Join us for our first ride on the first electric Harley, the LiveWire
Cars
Notification on
Notification off
Transcript
[MUSIC]
At a quick glance you might think that this is just a normal motorcycle.
But look closer and you'll see that it's actually, something special.
This is the Harley-Davidson LiveWire, the company's first electric motorcycle, This thing that's going to drag harley into the future I first wrote the prototype of this five years ago and today we find out whether the production bike was worth the wait.
Alright so i've been writing the [UNKNOWN] bike for [UNKNOWN] and I gotta say I'm pretty impressed I've been lucky to ride a lot of EVEs over the years and majority of them has felt.
A little bit rough around the edges, but this thing is remarkably Polish everything from the Thrall response which is perfect to the overall finish which is remarkably good.
Of course you'd expect to be remarkably good given despite cost just about 30,000 Dollars yes it is very expensive but then Harley Davidson is a premium brand so you would expect to pay a premium what do you get for that premium well you get a very well built electric motorcycle, you get insurance as mentioned up front and rear with adaptive compression and rebound big but it's important to have friends who is nice rubber brakes and frankly just a lot of nights harder than all looks and feels.
[UNKNOWN] the bike I think looks very good.
And the most important thing of establishing this bike to me is that this is unabashedly electric bike.
This doesn't look anything like any other Harley Davidson on the road or frankly any other motorcycle on the road.
There isn't like a fake carburetor hanging off the side.
There's no fake exhaust, no big cooling veins or anything like that.
But this thing is trying to pose as if it were a gasoline motorcycle.
This thing is electric.
You can see the electric motor hanging right off the bottom.
That doesn't look like anything else in the road.
And I get full credit how it is for not trying to make this thing look like a bad boy or Any other cruiser or anything like that this thing is distinctive, and I genuinely like the way it looks good.
It's more of a sport bike model than a traditional Harley and that my feet are up behind kind of behind me.
But, the handlebar is also quite high.
So, I'm sitting more or less upright.
So, it's kind of a mix between your traditional Harley stand And more of a sporty ride, but ultimately it's quite comfortable, I could do a lot of miles on this thing, how many miles?
Well, that may be the [UNKNOWN], people.
You're gonna look at about 140 miles of range on this bike, but that's if you're riding over speed, the city and town, that kinda thing.
Get up on the highway You're gonna probably see less than 100.
So you initially be going very far on that charge but the good news is if this is one of the few motorcycles that supports DC fast charging.
So, in an hour you can get a full charge if you have a level 3 charger or you can get about 80% in just 40 minutes.
So that's pretty good.
You can even see running into make us wait till the break probably could pick up 20 30 miles in that time, which is not too bad.
But again, this is not gonna be a bike but you're probably going to want to ride coast to coast.
More of a Sunday cruise on some favorite roads down the coffee shop, turn some heads that get some people asking what the heck is that thing?
That's really what this bike is all about.
And for that, I think it's really really good especially in town.
This thing's got so much torque down low, because square for one light to the next.
last five people, just have a lot of fun without having to go into triple digit speeds.
And of course I can't let you go without talking about the sound of the,
This thing.
For many, the allure of a Harley Davidson begins with a sound, and if that's you, you're probably gonna have a bit of a hard time getting your head around this, and I don't blame you one bit.
I've a number of motorcycles over the years, and I've loved the sound of them all, but I've also learned to love the peace of riding in the [UNKNOWN] whether I'm cruising or corner carving, less noise for me means less stress.
And a greater ride.
That said, the Livewire isn't totally solid, it lets off a distinctive whine from its beveled gears that Harley has clearly tuned carefully.
It doesn't sound unlike all the other EVs on the market, but where they seem to echo that noise from hollow fairings and everywhere else, here that sound is far more pure.
And for me, Far more engaging, I love it.
And what about the rest of the bike, was it worth the wait?
Honestly I'm not sure what took Harley-Davidson five years to build this thing.
But to be fair, I'm not sure the market was ready for something like this five years ago.
Honestly I'm not sure the market is ready for something like this, today.
The big question is whether the company's dealerships can fairly represent this thing and truly lure in the very different kind of buyer who's gonna be interested in something like this over a Sportster, or a Road King, or whatever else.
I sincerely hope so because the bike is great.
EVEs are the future and I'm really glad to see such a historic brand.
Getting with the program.
[MUSIC]
[BLANK_AUDIO]