Where does the line form?

So the price of the new Harley Livewire has been announced, and it’s just under $30K.   With taxes, dealer setup, freight, etc., it’s a bike that will be somewhere around $35K.   Every blog, motorcycle forum, and motorcycle news outlet on the planet is carrying the story, and I have little more to add.  Everyone with an opinion is posting why this makes sense, or why it makes no sense.

When Harley came out with the V-Rod 15 or so years ago, I said it would flop, and I posted a comment to that effect on one of the forums:

Wow, a 600-lb motorcycle with 85 horsepower.   Where does the line form?

That comment ultimately was proven correct, and it somehow seems Livewire-appropriate today.  I’ll leave the Livewire pricing, marketing analysis, and deep thinking to the other online pundits.  My prediction?  It took the V-Rod more than a decade to die.  The demise of the Livewire, at $35K, will be mercifully quick.  I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect I am not.

6 thoughts on “Where does the line form?”

  1. Well said Joe high 30,000 not for me when you have to put kids in college and a wife in furlough haha

  2. Maybe it will be a two wheel Tesla, or may be not.
    If it actually sounds like it sounds in the video – that’s pretty damn annoying!

  3. My thoughts too, way too much money. They are trying to get the early adaptors, I guess… Good luck to the motor company on this marketing tack. I have a buddy with a Chevy Volt, 40 g’s for nice small Toyata Corrolla type auto. He “feels” good about it. Me I would save the 10 g’s and buy a Chevy Cruz…

  4. Unlike the V-Rod – built for European sales – the Livewire is the halo bike for a new category. More to draw attention then pass that attention down to smaller units later. After the prior 4 years bluster from HD about finding new markets, they had to produce a limited run to gag Wall St, and buy more time to develop the other platforms.

  6. Harleys were always expensive & loud, they have reduce the noise in this one but that sharp sound to me is annoying. As Jay’s Leno said they R still working on its flaws, so why pay the price of a value of a brand new car. Anything new in technology is better to wait till is perfectioned.

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