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Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

chicagotribune.com

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Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#21

Post by FD3SA »

Good luck to them. They'll have some pretty tough competition from Mission Motorcycles, Brammo, Yamaha, KTM and countless others.

Electric motorcycles are undoubtedly the future, but bikes are totally different vehicles than cars. They have very different use cases (recreation vs. utility), and riding on public roads comes with outrageous risks. I've been riding since my teens, and finally sold my road bike in order to preserve my life. I only do track days and regional racing now to get my riding fix.

Electric bikes will have an advantage in areas that gas bikes are weak, such as noise and emissions. For the road, battery technology needs to get much cheaper to compete with gas. In terms of performance, nothing beats an electric drivetrain. The only issue is with the massive weight of the current gen battery packs.

KTM electric dirt bike:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-AzDZt1IcM

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#22

Post by abruzzi »

JPKab wrote: post #3
TheSageMage wrote: post #2

Their reasoning seems to be gimmickry. I've read several excerpts that state that they are considering this because the "young crowd is demanding eco-friendly vehicles". This is a terrible reason to just build an electric vehicle. I think they need to take a cue from Tesla and make it all about the neat features that Electric vehicles can provide, such as quicker acceleration, no transmission, etc. Just my 2 cents an…

Yep. The whole "no transmission" thing really is a huge lure on a motorcycle. There's a huge segment of the population that doesn't even know how to use a manual transmission in a car, let alone on a motorcycle.

However in the USA there have been ongoing attempts to sell automatic transmission motorcycles (Honda being the strongest proponent, but others too including Aprilia) All of these attempts have seem very limited success. If I had to guess I would say it is because the MC market in the US is an enthusiast market. There are very limited numbers of people that buy a motorcycle to commute. Enthusiasts are like linux users. They not only don't care that it is more complicated, they prefer the complication and the flexibility it provides. So IMO, for automatic (or in the electric case, no transmission) to become a selling point, you have to start selling to a different group of people, or you have to show some material benefit over the status quo (like for instance on a race bike no shifts means no momentary loss of power during shifts. However that isn't Harley's field.)

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#23

Post by elf25 »

sigzero wrote: post #17
drcube wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "loud pipes save lives" excuse is a load of horse hockey, and everybody knows it.

Loud pipes save lives! Despite what you think in your ignorance. The AMA and thousands of motorcycle riders believe they do. http://motorcyclesafetynews.com/?p=878

re>"thousands of motorcycle riders believe" means nothing. Idiots can believe anything they want and it changes no facts of science.

Most of the sound is projected behind the bike where it has little effect of warning anyone in advance. Meanwhile, I'm buttoned up in my sound-deadened auto with the windows rolled up, A/C blasting and set to "Ice Cubes" and the iPod jacked into the in-dash blowing some Sammy out of four or more 6x9's - All I hear is the thud as I bounce over your bike. source: I rode for 6 years.

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#24

Post by karldanninger »

sigzero wrote: post #17
drcube wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "loud pipes save lives" excuse is a load of horse hockey, and everybody knows it.

Loud pipes save lives! Despite what you think in your ignorance. The AMA and thousands of motorcycle riders believe they do. http://motorcyclesafetynews.com/?p=878

Thank you.

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#25

Post by sk5t »

sigzero wrote: post #17
drcube wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "loud pipes save lives" excuse is a load of horse hockey, and everybody knows it.

Loud pipes save lives! Despite what you think in your ignorance. The AMA and thousands of motorcycle riders believe they do. http://motorcyclesafetynews.com/?p=878

The linked article in no way supports the idea that loud pipes save lives.

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#26

Post by chadgeidel »

TheSageMage wrote: post #2

Their reasoning seems to be gimmickry. I've read several excerpts that state that they are considering this because the "young crowd is demanding eco-friendly vehicles". This is a terrible reason to just build an electric vehicle. I think they need to take a cue from Tesla and make it all about the neat features that Electric vehicles can provide, such as quicker acceleration, no transmission, etc. Just my 2 cents an…

I think the Cycle World interview/article was better. http://www.cycleworld.com/2014/06/19/harley-davidson-livewir...

IMHO - the styling is really where this wins. They seem to be shooting for a different sound than a traditional electric bike, but I'm not hearing it - perhaps it sounds better "in person". Quicker acceleration is not as large an issue as you might think as motorcycles already accelerate quite quickly (even 600-class bikes require careful throttle modulation to prevent wheelspin).

There aren't a lot of competitors in this space (Zero, Brammo), so it's a good time for H-D to throw their hat into the ring.

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#27

Post by pyoung »

sigzero wrote: post #15
x0054 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you really want someone who could not be bothered to learn how to shift on a normal bike to be zooming around at 120mph+ on an electric super-bike? Besides, they already have sport scouters for that.

Great point and my answer would be "no, keep them off motorcycles period."

I don't know, I think I would rather have these people on motorcycles than be behind the wheel of a 2 ton SUV. As someone who regularly walks and rides bicycles (and I have a motorcycle license but am reluctant to use it for safety reasons), I would much prefer that we keep the idiots of the world out of the big cars and trucks and put them onto smaller, less dangerous (to others) vehicles.

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#28

Post by mikestew »

sigzero wrote: post #17
drcube wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "loud pipes save lives" excuse is a load of horse hockey, and everybody knows it.

Loud pipes save lives! Despite what you think in your ignorance. The AMA and thousands of motorcycle riders believe they do. http://motorcyclesafetynews.com/?p=878

Did you even read the article in that link? The AMA believes no such thing, quite the opposite.

Saying that "thousands believe" does not make for a strong argument regardless. Thousands of people believe all kinds of things we collectively know aren't true (flat earth, didn't land on the moon, take your pick). I just lump loud pipers right in there with the flat earthers and anti-vaxers: people that believe what they want to believe regardless of the facts. You want to make a bunch of noise with your toy? Have at it, but don't try to pass it off as a safety feature.

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#29

Post by mwfunk »

sigzero wrote: post #16
pasbesoin wrote: post #4

> sounds like a jet engine turbine Well, so much for the hope it might quiet down the disruption from at least some Harley riders. Where I live, the noise from them is simply awful. I wish the noise ordinances would be enforced against them. Very selfish people, who inflict that upon the neighborhoods they ride through. Plenty of other bikes perform just fine while keeping noise to tolerable levels.

Loud pipes save lives!

If it's so inherently dangerous to ride a Harley that their loudness is required in order to achieve an acceptable level of safety, then no one should be riding them, period.

If non-Harley motorcycles with reasonable noise levels are insufficiently safe because they're so quiet, then no one should be riding motorcycles at all.

I don't agree with either of these perspectives, but whenever anyone makes the "loud pipes save lives" argument, this is what they are saying. It might look good on a bumper sticker but it doesn't make sense. It's no different than suggesting that all pedestrians walk around screaming gibberish as loudly as possible at all times, to reduce their chances of getting hit by bicycles.

If I really believed that I needed to ride a Harley in order to ride safely, I would stop riding altogether. It's not worth annoying hundreds of people every single day just to indulge myself in this one thing. I would find a different hobby.

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#30

Post by jeroen »

chromenogethome wrote: post #20

An electric motorcycle is the complete opposite of what Harley sells and how it succeeds. Interesting that a company that's succeeded by selling... old technology is attempting to innovate again. The V-Rod(attempt at innovation) was met meekly. Buell, where they actually innovated, shut down a few years ago. Harley Riders don't want innovation and change. They want noise and an image. The 'young crowd' wants cheap bi…

Erik Buell (who did the innovating at Buell) continues his work at EBR: http://www.erikbuellracing.com
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