Well, you can't carry 10 tons of gravel in your Tourpack, so your Harley is useless for that. Can't carry four people on a Softail, can't outrun a Z06 Corvette with a Road King. Every motor vehicle has a purpose, and long distance riding is not the purpose of an electric motorcycle.

Nobody is saying that any electric motorcycle is for anything other than relatively short distance commuting, or short distance fun.

And it's a lot less expensive "toy" than a LiveWire.

 

I guess that's why there's lots of different toys for lots of different people with lots of different interests. But personally, those very limited capabilities will never find a parking space in my garage. And based on early specs, the LiveWire will have even less capabilities and cost 1.5x - 3x more than better technology that's already on the market.

Sorry, but I just don't get it. Obviously I'm not the target audience.

 

The livewire and every other (big) e-bike is not intended to justify anything. It is not intended to replace anything (current). It is not ANYTHING except what IT IS!!!!

What it is, is a glimpse at the future. Storm and stammer and cuss all you want, but the internal combustion age is drawing to a close. No, not anytime soon. Not for at least another generation, and not even entirely then! It is closing though. Any analogy that can be made today based on today's technology is very simply, irrelevant! Consider that motorcycles have been a viable means of transportation for approx. 120 years, since about 1900. The "golden age" of motorcycles when true performance entered the the everyday biking scene was the 1960's & 70's! Virtually every development in engine and chassis design was decades old by that time, but it was only then that it became practical - and in demand - enough to warrant widespread production. As well, manufacturing processes were making that production more viable as well. Soon after that we reached the peak of purely mechanical development from an economically viable perspective. Electronics began entering the scene to improve functions with less costs. When H-D went to all EFI and ditched carburetors, there was plenty of the old guard denouncing it as well. The new Triumph Bonnevilles were designed with EFI and faux carburetors to appeal to those looking for 70's nostalgia! Various brands sell liquid cooled bikes - with totally nonfunctional mock cooling fins on the cylinders. All the while, technology just keeps advancing and making all those peak developments of the 20th century nothing but historical curiosities. Today, no production internal combustion engine can meet modern standards based on 1900 tech. Just ain't possible. The Motorcycle Cannonball does not exist because it can compete with ANY other mode of traversing the continent. Even horses are generally more reliable than 100-year-old motorcycles, even if not (quite) as quick. Man, those inline fours were the cat's *** in 1916 though!

Any comparison that can be made based on everything we possibly know as fact today, very simply cannot be applied to what a LiveWire or its equivalent might be in 2040, 2050 or 2080. If you're interested in buying an e-bike, by all means, compare offerings and analyze values based on what YOU want. If like most of us, you have absolutely no intention of ever owning one, just stop trying to abort this baby. Let it grow up and succeed or fail on its own merits, maybe it'll be its son or grandson that becomes the next breakthrough. If anyone here truly knows what's going to happen in the future, please PM me. I'd like to know next weeks lotto numbers.

As one last thought, consider that there are many production bikes that are both cheaper AND better performing than a production Harley, yet we still buy them.

 

Hmmmm. "Everything" is nothing more that "what it is". An electric motorcycle gets no more or less "standing" simply because its new technology. It has to meet the same tests of market value and useability as any other product. Of course, electric vehicles will ultimately replace ICE engines. I don't think anyone disputes that. But the current state of technology will be nothing more than dust collectors and money losers for both the companies selling these e-bikes and the people buying them, if they don't effectively meet the market's needs and wants.

I have yet to hear someone explain to me what the market "need" or "want" is for an electric bike that is inferior in almost every measurement when compared to the existing motorcycle technology. Until a new technology can offer "advantages" in performance, cost or both, it will remain a niche product that will have stupendous depreciation as newer products quickly come to market. Many companies will come and go since these early products will likely be major financial losers. Just like early ICE motorcycle and car companies went out of business. And the buyers of these earlier products will be left with lovely garage ornaments of little use to anyone in the future.

 

Almost everything you said is true. The ironic part is that the market will endure in spite of it. Whether Harley-Davidson continues to have a place in that market or not is unknown. Its entry, whether today or at some future point was inevitable though and whenever they did it, they were sure to charge a premium price and if true to history, a product below the capabilities of some other brands - though not necessarily "competition" brands That analogy is like comparing the Mercedes in the repair bill pictured somewhere above, to a Prius.

That last sentence though. My apologies but I think you're missing the boat entirely on that one. Those Henderson inline fours I mentioned previously. In the end, they faded away pretty quick. I doubt anyone would be disappointed to find one left behind as part of an assortment of trash in the corner of the garage of a newly purchased house though.

 

 

 

On the other Zero models they come with built in Level I charger. Everything I'm reading on the SR-F is that it comes with a 3KW Level II charger, and their is a higher wattage 6KW Level II charger available on the premium model there also is a 6KW Charge Tank which can give 12kw of charging on the premium bike. So I think you can get the extra battery capacity and 3KW charging ont he standard, 6KW charging on the premium and you can get the exended battery tank. or you can get the standard battery and an additional 6KW charging giving you 9KW on the standard and 12KW on the premium model.

https://www.motorcycle.com/manufactu...irst-ride.html

 

That answers the question on the faster charger.

 

Just stop wrestling with the troll...all that happens is you get muddy and the troll loves it.