Harley-Davidson Made An Electric Motorcycle

My god hipster/hippie future looks horrific.

Just No..on every level NO.
 
PigmonkeY said:
Yes, it's faster than that rich-running lawnmower engine'd Harley you have in the garage. Yes, you look like less of a total douche riding it. No it won't wake the entire neighborhood up at 3 in the morning because you set the idle so low that you have to rev it so it doesn't stall out.

All in all, for the reasons mentioned, I can't see any actual Harley enthusiasts buying in.
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Ah, the 3am douchebag. I had one living next to me for 3 years. Cops wouldn't do anything because they liked to hang out at the bar he where he worked. The neighborhood threw a big party when he finally moved.

My brother is a sales manager at a Harley dealership. He said they were already getting angry calls and customers within an hour of Harley announcing this bike.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Great so the company which decided to get a trademark for the sound their annoying as hell bikes make and sue anyone who uses that "iconic" sound wants to make a silent electric bike.

Ok in fairness calling the bikes annoying was a bit rude, it's the people who feel the need to rev them up while driving up a residential street are annoying as hell.
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The annoying thing of late, it the number of harley riders going through national parks. Pretty much scattering wildlife from view of paved roadways. My brother and his family go annually for a couple of weeks. I went last year with them and we had almost no wildlife encounter from the road. Not talking just near the road, but anywhere in eyeshot of the road. Brother said he noticed its been inversely proportional to the amount of Harley traffic he's seen in the park.
 
RAWR! I hate all new green technology, how dare Harley be forward thinking.

"You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get myself a 1967 Cadillac, El Dorado convertible
Hot pink with whaleskin hub caps and all leather cow interior And big brown baby seal eyes for headlights, yeah And I'm gonna drive around in that baby at 115 mph Getting one mile per gallon, sucking down quarter pounder Cheese burgers from McDonald's in the old fashioned
Non-biodegradable Styrofoam containers And when I'm done sucking down those grease ball burgers I'm gonna wipe my mouth with the American flag And then I'm gonna toss the Styrofoam container right out the side"

Read more: Dennis Leary - I'm An Asshole Lyrics | MetroLyrics
 
Well that is an interesting copy/paste trick (that ad for fail lyrics was not my doing"
 
Koolthulu said:
My brother is a sales manager at a Harley dealership. He said they were already getting angry calls and customers within an hour of Harley announcing this bike.
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Hilarious and totally believable. What an idiotic attitude. If Yamaha or Honda comes out with a bike I'm not interested in, you know what I do? I don't buy it. Then again, there aren't many bikes I'm not interested in. That's the difference between someone who likes motorcycles, and someone who likes the image of motorcycles.
 
That is so fugly.
It looks bland and made of plastic and there is no meat to it.
I cant imagine any biker would want one let alone a Pagan.
 
Fact is, motorcycles don't matter that much, especially Harleys, when it comes to going green, because the annual mileage is so unbelievably low.

They simply can't have a significant impact until they are used as daily transportation and transportation over long distances and make up at least 1% of miles traveled per capita.

The fact that motorcycles are already extremely fuel efficient due to their small engines makes the issue even more moot. And really battery technology simply hasn't advanced to the point that its worthwhile.
Kor said:
Greener still (especially if your pulling from renewable sources)? Also petroleum isn't going to be around forever, when it's starts to run low consumer use will be the first thing to go.
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Petroleum will never "run low" in your lifetime. Period. Being in the oilfield service industry/exploration, part of our job is to determine how fruitful a location is, and we constantly pass up fields because they are juuuuuust above the current market price to produce. But as technology improves (or the market price increases) the costs to extract go down (or product cost goes up to where its worthwhile).

For example, the United States today is producing more oil per anum than at ANY time in our history... EVER. And yes that includes the good ol' days of where some people literally struck oil by digging a hole in their property and accidentally stumbled upon a gold mine. And in fact gold is the same way, even though we had exhausted all of the surface gold long ago, such as the gold rush when many people could simply sift in a stream and find bigass nuggets, we produce more gold globally today than at any time in our history, thanks to advances in technology to where we can process millions of tons of ore to extract low levels of gold.

And while gas prices are certainly on a steep incline of late, we've seen prices go up and down over its history when you actually adjust for inflation. Back in 1918 for example, people were paying $3.87 per gallon of really low grade low octane gas. And even back in 1981 we were at $3.47 per gallon after adjusting. We're at $3.66 up again due to turmoil in Iraq with the fleet in action, but not only do you factor in fuel costs but average fuel economy.

Average vehicle fuel economy before 1970 was around 14mpg vs today's fleet of 24.5mpg, so really people pay today no more or perhaps even less than they did for gas per year than they did three decades ago.
 
Loud pipes save lives. I am not a fan of motorcycles in general, but damn, Harley just dropped another notch. Why is it that California gets to dictate policy? If they want all this bs, then let's just lop them off the continental USA and let them be their own independent shit hole.
 
Fooshnik said:
I hope that shrill whine isn't what they're planning on bringing to market. Though I suppose you could always stream the sound of a real exhaust through your phone.

With a range of 53 miles it's basically a commutemobile, though it seems significant overkill for a commutemobile. I wouldn't mind having a short range electric bike for driving to work but I don't need to spend that much money on a property I'm trying to use to save money.
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I don't really care about the sound any more. I did when I first started riding but the novelty has worn off.

The biggest problem I have is the range. 53 mile range you could not even commute on that. A short commute in Cali is 25 miles each way. Hell my commute to school is 80 miles a day and where I live, the avg commute to work is around 60 miles. I would love a bike that would outperform my vulcan 900 and get about 250 miles range.
 
Jarod888 said:
lop them off the continental USA and let them be their own independent shit hole.
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They'd probably surrender to military threats from Bolivia within a year or two after going bankrupt faster than Greece. But who knows, maybe it'd do them some good and their balls would finally drop.
 
I want to buy a Harley someday but afraid of getting in a accident cause I hear about them all the time on the radio.
 
Parja said:
From what I understand, it's California laws that are pushing this. To be able to keep selling bikes in CA, they're eventually going to have to have an electric option in their lineup.
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But of course the communist republic of California is behind it... I think it looks cool I mean they are trying to cater to new clientele now since let's be honest the main people buying Harley's are not getting any younger..
 
Ducman69 said:
Petroleum will never "run low" in your lifetime. Period.
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That's very forward thinking and I applaud fact that this is brought up. It puts it all into perspective and makes everything click into place. Since we're not going to run out of fuel in our lifetimes, then there's obviously no reason to even attempt to explore alternative sources of energy or do anything meaningful to reduce the amount we use.

Yup, buy a motorcycle and other gas powered adult toys and then use that as the reason why you "need" a pickup truck because it's now necessary to have something to tow a trailer to move those things aaand since there's already a truck, why not buy a huge camper trailer so we can be comfortable while we're roughing it in the wilderness of a campground with sewer, water, and power hookups for five days and four nights each year? It doesn't take any energy or resources to create that object that's now just parked in the driveway 97% of the year. Oh and that truck that gets like 11 mpg? Yeah, that gets driven to 100 miles a day to and from work, but who can afford an economical car when they have a mortgage, a motorcycle payment, a camper payment, insurance for all that stuff, and have to fork over money for all that fuel? They need to stop making people pay taxes because it interferes with covering the burdensome recreational spending on vehicles that can't be safely operated in the rain and require an infrastructure of heavy transport to take in for repairs. At least people know you're there because of how loud it is, but gee it's dangerous to drive one.

Logic? Nah, try Canada or maybe Sri Lanka. The US is busy calling Harley dealerships to yell at sales reps over the company's decision to sell something that runs on wimpy, non-hairy chested electrical power.
 
Looks good to me. I honestly have always liked the look of Harley's but I'm not a fan of being that douchebag that thinks it's cool that his motorcycle is loud and enjoys disturbing everybody around them.
 
Looks like Harley Davidson may be going after some military contracts. Special Forces have been using Electric Bikes because of the quiet. "Stealth Mode"...
 
Tych-0 said:
Looks good to me. I honestly have always liked the look of Harley's but I'm not a fan of being that douchebag that thinks it's cool that his motorcycle is loud and enjoys disturbing everybody around them.
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To be fair, the ricer cars are no better. I also like the looks of this Harley, quite a bit actually. It's funny how some "hardcore Harley guys" bash this stuff to bring in more audience, as if they can't stand people who maybe don't grow a long beard, wear bandanas and all buy similar jackets that proudly displays the Harley-Davidson brand stitched on by some little kid far away.
 
KarsusTG said:
I would love a bike that would outperform my vulcan 900 and get about 250 miles range.
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You can do that already.

The Vulcan 900 Custom produces 50hp/51ftlbs and weighs 610lbs.

A 2014 V-Strom 650 produces 62hp/41ftlbs and weighs 440lbs for a noticably quicker power to weight ratio, and has a 55mpg combined fuel economy with a big 5.3 gallon tank for a theoretical range of 290 mile range, and a realistic range of 250miles.

The Honda ST1300 Pan European can give you around a 300 mile highway range. If you want to bump it up to the extreme, the BMW R1200GS Adventure has a 400 mile range due to its bigass gas tank.
 
Some of you naysayers need to realize one thing. Harley Davidson is a motorcycle company, they aren't a company that makes retro motorcycles to fill the needs of a withering demographic. In order to survive they need to innovate and identify what kind of motorcycle the next generation will want to ride otherwise their wont be an HD in the future. I have met some hardcore harley guys when I rode and I have never met so many people so set in their ways and views. They don't buy the new bikes and they don't want Harley to change their designs. Well how the fuck are they supposed to sell bikes then and to who?

I for one applaud their efforts and I hope this thing succeeds. Hell if I were them, i'd try making a sporty car next.

If you don't believe my logic then think about all the railroad companies that disappeared when trucks became the cheaper and more convenient way to transport cargo. Why did this happen? because railroads were in the railroad business and not in the cargo transport business.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
That's very forward thinking and I applaud fact that this is brought up. It puts it all into perspective and makes everything click into place. Since we're not going to run out of fuel in our lifetimes, then there's obviously no reason to even attempt to explore alternative sources of energy or do anything meaningful to reduce the amount we use.
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Ow, my brains! There is massive investment in battery technology regardless, due to consumer electronics from cellphones to tablets to laptops. For automotive applications, there's also plenty of investment due to hybrids, which do make sense for people that are in a lot of stop and go traffic. The idea that you need to buy an electric Harley today for the sake of your children's children is... oy.

You don't need an electric motorcycle in 2014, it won't make a lick of difference to the environment since motorcycles as a whole make up less than 1% of total miles driven by the US population, and gasoline motorcycles are already very efficient. You're smart enough to know this, so take three deep breaths into a paper bag and think about it.
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Yup, buy a motorcycle and other gas powered adult toys and then use that as the reason why you "need" a pickup truck because it's now necessary to have something to tow a trailer to move those things aaand since there's already a truck, why not buy a huge camper trailer so we can be comfortable while we're roughing it in the wilderness of a campground with sewer, water, and power hookups for five days and four nights each year?
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Are you done yet?

I have a Suzuki VStrom that gets 55mpg and is my commuter. My car is currently a Fiat 500 turbo, and peeps on the forum have towed motorcycles without issue (can tow 800lbs). I haven't bothered installing the mopar hitch though since I've never had a need to tow it to date. But even a Volvo C30 can tow 2000lbs... who the hell has a 1500 pound motorcycle?

People that want giant trucks will get one and justify it somehow... and an electric motorcycle sure as hell doesn't make one LICK of difference in that scenario (if anything an electric Harley is likely to weigh a TON because its Harley and electric bikes all else equal are way heavier right now).
367728
 
Chas said:
I'd say "well duh". Unfortunately, you couldn't meet emissions requirements, as you'd be pumping them straight out into the atmosphere.

The whole idea isn't just "better gas mileage". It's "More complete burn of fuel so emissions are lower".
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My dad and I have experimented with this on a few vehicles. We then brought them to a mechanic who has the dyno, tailpipe emissions tester, and inspection machine. For fun, we watched him run a car through that passed the computer emissions test (the simple plug-in test), but actually was producing significantly more emissions via the tailpipe test than our modded vehicles.

The goal of the modern emissions system is to more completely burn fuel so harmful chemical emissions are lower, but in reality, due to tolerances in the computers, and constantly cycling between too-rich or too-lean (that's how a lot of the computer run engines operate), they are not always successful.

Another point I have always wondered about which actually produces more emissions overall: 1) more power/fuel economy with less emissions control, or 2) burning more fuel to compensate for inefficient combustion in the engine thereby using more fuel to travel the same distance?

I'm glad to see Harley making this motorcycle, but just like their bikes in general, it will not be for everyone. I read another article about this earlier this morning and they failed to mention the different performance modes, but they did highlight the 4 second 0 - 60. I hope people can keep the bike under them doing that ;) They also didn't include pictures of it :(
 
Comixbooks said:
I want to buy a Harley someday but afraid of getting in a accident cause I hear about them all the time on the radio.
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Is why I dont bike any more.
Years ago it was bad enough, these days the roads are so congested you cant have fun on a commute, you need to pick times of day and particular roads.
And commuting is a lot more dangerous due to vastly more hotheads and a worse class of hotheads.
 
Ducman69 said:
...
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Right, got it. You don't care in the slightest about acting responsibly with limited resources in order to benefit others. Selfishness and personal enjoyment are far more worthwhile personal traits because obviously...it's all about not "licking" the difference. (Why are you talking about your tongue anyway? Is Miley Cyrus watching this thread?)
 
BTW, and for the record, I converted my whole RC fleet to electric, and all of my lawn equipment is also electric (and battery powered at that; 36volt B&D suite).

But I'm not going to be some pretentious douchebag and pretend that I'm saving the world or somehow being "green" from such an insignificant impact. I switched because I have a small yard and electric was more convenient than worrying about storing old gasoline and the like. My nephew has an electric scooter for getting around the neighborhood... nothing wrong with that either. Just don't get all snooty about it and treat technology impartially.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Right, got it. You don't care in the slightest about acting responsibly with limited resources in order to benefit others. Selfishness and personal enjoyment are far more worthwhile personal traits because obviously...it's all about not "licking" the difference. (Why are you talking about your tongue anyway? Is Miley Cyrus watching this thread?)
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How did you graduate highschool with such limited reading comprehension skills? This is why America is declining as a superpower. :p
 
Ducman69 said:
How did you graduate highschool with such limited reading comprehension skills? This is why America is declining as a superpower. :p
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So the people currently at the helm (old people) are going to blame the crop of wage slaves for mismanagement, squandering of natural resources, and the construction of a selfish consumer-driven society that was generations in the making. Sure, let's go with saying it's recent graduates entering the workforce instead of the people who have been at it all these years.

How did you get through life with those critical thinking skills? This is why America is declining as a superpower. :p
 
I accept your apology that, as an avid motorcycle rider (my alias even refers to Ducati), my 44.5mpg average fuel economy between my vehicles is well above average, and that your straw man argument was nonsensical.
 
Ducman69 said:
I accept your apology that, as an avid motorcycle rider (my alias even refers to Ducati), my 44.5mpg average fuel economy between my vehicles is well above average, and that your straw man argument was nonsensical.
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I'd be totally happy to let you get away with that kinda escape from the discussion after you ended up looking silly, but you've already said something about motorcycles not making "a LICK of difference" so the fuel economy of your particular toy isn't very significant. Also, it's pretty bad compared to a car (quite a few of them can easily burn less fuel over a single mile). Anyhow, we've already established a dearth of critical thinking, so no worries.
 
I really like the idea of electric on a bike. I just think they need to improve on the range for all electric vehicles just a bit. When they get to at least 100 miles range, I'd consider one.
 
Wow, even H-D has jumped on the e-motorbike bandwagon. That pretty much justifies this trend. It reminds me of when Porsche went outside the 2-door vehicles and came out w/ an SUV and then a sedan.
 
I suppose all the "loud pipes save lives" people that think that the minimum "safe" volume for pipes must be such that you can hear them farther away than you can hear a Browning M2HB being fired off from the top of a Humvee will be upset about this. :rolleyes:
 
Dolby said:
Zero has a range of 171 miles with their latest electric Motorcycles http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/range/
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Read the fine-print: Once you add the options to get that far range on that specific sub-model the price is.... *drumroll*

Subtotal: $19,889.98

And you're not getting a $20K performance motorcycle, since it can't hit triple digits, its claimed sustained top speed is 80mph (not realistic), and the range is unrealistic with low-speed flat terrain cruising with a tucked rider.

The battery technology isn't there yet, but there's plenty of investment in the battery industry to investigate this again in five years to see if its viable yet. For now, this is likely just going to appeal to San Francisco hipster douche types that have more money than sense and are buying this to make a statement.
 
You know, my first thought was not good. But I dig the looks of it, and frankly Harley Davidson needs to innovate if they want to survive. The younger crowd isn't interested in super loud annoying bikes and dressing like a pirate. :D

Good for them, I hope it does well.
 
Phoenix333 said:
I suppose all the "loud pipes save lives" people that think that the minimum "safe" volume for pipes must be such that you can hear them farther away than you can hear a Browning M2HB being fired off from the top of a Humvee will be upset about this. :rolleyes:
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True on that, the loud pipes save lives thing is merely an excuse for grown men that weren't breastfed or hugged enough as a child, and are trying to compensate with extreme attention seeking behavior in adulthood to justify riding without mufflers. Being quiet is definitely a pro for electric, and not only quiet but they are low vibration too (carpel tunnel syndrom is REAL).

And the real proof its just an excuse, is that most of the time the straight pipes guys have on half helmets that barely meet the legal requirements, and ride around in jeans and a t-shirt or *snicker* a leather vest with fingerless gloves, like that does anything. And its usually all in low-visibility black.

Really want to be safe? Be seen! Modulating headlights, supplemental driving lights, reflective stickers, and bright colors (particularly on the helmet and jacket) have bene proven to be the #1 way to improve rider safety.

3956647019_75b4e1da32.jpg

Front is equally reflective, and my jacket and helmet are also yellow with a reflexite halo, and rear case has LED array tied into the brakelight. Haven't been run over yet. :cool:
 
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