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I rode one at the rally in Wisconsin in September, people from the project there said they plan to release something in a couple of years, they are working on improving the range (which truthfully is pretty good for urban use) and recharge time.
But the bike absolutely pulls your arms off, its a real thrill to ride.
I was talking to a parts employee after purchasing my new 16 CVO Limited this past weekend. He claims the Live Wire Project is Dead. I questioned him on that but he was pretty adamant about the Harley Davidison not doing much more at this time. And yeah I ain't no fool to think since he says this it's the correct information since he works at a Harley Dealership.
For me I would think HD would save on the R&D and just buy out the other who has already laid the foundation. And the first company that comes to mind would be ZERO Motorcycles.
It's all speculation but you'd have to wonder since the Live Wire did get a lot of attention.
I was talking to a parts employee after purchasing my new 16 CVO Limited this past weekend. He claims the Live Wire Project is Dead. I questioned him on that but he was pretty adamant about the Harley Davidison not doing much more at this time. And yeah I ain't no fool to think since he says this it's the correct information since he works at a Harley Dealership. For me I would think HD would save on the R&D and just buy out the other who has already laid the foundation. And the first company that comes to mind would be ZERO Motorcycles.
It's all speculation but you'd have to wonder since the Live Wire did get a lot of attention.
It would be a great business plan for ZERO Motorcycles because they would come back stronger and richer in the end.
Livewire was touring Europe this summer,was in the U.K a couple of months ago,got a lot of coverage.
Word was the moco was waiting for battery technology to catch up and then they'd have another look at
marketing.
Harley doesn't have any idea what their future looks like. it's not in commuter "street" models, it's not in electric..... They should have bought the remnants of EBR at the auction and built a 600CC sport bike. When was the last time you saw a 20 year old in a Harley dealer? The young guys are over at honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha BUYING sport bikes.
Harley doesn't have any idea what their future looks like. it's not in commuter "street" models, it's not in electric..... They should have bought the remnants of EBR at the auction and built a 600CC sport bike. When was the last time you saw a 20 year old in a Harley dealer? The young guys are over at honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha BUYING sport bikes.
Harley should have seen the potential in the Buell brand and put it to better use instead of killing it. They could have made Buell into anything they wanted to.
Harley should have seen the potential in the Buell brand and put it to better use instead of killing it. They could have made Buell into anything they wanted to.
This makes me SMH as well.
Given that younger riders like sportbikes, not cruisers or touring bikes, and they had a world-class sportbike company in the corporate "family", how could they have missed the boat so badly?
Obviously they need to safeguard the H-D brand, and not take anything away from that by bringing out new models that don't fit the mold, but Buell had a Harley motor! An American V-twin sportbike, fercrissakes!
It could have been part of a plan to get younger buyers in the door, expose them to the H-D experience, and move them to cruisers a few years down the road.
I just...dunno what they were thinking when they cut off Buell like cutting off a wart.
DC electric motors are amazingly torquey. If there was a such thing as a battery that was anywhere near as good as gasoline for energy density, we'd all be using them.
But there isn't, so we don't.
The real pressure on battery technology is coming from handheld devices. Those guys have made tremendous strides over the last 25 years perfecting Li-ion batteries. There is every reason to think, however, that the substantial gains in Li-ion performance are behind us, and that further improvements will be increasingly small.
As things stand, Li-ion technology is not that great for motor vehicle applications. The range is just not there. Everyone talks about the market for "commuter" vehicles (good for less than 100 miles per charge), but that market seems elusive. Sales have not matched expectations.
Motorcycles actually present a better platform for electric vehicles than cars: They are lighter and don't have parasitic energy costs like air conditioning.
Anyway, until some new battery chemistry is invented that dramatically changes the available energy density, I don't see these things going anywhere.
7 Surprising Harley-Davidson Products that Are Not Motorcycles
Slideshow: The bar-and-shield logo shows up on far more than motorcycles, some of the company's most unexpected products have nothing to do with riding.
Slideshow: From the troubled AMF years to modern misfires, these bikes earned reputations for reliability issues, questionable engineering, or disappointing performance.
Crazy Bunderbike Build Looks Amazing, But Is It Impossible to Ride?
Slideshow: The Swiss custom shop has taken a Harley Softail and stretched it into something so long and low that it looks closer to a rolling sculpture than a conventional motorcycle.
Engraved Rebellion: Inside Bundnerbike's Glam Rock II
Slideshow: A standard cruiser becomes an intricate metal canvas in the hands of a Swiss custom house known for pushing Harley-Davidson platforms far beyond their factory brief.
Slideshow: Harley-Davidson's challenges aren't abstract; they show up in dropping shipments, shrinking dealer traffic, and strategic decisions that aren't yet translating into growth.
