sweasel.com

Geeze, that wasn’t the size bike I imagined you peddling to work.
That must be a bear when you’re out of gas. I’ve heard of big mopeds, but those Brits really build big ones! Not like those sexy little Eyetie ones at all!

Are the peddles on yours under the frame, where’s the crank on this one above? I can’t find it.

😛

Harley has a whole team working on how to make their electric bike leak oil.

As a recovering bike-aholic, I generally stay away from motorcycle news, but for you, my internet besties, I took a look at the LiveWire. Fortunately it did not stir me.

It weighs some 550 pounds (250 kilograms) ready to ride. This is not too bad for a big bike; perhaps lighter than many. As for range, according to Harley Davidson “… the LiveWire™ gives you the agility to whip through the city streets—from 98 miles / 158 km* per charge.”

The asterisk advises us, “ *Riding range estimates provided following the WMTC 134/2014 Annex VII Appendix 3.3 are based on expected performance of a fully-charged battery when operated under specific conditions. Actual range will vary depending on riding habits, ambient weather and equipment conditions. Range as shown is with maximum power and max and minimum regeneration selected.”

If you didn’t read all that and skipped over it, glassy-eyed, that all translates to “JUST KIDDING about a whole 98 miles of range.“

The price is a cool $30,000 USD which puts in roughly the upper third of Harley prices, but is fairly steep for most of the motorcycle market .

When I was a rider, there were essentially three variations of justification for motorcycling.

First is commuting, which is hard to argue for in the States. Gasoline, car, and tax costs aren’t high enough to make a bike commuting anything but a nice-day thing. Even if you throw in city traffic and parking costs, it’s rarely a serious option.

The second is weekend sport riding where you’ll leave the suburbs early in the morning on a Saturday or Sunday and scoot into the mountains for some cafe to cafe canyon carving. The 100 mile range (assuming it’s real) is barely enough as you’ll probably burn 25 miles of your range each way in transit to and from the twisties. The leaves you perhaps an hour or an hour and a half of play range.

Third is sport touring, which is the tradition territory of big Harleys. 100 miles means you have 2 hours of ride between breakfast and an obviously leisurely lunch while you wait in line with the Teslas et al for a charger, and then two more hours in the afternoon before you find a Bed and Breakfast (with a charger). It’s also worth noting that the 100 mile range is for a bare (no saddle bags and no pillion passenger) bike.

So, in conclusion, I think the role of the Harley LiveWire is basically to show off at bars as a “looky what I bought” toy.

@Some Veg…welp they might want to skip bars in Frog Town, Murphys and Hollister.

Look at the big brain on Some Veg! Putting us some biker knowledge. I bought a H-D Dyna Wide Glide last year as early 50th birthday present. It’s fun, but strictly fair-day tooting around on the weekends. Harley is eating it pretty hard on those livewires – nobody wants one.

The electric “motor”cycle default artificial sound should be

i’ma-DORK-i’ma-DORK-i’ma-DORK

When the annoying guy next store gets up at 0:darkthirty, how the hell is he going to wake you up revving his electric motor?

“WHInnnneee Whinnnneeee Whinnnneee WhINNEEEEEEEEE zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Whinnnneeeeeeee”

And only $30k to show off your virtue that you’re saving the planet by going electric! weeeehaaaaa!

Cuz that lectrical stuff, that’s environmentally neutral and free and such. Yessereeeebobcattail.

“Hey, Paul, I’ll be taking your cash, see, I owe Peter for all those free lunches he gave me.”

I’d want mine to sound like the Jetson’s space car
https://www.soundboard.com/sb/sound/303844