It was all just one big dichotomy. As we rolled up to the parking lot in downtown Santa Monica, California,
where Harley-Davidson was holding
the West Coast premiere of their new
Live Wire electric bike, the first thing
that caught our eye was a huge transporter chock-full of exotic machinery
surrounded by plenty of uniformed personnel, listening stations and multiple
big screens flickering a succession of
pretty pictures, all seemingly there to
tell a good story. However, there was
not much of a story to tell. Or, to put
it another way, there was probably
a great story to tell, but it’s just that
the Harley folk weren’t telling it (cue
the famous Sargent Schultz bit from
“Hogan’s Heroes”: “I know nothing!”).
We’d ask questions, but the reply was
always the same—the extravagant roll-out was only intended to gauge public
interest. It wasn’t about what we wanted to know; it’s what Harley wanted to
know! Obviously, as far as Harley was
concerned, the information highway
was nothing like the two-way highway
that their thundering, American-made
motorbikes are most often found on.
So while we were encouraged to
tweet and Facebook everything about
our experience, we just wish there was
more hard info on the bikes to share.
From listening in to at least a dozen
different discussions about the bike, the
best hard info we were able to come
up with is this: the bike has been in the
planning stages for about five years, it
runs on a lithium-ion battery and the
complete bike weighs 486 pounds. But
don’t take our word for that, because
we couldn’t take Harley’s word for it.
Strange.
BUT, ABOUT THE BIKE
If there was one takeaway about the
LiveWire that separated it from many
other pre-production e-bikes we’ve
seen, it’s that Harley has major assets
for developing a new model. Assuredly,
like most other bikes on the market,
the Live Wire started off with an array
of standard-issue concept drawings
before moving on to a succession of
clay models and finally to a rolling prototype. As these test bikes may have
been pre-production, however, they
looked more than ready for a prime-time slot on a dealer’s floor. From the
polished fork clamps to the easy-to-read display module, stitched saddle,
mag wheels and high-luster plastic, the
detailed fit and finish of the bike was
first-rate. No doubt with their annual
production capacity of thousands of
HARLEY-DAVIDSON
The display module was full
of pertinent information and
was easily readable.
