell out of a traditional motorcycle dealership. Maybe sell them from kiosks at Red Bull events? The Livewire should appeal to a younger audience but it’ll have to be less expensive and carry less emotional baggage than Harley’s oil burners to do it.


You can read about our other Dream Bikes here.

More good stuff…

I thought I might take a minute and explain the other pages on the ExhaustNotes.us site.  For starters, to get back to the main ExhaustNotes site, you’ll notice there’s a link at the top right of this page that says ExhaustNotes Home.   Click on it and it will take you to our home page…

The photos on our Home page are cool.  The one at the top was in the Gobi desert.  So’s the Gresh photo…I shot that from the saddle of my RX3 as Gresh and I were riding into the Gobi for the first time.  The one to the right is yours truly about to enter the Forbidden City in Beijing (Gresh shot that one).  And the photos below?  They are our advertisers, and they are all great companies.   CSC Motorcycles is the North American importer of the greatest small-displacement motorcycles in the world.  BajaBound is, hands down, the best insurance company when you’re going into Baja (and you need to have a separate insurance policy whenever you do so).   RoadRUNNER is one of the world’s great motorcycle magazines, and the only one devoted exclusively to touring (this month’s issue has our China story).  Douglas Motorcycles sells Triumphs and Zero motorcycles; my good buddy Art runs the place, and it’s where I’ve bought my Triumphs.

So, about that Gresh photo…click on it and you’ll be whisked to the Gresh page, which includes links to articles Joe wrote.   Joe is one of the world’s great motojournalists.   His writing is witty and captivating, and if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself laughing out loud as you read it.   Joe wrote the “Cranked” column for Motorcyclist magazine, and you’ll find links to those here.  What I like about Joe is he sees things other people don’t, and he captures his observations well.  More good news: Joe started a series of “Wild Conjecture” pieces (articles written without a lot of actual, you know, facts).  We’re adding “Wild Conjecture” links here.  You’ll want to spend some time on the Gresh page, folks.

Although I’m not in the same league as my good buddy Arjiu, I’ve got a page, too.  Click on the Berk page, and you’ll have a set of links to my stuff.

We’ve got an About page.  You might want to take a minute to read it; it explains how the ExhaustNotes site came to be and what we’re all about.  And the photo at the top of the About page?  Ah, that’s a story for another time…

There’s our YouTubby page.  Joe and I have done a number of YouTube videos and we’ve got them here.  You might wonder why “YouTubby” instead of just YouTube.   Visit the page, and you’ll find out.

The Books page is me bragging a bit, and you having an opportunity to buy some cool books.  I’ve thought about this a lot, and you should buy all of them (several copies of each, actually).  They make great gifts.

Ah, the Baja page!  If you want to learn more about riding Baja, this is where you want to go.   We are the ultimate resource for information about motorcycling in Baja.  The routes, the roads, the restaurants, the hotels, the cave paintings, the legalities, the bikes, insurance, the missions, whale watching, and more…if it pertains to riding a motorcycle in Baja and what to see when you’re down there, this is the spot, folks.

Finally, there’s our Advertising page.   The ExhaustNotes site has traction, and if your target market includes adventurers, here’s where you can reach them.  Get in touch with us, and we’ll get you there!

Wild Conjecture: The Harley-Davidson Pan America

 

Much like when your old granny starts using Instagram or throws down internet slang terms like LOL, Harley-Davidson’s new, Pan America concept motorcycle is a sure sign that the out-sized ADV fad has played itself out. It can’t come a moment too soon for me because these giant dirt motorcycles are the worst idea to come down the pike since Thalidomide. I won’t list the moto-journos that have injured themselves on these bikes but it’s a who’s who of two-wheeled typists. Remember, these are the pros!

H-D has ignored the segment these last twenty years for good reason: It’s simply not their bag. Change comes slowly to The Motor Company. They’ve been very successful building and selling a cruiser lifestyle. People tattoo H-D logos onto their bodies! Who else but a Batdorf and Bronson coffee fanatic would do that?

Back on topic: The Pan America. Harley doesn’t keep me in the loop so I have nothing but a promotional photo to go by but the thing doesn’t look half bad. There’s just a hint of Royal Enfield Himalayan in the styling but that’s not a bad thing. The fairing is kind of goofy, a requirement for ADV bikes. It’s got a decent-looking skidpan and a nice flat seat that looks comfortable.

The engine looks like a restyled version of H-D’s 750cc liquid-cooled Street power plant but with displacement rumors swirling around 1200cc, maybe not. Maybe it’s a V-Rod engine. Anyway I can’t see Harley building a new engine just for the Pan America unless it’s the beta test of a wholly new Sportster power plant. There’s almost no way the thing will weigh less than 600 pounds, again, seemingly not a problem for the chuckleheads who plow these big bikes through the trails.

I haven’t heard of any major reliability issues on the 500cc-750cc Street models or the V-Rod so if it’s either engine the thing should be more reliable than the class-leading GS BMW’s. I’m hoping the thing is chain drive as toothed belts squeak like crazy in the dirt and shaft drives seem to snap in half with alarming frequency.

The rest of the cycle parts look really modern, Japanese even, and the Pan America shows that Harley can build a bike that rivals the Europeans and Asians anytime they feel like it.  They just haven’t felt like it.  Until now.


Check out our other Dream Bikes here!