I’m a big fan of electric motorcycles. I like electrical stuff in general and I spent most of my working life as an electrician with benefits. Harley’s new Livewire E-Hog is an impressive first effort but at $30,000 dollars a copy it is a lousy deal compared to E-bikes from other manufacturers. You can easily beat the Livewire in both speed and distance for half the cost but that’s not the Livewire’s major problem.
The Livewire’s problem is industry-wide. Harley and those other guys are trying to duplicate the internal combustion experience with an electric motorcycle and they are burning a lot of joules doing it. Electric motorcycles are not direct IC replacements and their riders understand this.
For motorcycles, battery technology today is not compact enough and recharges too slowly for a rider with no fixed destination in mind. Until manufacturers can agree on a standard-sized, easily swappable battery pack we are stuck waiting for the bike. The first battery operated power tools were like this: you had to plug the whole tool in and wait. No work could be done until the thing was charged.
With standard-sized batteries (within a product line) cordless power tools have nearly supplanted the old, outlet-bound stuff. It takes only a second to swap in a new battery and you are back on the job doing whatever it is that you do. No one has range anxiety because there’s always a hot battery in the charger ready to use. Tesla is working on speeding up charge wait times by swapping the huge battery in their cars and it only takes a few minutes. When an electric vehicle can pull up to a gas station and swap in a charged battery as fast as I can change my power drill battery they will have become viable transportation.
The reality is, manufacturers are not going to standardize battery sizes. The best we can hope for is a battery changeable along the lines of the power tool situation: each battery is specific to the brand. Even that will not happen soon and maybe if you move the goal posts it doesn’t need to happen for the majority of users.
That leaves commuting back and forth to work as the ideal use for an electric motorcycle. You can have a charging source at both ends of the ride and you will be busy working or puttering about the house while the bike charges so there’s no down time. Give up on the idea of e-bikes matching IC bikes in all instances. The highest and best use of electric motorcycles is a situation where you have time to kill between rides.
I know The Motor Company is not going to listen to me, but here goes: Harley, stop making expensive, high performance electric motorcycles. I’ve seen your lighter weight electric bikes and they are so far removed from the traditional Harley-Davidson customer they might as well be electric Buells.
Harley’s marketing for as long as I can remember has been based on heritage. Timeless styling and traditional products have served you well. For a successful E-bike look to your past and the Topper scooter; it’s the ideal commuter platform to modernize (not too much) and electrify. The boxy rear section can hold a huge battery bank without looking like it’s holding a huge battery bank. It’s a classic form that simply drips Harley-Davidson heritage and the youth of America will go gaga over the styling. Keep the thing below $4000 so a normal person can afford one. You’ll have to outsource most of the drivetrain components to keep the price reasonable but you can slap the parts together in an old V-Rod factory and call it made in the USA!
Did you know that Ewan and Charlie are riding “Long Way Up” from Ushuaia to Los Angeles?
With a support crew.
End of comment.
Joe -after reading that I think you need to get out more . Your spending way too much time in the isolation of the ranch, breathing in cement dust. Way too much cement dust.
Actually, I think you came up with a good idea and good comments. Harley does have an Oldsmobile problem, their buyers are aging out.
“…they might as well be electric Buells…”
Ouch! Insightful and right on target.
The problem of swapping batteries is that some customers will have abused their $9,000 battery pack (value near $0) for a nice one.
Huuummm,,, an electrified Topper.
Novel idea.
I have two Toppers. One a runner with a title. Another in waiting. Swapping it’s 165cc two smoker to electric could be a nice project.
Oddly enough almost no one knows what a Topper is. I wonder if the Livewire will end the same way.
With all the protection devices built in I’m not sure you can abuse a battery pack. The cost of a swapped battery would have to include a percentage of bad cells that need fixing.
Like when you exchange your ratty 20# propane tank for a nice painted one at the local 24-7 store.
FF, you must be the only person in the world with 2 Toppers.
Joe,
Yeah,,, most people are smart enough to stop at one. I have no self control.
The Topper was my first Harley, at about 12 years old. We use to run it around the hood and on the Mississippi River gravel roads. I used to burry the needle on the 60 mph speedo flying down those gravel roads. At 12 years old that was the biggest fun a kid could ask for.
The Topper got sent away when a brother ran it into a neighbors camper.
When I finally got a garage worthy of a Topper I searched the web and ended up with the non runner. While searching eBay for parts I ran across another with title and running. Instant gratification!
I picked it up in Wisconsin, got home that cold winter night, unloaded it out of the van, pulled the pull starter rope, hit the night air and was 12 years old again.
Buried the needle too.