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.
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Nothing to add. Too old , though I have ridden a medium sized Zero for a few minutes. Maybe these will catch the younger guys , I don’t know . I can tell you my son who just turned 26 and started riding at 6 has no friends from school that ride , none . He works now at Toyota and has gotten a couple of guys started on dirt bikes. I graduated H.S. in ’73 , within a couple of years I had dozens of friends riding . Golden Age ?
Class of ’73 here too. Same experience. For the community of motorclists it was a golden age; but technologically the best time is arguably just about now – when electronics and exotic materials are raising the game. I hope we get to enjoy this a while before the youngsters take things in a different, possibly very disappointing direction.
Well they are striving for something new and trying to stay connected with modern society if you folks would touch that microphone icon on the bottom of your screen you can speak your piece rather than have to type it anyway that’s my tip for the day look forward to riding one of those things when they hit the market always fun to do that
I agree our time has passed, and HD needs to focus on the future generations of the still plan on being around for decades to come. Being fairly rural myself I have looked at E technology, but it has never made much sense to me as when I ride 100 miles to find he next charging Port is not an appealing prospect. Not when gas can usually be found every 20 to 50 miles or so, and even my smallest bike can go 150 miles between full ups.
Good read Joe…
You’ve nailed the point Baker, no one had to prod us into motorcycles. We wanted a bike in the worse way and would stop at nothing to get one.
I think Electric bikes, clean, easy to use could make some headway with new riders but it will be a less passionate relationship.
right. and less passionate riders are the key to being doomed to be the death of motorcycling. why risk getting killed in todays traffic without the passion?
joe, i dont know if you are old enuff to recall quadraphonic sound.
lol.
Gresh isn’t just a great writer, he’s a dang good psychic as well. Somehow Gresh routinely pens my (exact) thoughts of all things Moto. I’m not citing or insinuating plagiarism of any sort. If a PHD can be had for psycho moto therapy, Gresh has earned it.
H-D’s big problem will be their legacy dealers who won’t have much of an interest in selling the Live Wire, or any electric motorcycle for that matter. It is going to take a long time to turn around 115 years of motorcycle consumer inertia. Then there is the price. Harley says that their Live Wire will be a premium vehicle and you know what that means when it comes to the Motor Company’s prices. Jay Leno is sure to pick one up for his collection, but I doubt a young person flipping burgers or struggling to pay off a college debt is going to be one of their new EV customers. Eventually it might be a smart product move, but prices will need to come down a lot, gas prices will need to increase a lot and their motorcycle customers will have to give up loving to make noise to attract attention. I don’t see that happening any time soon.
exactly richard. the only possible future is E powered scooters cheap and used for personal transportation by the chinese scooter crowd. not premium stuff nobody asked for. maybe it will come to pass as was mentioned above. electric flat track or electric speedway. but i dont see anyone riding across nebraska on an e bike in my life time. Electric Glide? ha ha ha , give me a break!
is there a way to link my email to notification of new postings?
Hacksaw, we’re just getting started. Give us a few more days and we’ll have it all figured out. We’ll post here and on Facebook when we’ve added this feature. Thanks for the inquiry, and we appreciate your comments.
That’s a helluva lede, Joe.
Great article.
Well done.
Thanks old iron. One day I hope to recover my password for the CW forum.