Riding the Electric Harley

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Hudson

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I know the topic sounds like a euphemism for something obscene, but I really did get the chance to take it out for a spin.

Harley showed up to the workplace with a slew of em.

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Later in the day, I showed up for my turn at a test ride. First you had to sign your life away, then sit on a model mounted to a dyno like contraption. This helped acquaint you with the feel of the bike and controls without any unpleasant incidents.

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You mounted up, and learned how the bike worked without a clutch. Very similar to a four stroke: the engine braking is used to slow the bike and regenerate power to the battery, and with only one speed, you basically work the throttle until you achieve desired velocity. It has standard front and rear brakes, and reminds me of riding the AE, only no shift buttons.

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The bike feels like a cross between a Ducati Monster and a Vstrom in terms of seating position.

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The "tank" is narrow, and the guage looks like a newer Zumo.

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You turn on the "run" switch, choose your power mode (touring or rocket mode), and then touch the display. The bike is then in "gear" and ready to go forward with a twist of the throttle. We had 5 riders out during my run.

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The bike has a very linear throttle response. No sudden surge, which surprised me. However, right about 20 mph, a hard twist of the throttle and the bike starts moving very very fast like it has jet propulsion. More than the FJR at full throttle. No noise, just a turbine like whine of the motor.

It was most impressive. The bike had phenonemal balance, good traction, and light handling, though the bars were much too narrow, responding very slowly to countersteering. Longer bars would instantly cure that issue. Suspension was good, very sport bike like.

The fit and finish of these prototypes was impressive. Nothing felt substandard, and nothing rattled or felt flimsy.

It was a sadly short demo, about 20 min around surface streets, and we had only a few opportunities to wind it up. This bike needs to be demoed on a track or canyon where the full acceleration can be better appreciated. The best I can describe, it pulls decently up to 20mph when it appears the computer lets all the torque unleash, and then it keeps pulling till you run out of courage or runway. Given the city streets riding route, I ran out of runway before courage. They really should use a test track.

Riding ergos are a bit odd, more upright than a sport bike but with the feet back like a sport bike, just not as aggressive. For a prototype, it's perfect, but I'd like something a bit more aggressive if I owned it.

I had low expectations, in part because I'm not a Harley guy. This bike changed two core perceptions for me. The first was my attitude towards the Harley brand. This is the first e-bike that doesn't have the sex appeal of a milk crate, and it took Harley Freakin Davidson to give it soul and sex appeal. Quite impressive. Prior to the ride, I would have easily ranked Harley at the bottom end of innovative motorcycle manufacturers, but this was an impressive tour de force of technology. I will have to rethink my attitudes and biases, and therefore at the task of changing consumer perception, this bike is a home run.

My second changed perception is about ebikes. I've been intrigued but not impressed until now. This bike impresses. Enough where i can see the appeal and future for these bikes, assuming they can tackle the range. As a daily commuter and road warrior, this bike would be ideal for city and suburbs. With wider bars and some attention to suspension, it would be a blast in the canyons. Not a touring bike by any means, but something fun in the city for 25-50 mile bursts.

The range of the battery is probably less than 60 miles, making this very niche except for urban bikers. My commute is less than 30, and that's the long route. Presuming I can charge at work, this bike would have enough juju to make a 60 mile RT commute very entertaining.

 
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Nice write-up and I agree that it is shocking that HD is the one to come up with this bike! Unfortunately, I would never look at it as a possible addition because of the the short range per charge. Batteries need to improve drastically first to provide more like a "tank-full" (200 miles) of range before most will consider this...imho.

 
As a second or third bike, i think a 100 mile range would do it. as a primary bike, i agree the range is the achilles heel.

i'd want more seat time but i can see the appeal of these for the urban commuter. I'd get this before a Nissan Leaf, at least if i lived in sunny climes.

 
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As a second or third bike, i think a 100 mile range would do it. as a primary bike, i agree the range is the achilles heel.
i'd want more seat time but i can see the appeal of these for the urban commuter. I'd get this before a Nissan Leaf, at least if i lived in sunny climes.
I think it still needs at least a range of 100-120 miles including some spirited riding to be a possibility!

 
Two issues, the way I see it.

The range has to improve but I doubt that we will ever see doubling (or more) of power density in batteries. I think we are coming up to a wall in terms of what is physically or chemically possible. I would like to be wrong on this but I really don't see huge improvements on the horizon. The alternative is adding more batteries and more weight. The greater the desired range, the greater the weight and the resulting higher weight to power ratio will result in a performance and efficiency decline. This puts us back to where we started with electric vehicles providing less-than-stellar performance. I would suggest that a minimum of 100 miles of range under "real" riding conditions would be a minimum target.

Battery technology has improved a lot in the last decade. Batteries can take a lot more charge-discharge cycles than in the past and they are much better at surviving the heavy current drains that will happen with spirited riding. Although there have been great improvements, recharge rates are the next biggest issue. A practical range of 100 miles isn't great but if you could recharge in 5-10 minutes (and suitable recharge stations were plentiful), you could consider the vehicle for more than just urban commuting. I don't know what the charge time is for the Harley but I'm betting that its measured in hours rather than minutes. Even if the battery could accept a very fast charge without exploding (unlikely), you still would have to have a source capable of putting out hundreds of amps of charging current to accomplish a quick charge. I guess an alternative might be to have the battery as some sort of standardized exchangeable "cassette" that could be swapped at a charging station.

Any information out there on projected battery lifetime and battery replacement cost? Cold weather performance might be an issue although the batteries would be self-warming once you are underway. There are also safety issues with high performance (lithium chemistry) cells. (Are these lithium batteries?) There have been spontaneous catastrophic failures in high powered electric vehicles and I wonder how they would do in an accident?

Edit to add: I think Harley has done a remarkable job with this creation. To my surprise, they seem to be leaders in this field. It may become an interesting niche market but I doubt it will become mainstream anytime soon.

 
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As a second or third bike, i think a 100 mile range would do it. as a primary bike, i agree the range is the achilles heel.
i'd want more seat time but i can see the appeal of these for the urban commuter. I'd get this before a Nissan Leaf, at least if i lived in sunny climes.
I think it still needs at least a range of 100-120 miles including some spirited riding to be a possibility!
The "Zero Electric Motorcycle" boast a city range of over 170 miles a highway range of over 100 and a combined range of around 130 miles ... so I guess they are improving slowly.

https://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-s/specs.php

 
Really liked your write-up, Thank you!... and your experience was very typical of mine when I went and test drive a Chevy Volt. I drove in on the lot with a Caddy CTS-V (which is no chopped liver)... and I still left with it, but I put my order in immediately for the Volt. I was so impressed with the smooth and quiet power so my "hey, let's see what this thing is about?" turned into a sale. Never thought in a million years that I would like it more than my CTS.

Almost 2 years later, it's still an awesome car and my only choice for my commuter transportation. I still have the CTS, but it rarely gets driven anymore.

One main difference however (and the achilles heal with these electric bikes, BMW's included)... no way to produce power!? (like the Volt can, it has a 4cyl gas engine which spins a generator to make more power when your charge runs out). Until bikes have this, I really only see this as a short commuter with no real market possibilities... as fear (of running out of juice) will scare most potential buyers.

My Electric cage...

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Some fast-charge system accessible to the riders would help, but only if they could reach them. Tesla is doing it with their Supercharger network, bring your Tesla car in and charge for free, 40 minutes gets you at least 80% charged. (That last 20% takes another 35 or 40 minutes.) One of their cars is designed with battery swapping as a possibility, swap for a fully-charged pack in a couple of minutes!

With the network they already have (according to their site) you can actually drive coast to coast (as long as you want to go through South Dakota.....) and the network is supposed to cover 98% of the US population by next year.... And charging is FREE with the purchase of your car!!!! (One wonders how long they can keep doing that.....)

With the Harley only going 60 miles or so, H-D is going to need a LOT of stations to offer something like that!!!!

One wonders about a standardized fast-charge capability that would be interchangeable between brands.

 
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That would be a good commuter solution if I could plug it in at work. 66 miles round trip would be tough without being able to charge at work.

 
The latest Popular Mechanics just had a story of 3D Lithium architecture battery (on the horizon; don't know how far) with five times the power density. Now that would be a 'game-changer' (very quick re-charge rate also).

 
My buddy got the opportunity to ride one also, I met him down there with the Feejr and busted out the camera....

I snapped off some really good shots I still have to go through. His thoughts on the bike reflect much the same as yours. When they were about to take off from the Harley Davidson Museum for the jaunt around the city streets I asked if it was OK If I ride along the route myself.... apparently nobody has asked to do this before, with the stoopified look on their faces.... Ok I'm off, followed the route with them and listened to the whine of the motors along side as we rode...

in the last stretch we were at a light and I was talking to the lead HD guy for a minute - I said, how about we see what these things really got now, hows about you see if you can keep up with me !??!/ Light turned green, and I let loose into a wheelie and ran the last quarter mile hot !! I needed to get back to snap off some final pics for my buddy.... at least that was the excuse I used LOL.....

My buddy was laughing and he had it all on the GoPro he brought..... was a good day !!

 
The latest Popular Mechanics just had a story of 3D Lithium architecture battery (on the horizon; don't know how far) with five times the power density. Now that would be a 'game-changer' (very quick re-charge rate also).
I had not heard about this. You are quite right that this would change everything with respect to electric vehicles. PM tends to hype theoretical stuff that may be only in a concept stage. If it is real, the developers will become very wealthy overnight!

 
Everybody wants to run electric bikes on nothing but batteries, I get that. Until batteries get better, though, I believe the real answer is to put a small fuel cell in one pannier, and a natural gas or hydrogen tank in the other pannier. You could run on the batteries for a good while before the fuel cell kicks in, so it's an electric vehicle most of the time. At highways speeds, you could start the fuel cell immediately, and stretch your range by any factor you may want (depending on the fuel cell capacities that you have chosen). On any ride, once within battery range of your destination, you can shut down the fuel cell for the rest of the trip. A GPS/computer could easily do all that for you, of course, if you tell the GPS where you are going first. You might only stop for fuel a few times per month, if even that much.

 
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