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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

#41

Post by ggreer »

ENGNR wrote: post #36
x0054 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, the one main nifty feature I can think of is consolidation of weight and ability to play around with center of gravity on the bike. For instance, on a sport bike you would want to shift the center of mass to the front, to keep the front wheel down and also to help steering. Shifting the center of mass down would also help with flicking the bike in and out of corners. You can also design 2 wheel drive bikes!…

Careful that turning the key doesn't engage the wheel lock. Ouch.

The "safe" way is to pull in the clutch, shift to neutral, and hit the kill switch on the right handlebar. It's actually pretty dangerous to do this. If you slip and let go of the clutch while the engine is off and you're in gear (Not uncommon. Finding neutral is hard on some shifters.), you'll probably lock up the rear tire. When it regains grip, you risk a high-side.

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#42

Post by axaxs »

jobu wrote: post #9
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.

As an owner of a fairly quiet motorcycle, I've actually considered swapping out the mufflers for something noisier just so drivers notice me. I've only been riding a few years, but I already can't count the number of times I've been cut-off or nearly hit by people in cars that simply didn't see me on the motorcycle. The benefit of loud Harley-style pipes is that other drivers will at least hear you when they don't se…

The best advice youll ever get on the topic is to "drive like you're invisible." Don't depend on loud pipes or loud colors. You will have close calls even in a school bus, but you on a bike have more to lose in that situation.

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#43

Post by jeroen »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #39
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…

I read several times that the situation for Harley Davidson is quite bleak, so this might be the try to extend to new markets and save the company in the long run?

They killed Buell 5 years ago and sold MV Agusta 4 years ago to focus on the HD brand. Is this the end of that plan or do they think the brand will stretch to encompass this new technology?

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#44

Post by thrownaway2424 »

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…

According to the video review linked here, this motorcycle does not provide "quicker acceleration." They say "under 4 seconds" 0-60 but almost every sport motorcycle has a sub-4second or even sub-3-second 0-60 time. The one I ride has a 3.0s time. They also say 460lb weight, which is nothing to shout about, and 53 mile range with a 3-hour charge time, which is terrible.

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#45

Post by thrownaway2424 »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #37

Although I would love to own such a e-motorcycle for daily commuting, as an avid cand daily cyclist I getting more and more afraid of all electric vehicles. Until now I could usually rely on the fact that motorised vehicles are loud enough so that I can hear even when I can not see them. But with all these new e-vehicles it might happen that they are almost completely silent at low speeds so I as a biker would loose…

http://www.nhtsa.gov/SampleSounds

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#46

Post by thrownaway2424 »

FD3SA wrote: post #21

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…

This is made in collaboration with Mission.

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#47

Post by AnthonBerg »

x0054 wrote: post #18
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 agree, the one main nifty feature I can think of is consolidation of weight and ability to play around with center of gravity on the bike. For instance, on a sport bike you would want to shift the center of mass to the front, to keep the front wheel down and also to help steering. Shifting the center of mass down would also help with flicking the bike in and out of corners. You can also design 2 wheel drive bikes!…

Two-wheel drive bikes are actually a good idea. Some combustion-engine models actually exist. Mostly dirt bikes. US-based Christini make Honda CRF derivatives with a pretty cool front-wheel drive system. The difference might be hard to tell for people who haven't ridden dirt bikes, I'm not sure, but here's a video that shows a little bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si-bI84SZKA

Yamaha also made a two-wheel-drive racebike prototype. Don't remember the name.

It's pretty interesting to read the ride reports on two-wheel-drive bikes. The handling seems to make a lot of sense ...

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#48

Post by vacri »

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…

An electric motorcycle is the complete opposite of what Harley sells

I was quite surprised at the styling of the electric Harley. Admittedly, I am not remotely in the motorcycling world, but to me a Harley is a bike with a big fat end to go with its big fat sound. Something meaty. I would never have thought Harley if I saw this bike.

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#49

Post by upofadown »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #37

Although I would love to own such a e-motorcycle for daily commuting, as an avid cand daily cyclist I getting more and more afraid of all electric vehicles. Until now I could usually rely on the fact that motorised vehicles are loud enough so that I can hear even when I can not see them. But with all these new e-vehicles it might happen that they are almost completely silent at low speeds so I as a biker would loose…

My experience:

Unless the internal combustion engine powered vehicle is accelerating or travelling at highway speeds I don't hear the engine. I actually hear the sound of the tires on the road and displaced air. Modern engine/exhaust systems are so quiet that for all practical purposes they are silent.

The only thing I miss with an electric/hybrid vehicle as a pedestrian/cyclist is the reving sound from the engine when a vehicle starts moving without any other warning (not that you can actually hear that in many urban environments). My current opinion is that all larger vehicles should make a noise when they start moving. That might have the nice side effect of making it possible to do away with those stupid backup alarms...

Re: Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle

#50

Post by x0054 »

adventured wrote: post #33
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.

Why would a person have to zoom around at 120+ mph on an electric bike just because they couldn't be bothered to learn how to shift on a normal bike? There's no actual logical connection between the two things. I've always wanted to learn how to ride a motorcycle. I would enjoy not having to shift. Accordingly I may choose an electric motorcycle over a traditional one. And none of that has anything to do with whether…

No, it does not. However, if you wanted a motorcycle that shifts for you, they have those, they are called scooters. In fact, Ducati even makes an auto dual sport bike. However, if the only thing that's stopping you from learning how to ride a motorcycle is the fact that you do not want to learn how to ride with a sequential shifter, I really do not want you to be on the road on a fast bike. Basically, learning how to shift a bike is far less complicated than learning how to properly take a corner or pull out of one, or shift lanes.

So, basically, if you are afraid of bikes because they have shifters, but otherwise willing to learn, give it a try. I guarantee you that you'll feel comfortable shifting the gears on a bike and starting with the clutch on the first day. However, if you just don't want to learn because it looks like too much work, please, stay away from bikes, electric or otherwise.

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