HARLEY-DAVIDSON LIVEWIRE
Motorbike aficionado Robert Jones reports back from rural Spain where he’s been getting to grips with Harley’s first electric bike, and it turns out to be one hell of a ride
There’s no having to run up to north of 120mph to get anywhere near peak torque – you just get it all, instantly
Dropping the right wrist on the Harley-Davidson LiveWire is a perspectiveshattering experience. The future of motorbikes suddenly is right here, right now in the present, and the feeling it generates as you scream at the horizon is little short of symphonic.
And, for me, that horizon lies beyond a twisting mountain road near Antequera, Spain. I’ve been attending Harley-Davidson’s 2020 launch event and, after riding a comprehensive selection of the brand’s more traditional bikes, both on the road and off-road, we’re finishing off the final day with a taste of the future, the all-electric bike that Harley-Davidson has spent nearly 10 years creating.
As someone who, truth be told, does not have a strong brand affinity to Harley-Davidson, and whose perspective of the maker was very much rumble and leather, the LiveWire feels almost surreal, as if it isn’t supposed to be here and certainly not with a Harley-Davidson badge on it. I think it fair to say that if you asked 100 people which motorbike brand would produce the first gamechanging electric motorbike, then hardly any would plump for the famous American maker.
Which makes the leaning into a now widening bend in the road, tucking in to the LiveWire’s sleek naked frame, hitting the exit line into the straight, and then absolutely gunning it even more spectacularly bonkers. I’ve ridden fast bikes before, and I think it fair to say that unless you are a track day fiend with a garage full of 200bhp-plus hyper bikes, then the acceleration the LiveWire delivers (0- 60mph in three seconds) will leave you breathless.
That impact is without doubt largely generated by the sheer amount of torque generated by the bike’s Revelation electric motor (86ft-lb), and the fact that torque is all made available at any stage. As the bike has no traditional gearing, there’s no having to run up to north of 120mph to get anywhere near peak torque – you just get it all, instantly.
The result of this is that when I first get on the bike and roll the wrist I fishtail the hell out of the LiveWire, with it begging to put the intense power
down under my overzealous, used-tolesser-torque, unknowing hands. Within minutes, though, I get a feeling for the power this bike has to offer, and can choose when to be so dramatic off the line.
And, talking of dramatic, the LiveWire is all sorts of theatrical, both from its lack of sound when stationary and the Tron Light Cycle screaming whine when it moves. Harley-Davidson has spent years, apparently, working on just getting this sound right, since otherwise – with the lack of a noisemaking combustion engine beneath you, and instead just the bike’s electric motor connected to a 15.5kWh Rechargeable Energy Storage System battery – when you engage the bike’s power, you would hear nothing.
As someone who is used to meeting up with friends to go riding, grouping up at biking cafes and being used to hearing the tick over of a large number of motorbikes engines when stationary, seeing a group of us sat on LiveWires and being able to hear nothing but the wind and ambient noises of rural Spain is markedly odd. Of course, it is how a bike sounds at speed that is the more important part of the riding experience, and as a fan of both sci-fi and advanced technology, this is where the LiveWire really nails it for me.
As soon as you roll on the accelerator, the LiveWire’s whine begins to build. It’s high-pitched, but seems to carry a more tumultuous whooshing quality (like a jet engine), which, especially at high speed, synchronises perfectly in my mind with what this bike is and the performance experience it delivers. It made me feel like the pilot of a futuristic piece of military hardware and that, partnered with its outrageous acceleration, immediately placed the LiveWire right at the top of my wish list.
I slide through a series of tight climbing bends and it is here, where big speed is not possible, that I also realise that the bike actually feels very approachable and manoeuvrable. No one can say this bike is light, and at 230kg (509lb) it really isn’t; however at no point did I feel it was heavy or unwieldy, both on and off the bike. I’m 6ft 2in, so I am hardly a small chap, so that is something to factor in, but I can honestly say I was surprised at how well the LiveWire handled and how perfectly normal its weight felt.
The tight bends end, opening up onto a plateau. After dropping the lid a touch before a blink-and-you-miss-it overtake of three vehicles, the LiveWire screaming in my ears, making me feel like Maverick from Top Gun (they
Harley-Davidson has spent years, apparently, working on just getting the sound of the bike right