
Harley-Davidson announces its first electric motorcycle - kevin818
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/la-fi-hy-harley-davidson-electric-livewire-20140618,0,2307333.story
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pasbesoin
> 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.

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jobu
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 see you.

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reustle
Loud pipes save lives! I upgraded my pipes for performance reasons, but I'm
not disappointed with the new sound.

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TheSageMage
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 anyways.

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x0054
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! I honestly have no clue if it would
be a good idea, but with electric power you can do that. It might be a death
trap for all I know, but I think it would be really cool to have an all wheel
drive bike.

The final advantage of electric bike is silence. That actually cuts both ways.
You want to have a loud (reasonably) bike, so people notice you, and don't run
you over. But riding full speed in near silence through a country road is
quite surreal as well. Try getting your bike to 80+MPH on a backroad
someplace, and kill the engine for a few seconds. It's quite an interesting
experience.

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AnthonBerg
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](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 ...

~~~
x0054
That's so cool! I want to ride one now! That's a really good use of electric
bikes, I think. A super quiet, AWD, off road bike. Would be nifty for riding
in the forest.

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chromenogethome
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 bikes made to look tough and vintage. Hence the
redesigning and marketing of the Sportster(entry model).

The rockstar lawyers want big heavy cruisers that can carry their leather
shells loudly across the country.

~~~
yoodenvranx
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?

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jeroen
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?

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

~~~
thrownaway2424
This is made in collaboration with Mission.

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yoodenvranx
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 half of my senses. I rely so much on
vehicle sounds while riding bike that I feel almost feel blind when I wear
headphones and listen to music while riding bike.

So I hope that all those new vehicle will make at least some sound when they
drive on the same road as I do.

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upofadown
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...

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entangld
They'll probably need to make it louder. Without noise, a motorcycle isn't
very intimidating.

The booming sound let's everyone know it's coming. It could probably be called
a safety feature.

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

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sigzero
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](http://motorcyclesafetynews.com/?p=878)

~~~
mikestew
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.

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1in1010
How's it going to make noise? pot-atoe-pot

