Quote:
For many of us half the enjoyment of riding a bike is the sound of a nice sounding engine, not super loud just pleasing. It seems like Harley understood this with their Livewire electric bike a few years ago, kind of a jet engine whine as I understand it. Wonder if it ever will be put on the market?
Harley Davidson's Livewire project was just a test. They were willing to invest in the R&D for a good electric motorcycle and the reactions while positive fell on their ass when the most important 2 questions were asked; Would you buy one and how much would you be willing to pay for one? That's where the novelty stopped being interesting to potential buyers. While hybrid cars are status symbols for tree huggers and Teslas are status symbols for the wealthy electric bikes are neither.
The reality is unlike a hybrid an electric motorcycle is plug in only and recharge takes 1-3 hours and that's if you had the infrastructure to plug in to.
In the end Harley let Polaris take the initiative and the electric Victory Empulse which retailed for $20,000 failed brilliantly. When Polaris killed Victory they were offering $10,000 discounts on new Empulses.
2011 Triumph America (10/2011 to 07/2014)
2012 Harley Davidson 1200C Sportster
2014 Harley Davidson Dyna Wide Glide
| 
