the LiveWire demo hit my local dealer today so I played a little hooky to go and check them out. There was only about a 30 minute wait to ride one so I signed up and took a demo ride.

That bike is freakin fun! 0-60 in 4 seconds. It slows so easily that I only used the brakes twice on my demo ride. every other stop, I was able to ride up and stop without braking. There are two modes. Range, and Power. I selected the range mode while the other riders in my group picked power. The difference was noticeable as I didn't keep up very well coming off of stops until later in the ride when I was confident enough to dime the throttle.

There are some things that will need to be improved (and I am sure that they will) before they are mass produced. One is the range is currently very limited. 58 miles on range mode and 29 miles on power mode. They can be charged with 110 or 220 so there is some flexibility for getting charged it just takes quite a bit longer with the 110.

Here are a couple of crappy phone pics I took while I was over there.

 

very cool. That is a very nice looking bike.

I have been a hot rodder and motor head my entire life, electric vehicles hold incredible promise. Thier potential is unlimited, the only thing we need is some improvement in battery capacity\mass.

I applaud Harleys attempt at making it work.

 

Sounds like a fun bike to ride around town. Honestly I'm surprised that Harley is going at this alone for numerous reasons not the least of which it would appeal to a very narrow group of riders, and it has none of the typical Harley attributes, you know, the ones that get people to buy Harleys by the truckload? The fact that they are pushing forward on this electrical toy tells you that they have a lot of money in their 'war chest' for R&D.

 

Agreed. Along with a standardization and improvement in charging. The first company to get ahead of that and make a standard charger and quick charging station is going to make some money.

 

Yeah, but as the first and currently only all electric game in town.... they will attract every "green biker" and all the "electric vehicle" crowd....

Not to mention, that if it's that's fun to drive, and reasonably priced... there are many diehard Harley people like myself (I've never seen a need to buy other than Harley) who would buy one just for the fun factor...

 

Bummer I'll be in Seattle next week, missed it by one! Would love to try one of these out. Like others I applaud the effort and hope that it can be brought to fruition in a responsible way for those that would enjoy it.

 

Nope, I'd rather have a water cooled scout lol

 

I smell a lot of . . not a "real Harley" and "skinny jean wearing hipsters" even "rice" etc cliche name calling coming from the prejudicial members soon in this thread.

 

Not even close , the MoCo is sucking hind tit again there's a couple electric bikes out has been for several years.

This one's made locally seen a few around, looks practical , well made, and has decent HP & range per charge. Harley's got a long way to go to get close.....

http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/


http://www.brammo.com/home/
http://lightningmotorcycle.com/

 

I saw the Live Wire at the HD Museum when they cam out. Pretty cool.

Its a little thing compared to my touring bikes, but it looks like fun.