Harley-Davidson LiveWire [w/video]

Filed under: Videos, Motorcycle, Design/Style, Electric, First Ride

Days before Harley-Davidson shocked the world with news that after 111 years of building increasingly larger, gas-powered V-twins, it was going all Tesla with its plug-in electric LiveWire, I had the chance to ride it.

The country’s largest and most iconic motorcycle maker had set up shop on a remote strip of SoCal asphalt, a pair of top-secret LiveWires at the ready. The trailer that had carried them was unmarked, and with the exception of two Harley employees, no one was around to notice that the motorcycle silently blazing down the runway was from Milwaukee’s finest. If it weren’t for the black-and-orange color scheme or bar-and-shield badge, the LiveWIre’s provenance would be a wild guess. It’s just that different from the cruisers Harley has cranked out for decades.

Gone is the laid-back riding position, along with the bigger-is-better profile and long-haul-touring floorboards. In their place: a compact machine with an aggressive, forward-leaning stance and sporty centered foot pegs. Even the trellis frame is more Ducati than hog, hiding, as it does, a stack of lithium ion batteries instead of proudly showcasing a hulking, 103-cubic-inch V-twin. There is no gas tank. No exhaust. Just a bobbed tail suspended on a monoshock above a rear tire driven with a belt instead of a chain.

The LiveWire ignition is keyless and, like most Harleys, works in combination with a fob, but that’s where the similarities end. Turning it on is a matter of flipping a switch on the right grip – an act that isn’t greeted with the nearly trademarked, and now electronically programmed, potato-potato-potato exhaust note. Instead, there is a low-grade hum as an oil pump kicks in to cool the 74-horsepower electric motor bolted to its belly and a second pump that cools its ECU.

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Harley-Davidson LiveWire [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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