Imagine a Harley that doesn’t vibrate. No bark through the straight pipes when you push the starter button. No nothing through the pipes – which aren’t there anymore.
There is no starter button.
Just an On/Off switch.
No shifter, either. Because no gears.
All that remains is the “Harley” name on the tank – which isn’t one because it will never be used to store any gas. Might as well paint it on the side of your toaster.
Welcome to the 2019 LiveWire – Harley’s first electric motorcycle. The first of a whole line of them – intended to be ready by 2025.
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They’re betting the future of the company on it.
If you have any Harley stock, better unload it.
Quickly.
Because an electric Harley is as silly as juice-bar speakeasy. It runs counter to the point.
People buy motorcycles – and especially Harley motorcycles – because they make that sound.
And also because of the smells – of gas and oil – which attend those sounds. Without which you’ve got what amounts to alcohol-free beer.
Or a girlfriend who won’t sleep with you.
There is no engineering reason for the distinctive – and patented – potato-potato-potato sound which for decades has defined the presence of a Harley before you even see the Harley.
And it is the heart and soul of a Harley.
That sound was actually the result of a design flaw inherent in the early versions of the big V-twins – but became iconic. It is why that sound has been deliberately perpetuated – built in – as the V-twin engine was redesigned and updated over the years.
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The company even went so far as to sue other bike manufacturers who built their bikes to emulate the rowdy sound of a Hog (and then sold their knock-off Hogs for a lot less).
What is a Harley without that sound? Think of Arnold without his muscles – or his accent.
And think about everything else that’s not longer there. Not just the things which make a Harley, but which make a motorcycle.
This thing goes on two wheels. That is the only thing it has in common with motorcycles. It is, fundamentally, a Moped – but lacking even the Moped’s internal combustion burble at idle. The operating principles are essentially identical.
One does not ride this bike; one is carried along for the ride.
You get on, turn it on – and that’s pretty much it. There’s nothing for your left hand to do except grip the bar, there being no clutch. Your legs – your feet – have even less to do than in an automatic-equipped car.
No gears to shift, remember. An electric bike has no transmission, no speeds or gears. The only thing you do on this “bike” that you’d do on a real one is rotate the throttle to increase speed.
