![\"\"](\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/WildConjectureLiveWire-600.jpg\")
I don\u2019t want to hurt anyone\u2019s 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\u2019t like the silence. They don\u2019t care. Bemoan the new kids all you want but we are dead-generation walking and the future always bats last.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s about time.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s no need for advancements in battery technology. E-motorcycles work right now, man.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t have the same history or values that we have and they\u2019d be a pretty sorry generation if they couldn\u2019t come up with their own idea of fun.<\/p>\n
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).\u00a0 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\u2019s fairly easy to do and adds a few miles to the range.<\/p>\n
The rear suspension resembles Yamaha\u2019s 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\u2019t see any way for the front wheel to charge the battery under braking.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Livewire is an even bigger leap of faith for H-D than their ADV bike (which breaks no new ground) and I\u2019m 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\u2019ll have to be less expensive and carry less emotional baggage than Harley\u2019s oil burners to do it.<\/p>\n
You can read about our other Dream Bikes here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don\u2019t want to hurt anyone\u2019s 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\u2019t like the silence. They don\u2019t care. Bemoan the new kids all you want but we are dead-generation walking and the future always bats last. … Continue reading “Wild Conjecture: The Harley-Davidson Livewire”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,103,66],"tags":[109,108,107],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electric-motorcycles","category-harley-davidson","category-joe-gresh","tag-ebike","tag-harley","tag-livewire"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2759,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions\/2759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}