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Harley-Davidson Unveils Their First Electric Motorcycle

Posted by samzenpus on from the easy-electric-rider dept.

Major Blud writes Harley-Davidson has unveiled their first electric motorcycle called "Project LiveWire." The bike is currently not for sale and detailed specifications are scarce. Harley plans on taking it on a demonstration tour of the U.S. for the next year to gather customer feedback. "The new LiveWire won’t make the distinctive 'potato-potato-potato' chug that Harley once tried to patent. Its engine is silent, and the turbine-like hum comes from the meshing of gears. But electric motors do provide better handling and rapid acceleration — with the electric Harley able to go from 0 to 60 mph in four seconds. LiveWire’s design places the engine at the bottom of the bike."

21 of 345 comments (clear)

  1. Nice looking bike... by RoknrolZombie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Nice looking bike, but I wonder if they're going to offer something more cruiser-like. I'm certainly not opposed to a "greener" ride, but I'd look a damned fool on one of those.

    1. Re:Nice looking bike... by oic0 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just take off the pirate outfit and put on a full face helmet and proper motorcycle safety gear. It will look natural I promise. ;)

    2. Re:Nice looking bike... by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 5, Funny

      Loud pipes are compensation for 75 year old technology

      Incorrect. "Loud pipes" are compensation for a small penis.

    3. Re:Nice looking bike... by Cryacin · · Score: 5, Funny

      You don't get it. The girl in back resonates at exactly 80mph. She really hums..

      Back of the T-Shirt. "If you can read this, my bitch fell off"

      --
      Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    4. Re:Nice looking bike... by _merlin · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My uncle had been riding a white BMW for decades, and one day he decided to paint it black. After that he noticed that people weren't keeping out of his way the way they used to. It may have been because people associate white BMW bikes with cops (NSW police used them for years before switching to Yamaha) and normally don't give a fuck about motorcyclists, or it could just be that a white bike is easier to spot.

    5. Re:Nice looking bike... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I ride bikes and I've always seen this attitude as more of an excuse to ride an anti-socially loud vehicle more than anything else. I'm not sure how blowing a lot of extra noise out behind you is supposed to help the cars in front of you (who so like to pull out of side roads) notice you, with their windows shut, AC blasting, and perhaps the Stereo on.

      Just ride defensively and stop giving politicians more reasons to legislate motorcyclists

    6. Re:Nice looking bike... by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Loud pipes don't make a difference, riding defensively and not putting yourself in bad positions relative to other traffic is what makes a difference. Visibility also makes a big difference. Consider that most cars these days are very thoroughly sound-proofed, and most people have their radios up loud enough to be heard clearly from outside the car. They routinely fail to notice emergency vehicles until they're literally right in front of them. They probably won't notice the fart can on your bike.

      My previous bike was a 1996 Suzuki Bandit 600. It had a completely straight-through "muffler" with all the wadding blown out from years of (ab)use. That thing was loud enough to wake the dead and cause cows to stampede when I rode by. It also spat fire when hitting the limiter and burbled gloriously under engine braking. In short, it was a fantastically antisocial mode of transport. I had a number of close calls while riding it, which I attribute partly to my inexperience, and partly to the fact that it was very dark green, almost black.

      My current bike is almost completely opposite. It's a bright orange Yamaha XT660X with stock pipes, and in the two years I've ridden it, I have only had one "close" call. It was really that close at all, just some guy merging closely in front of me. All I had to do was close the throttle and beep the horn. We waved 'hi' to each other as I passed him, he did look a bit sheepish, but I guess he was chatting with his passengers, and I might have been in his blind spot.

      And I promise you, I ride every bit as hard on my new bike as I did on my old one. I'm just a lot more conscious about making myself visible and not putting myself in dangerous positions in relation to cars. Exhaust noise doesn't even factor into it.

      --
      Eat the rich.
    7. Re:Nice looking bike... by Rei · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Here's my issue with the whole loud pipes thing. Take out a dB meter, pick an arbitrary cutoff, find a nice spot out in the open, and start your motorcycle. Now walk in front of it until you hit your target dB level, then walk around it maintaining the dB level and mapping out the distance you are from the motorcycle.

      You'll find that loud pipes give you a quadrant behind the bike that's extremely noisy, noisy for a far longer distance than in other directions. But is that really the direction you want to be throwing off noise? Is that really the most likely direction for an accident to a motorcycle to come from? I really doubt it.

      And let's be honest, are audio cues really the best cues? When people are driving along, they're not "listening for other vehicles", they're *looking* for them. If you really want to increase people's awareness of your bike, put little flashing lights or the like on them. But that'd "look gay" or something, right? It feels better to pick a "manly" way that makes you feel better about safety than something would have a lot more effect at getting drivers' attention, doesn't it? I'm not saying that sound doesn't play a role, but it mainly plays a role at the pedestrian level; pedestrians rely on sound cues far more than drivers.

      My last problem is, picture what things would be like if everyone started driving their cars around with their hand on the horn at all times because "Constant honking saves lives!" Do you really have the right to create noise pollution so that you can get a greater feeling of safety for a means of travel that you yourself elected to take part in, knowing the risks? Does everyone else have to endure your pollution of the commons for your enjoyment? Do I have the right to jet-ski in a drinking water reservoir or offroad a caterpillar in a national park? The commons is just that - common. Everybody owns it and has a stake in it. Meaning you don't get unlimited access to dump into it without the consent of others, regardless of your intentions.

      --
      Give a boy a gun and you arm him for a day. Teach him how to make a gun, and the whole metaphor breaks down.
    8. Re:Nice looking bike... by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 4, Informative

      You'll find that loud pipes give you a quadrant behind the bike that's extremely noisy, noisy for a far longer distance than in other directions.

      Also, due to the way sound dissipates, I'd argue that having a loud motorcycle does more to impair the motorcycle driver's hearing of his/her surroundings than it does to alert other drivers to the presence of a motorcycle.

      --
      They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
  2. A sure failure by preaction · · Score: 4, Informative

    Harley owners want to be noticed, and without the 120 decibel roar, we won't be paying enough attention to them.

  3. Re:Dangerous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Bikes aren't dangerous ... bimbos in SUVs are dangerous. Cell phone drivers are dangerous. Bikes are devices. People are the problem.

  4. Imagine a bike that only needs tires and brakes by Marrow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The sound and the fury are great; there is no denying that. But I would be very interested in an electric bike that just runs. No oil, no fuel, no maintenance. Just a ultra-reliable ride.

  5. Re:Dangerous by mellon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh, are you one of those people who thinks a glass muffler gets you noticed and keeps you safe? More likely startles some poor minivan driver into swerving into your path. If you want to stay safe, the way to do it is to pay attention. Keeping the bike quiet means you'll hear Mr. Minivan coming. See and avoid, man. See and avoid.

  6. Re:Dangerous by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

    People are the problem.

    In particular, the people that ride bikes.

    Don't be so mean. The world has enough of a donor-organ shortage as it is, without you going and discouraging nice, healthy, young specimens from doing things that not infrequently result in massive cranial trauma that leaves much of the rest of the body so usefully intact...

  7. Re:What? by Richy_T · · Score: 5, Funny

    Firmware upgrade

  8. So hang on, by Cryacin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Harley Davidson is rebranding itself as Hardley Audible?

    --
    Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    1. Re:So hang on, by Will.Woodhull · · Score: 4, Funny

      I understand that they are also developing a graphene playing card / titanium clothespin module that can be attached to the front fork for that awesome 1950s Schwinn Beach Cruiser buzz.

      --
      Will
    2. Re:So hang on, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Harley Davidson is rebranding itself as Hardley Audible?

      The real question is how they're going to make an electric motor leak oil?

    3. Re:So hang on, by wideglide · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Depends ... I prefer my 1982 H-D Wide Glide Shovelhead over my 1939 BMW R71 ... both are not really reliable but at least the old shovel can almost be used on a regular base. The BMW is a different beast ... And regarding the $$$ for the H-D - I bought it new in '82 when everybody was talking about H-D shutting down. Rode her around the mediterranean in '82 and up to the north cape in '83 - over 330'000 km with 2 rebuilds. The price was steep even then but I wanted it and I worked 2 shifts for 1 1/2 year to get the cash together. The electro bike looks sharp, I'd love to test ride one of these. And with a range of around 200 km I could live. Not doing long tours anymore ... just some small roads on a clear evening or saturday / sunday. No traffic, scenery is beatiful and this will burn the days issues and stress away. Bikes are like women - they come in all flavours. To each his own ...

      --
      The sum of intelligence on a planet is constant. Nowadays we have more people. When classic goes away, so do I. Copy
    4. Re:So hang on, by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Back in the early days, Harley-Davidson used to make bikes known as "silent grey fellows". A stock modern Harley is actually surprisingly quiet, while still having that characteristic lumpy idle that has become their trademark.

      They only become unbearably loud when dumbass idiots put SCREAMIN' EAGLE pipes on their bikes because LOUD PIPES SAVE LIVES and CHOPPER CHOPPER CHOPPER CHOPPER, 'MURICA!

      --
      Eat the rich.
  9. Re:Dangerous by Harlequin80 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes and no.

    While bikes are more dangerous than cars you can avoid more accidents on them then if you are in a car.

    What most bike riders don't like to acknowledge is that, as much as we would love to blame the volvo driver, we tend to kill ourselves by ourselves.

    Have a look at the statistics. A huge percentage of fatal motorcycle accidents are single vehicle. It comes from the fact that you can but an absolute weapon of a vehicle for essentially pocket change. Then most of us ride for fun at the weekend so our total number of hours driving a bike are relatively low, and as such so is our skill levels.

    My bike will do 120kph in 1st gear and get there unbelievably quickly, then the only thing that caps its speed as an electronic limiter at 300kph..... Way faster than this electric harley. There are so few cars that can even come close and none of them are affordable.

    If we weren't out having fun on our super awesome toys tearing up and down the local mountain the fatality rate would be a hell of a lot lower.