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[NEW2elec]

Hi Oldmanbythesea, welcome aboard.
If you can charge for 7-8 hours your golden with almost any electric motorcycle.

I'd say the biggest thing to think about is do you love to ride motorcycles in general and be SURE and take a nice long test ride to see if the riding position works for you.  If you love putting miles on bikes then these things are great.  If your in the go for a 200 mile weekend ride 3 times a summer and your good, crowd (nothing wrong with that but) then these aren't the bikes for you.

The torque is wonderful on all of them and the smooth ride and ease of use at slower speed will make you wish you'd had it years ago.

By all accounts the Livewire is a very well make bike and has very powerful 0-60 as in very powerful.  I don't know if your familiar with the different types of charging but for bikes it's basically 1,2 or3.

Level 1 is a wall outlet like in any US home it'll charges at about 1.3kWs per hour.  Level 2 or J1772 plugs go at about 6-7 kWs at most stations.  Level 3 which is mostly CCS uses DC current to charge the battery at around 20-26kWs per hour.

The Harley has Level 1 and level 3 charging only.  You can plug into a level 2 but it only pulls 1.3kWs like a level 1 plug.

Zeros have level 1 and full speed level 2 charging but no level 3

Energica has up to 3kW level 1 or 2 charging and also level 3

Just to make it easy to compare.     I would say test ride as many of them as you can as some people find one issue or another to be a deal breaker for different models, just a personal choice.
Good luck, and let us know what you decide to do.

[JaimeC]

For all intents and purposes, only Emergica allows you to fully exploit Level 1, Level 2 and DCFC (but their Level2 is only half the rate of Zero's; still 3X faster than the Livewire).

[oldmanbythesea]

Just seeing a couple replies in here to something I wrote and apologies if I am replying incorrectly!
Love the feedback and am more confident than ever that I'll get a LW soon...I'll be back with results next week!

[oldmanbythesea]

Sorry again! Forgot to mention I got offers from two different dealers in my area and neither would go below $30k for a cash buy...

[Crissa]

Their sales must be good if they won't budge for cash!

-Crissa

[DonTom]

Their sales must be good if they won't budge for cash!

-Crissa

They are more likely to budge if you finance. See here for the reasons why.


-Don-  Auburn, CA

[Crissa]

That's not been my experience, but kickbacks are a thing, it's true.  They're not legal everywhere, either.

-Crissa

[DonTom]

The Harley has Level 1 and level 3 charging only.  You can plug into a level 2 but it only pulls 1.3kWs like a level 1 plug.

Zeros have level 1 and full speed level 2 charging but no level 3

Energica has up to 3kW level 1 or 2 charging and also level 3

Yep, and AFAIK, there is no way to add level  two external  chargers to the LW. And this is a big deal in some locations.

In fact, I recently decided my Energica should stay here in Auburn as there are countless CCS chargers around here in every direction. You can see my recent check-in entries on Plugshare for Yuba City, CA  and Strawberry, CA  on US 50 in the last couple of days for CCS charging.

In Reno, I decided it makes more sense to have my Zero SR stay there. More J-1772 and Tesla Destination chargers, as well as 240 VAC outlets, all of these I can use with my SR.  I can charge it at 6.3 KW while on the road when I take my Elcons. That is more than twice as fast as my Energica on L2. IMO, even 3.0 KW is too slow for charging. I can tolerate the 6.3 KW better. And at home, I can charge it at 8.3 KW (but that is too much to take for the road).

I rode my Energica here, but I will ride my Zero SR back to Reno in a few days, on Hwy 20.  I can tolerate 6 KW charging on the road, but not so well at 3KW as the Energica has. The 1.5 KW charger of the LW is totally worthless away from home, IMO, unless you have a full day to wait for a full charge. 13 PMHC rate.  Ten hours to wait for 130 miles in locations where there are no CCS chargers.  And on a 30K$ bike? At 6KW, it's more like 52 miles added per hour of charge  which is reasonable.

If they can squeeze a 6 kw charger into the LW, it would be a decent bike, IMO.

I expect they will have such in the LW  in couple of years. Making the demand of the older LWs rather low, in at least most areas. In this part of CA, the CCS is all that is needed for the road. But this area is the exception compared to most.

-Don-  Auburn, CA

[DonTom]

That's not been my experience, but kickbacks are a thing, it's true.  They're not legal everywhere, either.

-Crissa

A mark-up and kick-back are two different things.

A kick-back happens after the transaction. A markup is in advance.

If they didn't allow markups, nobody would be allowed to make a profit.

-Don-  Auburn, CA

[Crissa]

A hidden markup inside a financing procedure is a kick-back.

-Crissa

[Curt]

IMO the LiveWire is a bad idea for a 50-mile one way daily commute. If the real-life range lived up to Harley's claim of 146 miles, I'd be saying absolutely to go for it. But it does not.

From browsing threads like this on the HD forum, one can expect to get 80-90 miles at freeway speeds. One guy gets 95 miles riding at 55 MPH in ECO mode. That's cutting too close even if it's not all highway or one doesn't mind riding slower than surrounding traffic. There's also the possibility the range will drop over time.

Unless you have an extreme level of patience, you really don't want to screw around plugging in at work. Chargers will be in use, charge spots will be blocked by ICE cars, chargers will be broken, alternate chargers will be far away, charging will be expensive, etc. I would say you would be thrilled with an e-bike, but go for a long-range Energica or Zero model and charge at home.

[Crissa]

As long as you can charge it both ways or the route isn't freeway, you're fine.

A 50-mile one-way commute is really far tho.  Waaaaay over the median American commute.

-Crissa

[Crilly]

All you need at work is a 110 volt outlet.

[DonTom]

IMO the LiveWire is a bad idea for a 50-mile one way daily commute. If the real-life range lived up to Harley's claim of 146 miles, I'd be saying absolutely to go for it. But it does not.

From browsing threads like this on the HD forum, one can expect to get 80-90 miles at freeway speeds. One guy gets 95 miles riding at 55 MPH in ECO mode. That's cutting too close even if it's not all highway or one doesn't mind riding slower than surrounding traffic. There's also the possibility the range will drop over time.

Your link isn't working, but here it is.


-Don-  Reno, NV

[Curt]

Your link isn't working, but here it is.


-Don-  Reno, NV

Thanks, fixed. This forum software is so archaic.