Author Topic: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest  (Read 40944 times)

Offline Lannis

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #390 on: July 20, 2019, 09:34:38 AM »
Forgot to show the picture. That’s what happens when in a panic over EV’s😂


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Looks more like a Beechmont Ford Performance Retro F150.

Has a big honkin' IC engine, that does.    Better check.

Lannis
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Offline davevv

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #391 on: July 21, 2019, 08:21:19 PM »
Since this thread is supposed to be about the Livewire, I thought I'd give my impressions since I got to ride this one today.



There was a demo truck in town set up at one of the parking lots at Globe Life Park (Texas Rangers baseball home) in Arlington. They were to be there Friday thru Sunday, so my son talked me into going over with him to check them out and I have to say I was quite impressed with the bike. It is a nicely finished, complete package and up to the standards I expect from H-D. They did a really nice job on the bike. Riding it is a unique experience as it feels quite different from any other bike I've ever ridden, but familiar at the same time since it handled as well as the Motus or my old Buell Ulysses in the short time I had to ride it. Throttle response is perfect, smooth and linear. Acceleration is breathtaking, brakes excellent and the ride is firm but comfortable. The riding position is slightly leaned forward, but not overly aggressive. Actually quite similar to the Motus. Of course as soon as I put the kick stand up, I reached for the nonexistent clutch lever. It takes a little bit of time to acclimate to the machine. The strangest feeling is coming to a stop at an intersection and having a completely dead machine under you. No engine sounds or vibrations. No anything, almost. I said "almost" because though the bike lacks all the characteristics we normally associate with the H-D engine, they did literally give it a heartbeat. Every two or three seconds, while you are sitting still, you can feel a very faint thump in the seat and pegs just as though it had a pulse. It's actually kind of neat.

Range was stated as 95 to 145 miles depending what you're doing. The low end of that range is highway cruising, and the high end is around town. Intuitively, that seems backwards, but the difference is in the regenerative braking in stop and go traffic which recovers some of the used energy every time you slow down. You don't get that droning down the highway at a constant speed. Charge time is ~1 hour to go from completely drained to full at a charging station, or 6 to 10 hours if plugged in at home.  If I knew I'd never need more range than it has, or I had another bike to cover the times I did need more range, I'd be happy to own and ride one.  I'm just not sure I'm willing to purchase another $30k motorcycle.

Another thing that was interesting, was the people that came to ride the Livewire. There were probably 30 to 40 bikes that came and went while we were there. My son was on his Triumph Sprint RS and there was one guy on a Zero electric. All the rest were Harleys and most of them baggers. A few of the folks were in the stereotypical biker attire, but most were not. Ages ranged from ~30 to my 72. I was really surprised there weren't more people there on other brands. Lots of people claim that the Harley faithful won't accept the new models, but they appear to be the ones with an interest in this one. And a number of the guys had been there on Friday or Saturday and came back to ride again. Another thing that was unusual for a demo event was that the rides were unaccompanied. Just get on the bike and go, come back in about ten minutes. Get back in line if you want to ride again.

It was a fun morning, except for my son's clutch cable breaking as he was headed back home from my house. Wouldn't have had that problem on a Livewire.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2019, 08:31:13 PM by davevv »
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Offline alanp

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #392 on: July 21, 2019, 08:34:57 PM »
Thanks for the review.  Sounds like it would be a lot of fun. 
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Online Ncdan

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #393 on: July 21, 2019, 08:42:37 PM »
Looks more like a Beechmont Ford Performance Retro F150.

Has a big honkin' IC engine, that does.    Better check.

Lannis
Don’t know Lannis, the add had a picture of a  vehicle with some type of covering attachment on the skin as to hide some of the features and also this picture. So you may be right. I thought maybe someone had sneaked a picture of the real McCoy.

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #393 on: July 21, 2019, 08:42:37 PM »

Offline twowheeladdict

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #394 on: July 22, 2019, 07:05:51 PM »
At work, over half our fork truck fleet has gone electric from propane. As we replace them when they wear out, they will be replaced by electric. Cost per hour for electric is much less according to our maintenance departments spreadsheets. They track purchase price, maintenance costs and fuel consumption, along with down time. Operators also prefer them over the IC propane trucks.
I worked in the warehouse of a juice factory after school in the late 70s.  All of our fork lifts and fork trucks were electric.  We had to use an overhead crane to change out the batteries.  I had holes in T-shirts from the acid in those lead acid batteries.
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Offline Lannis

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #395 on: July 22, 2019, 07:29:31 PM »
I worked in the warehouse of a juice factory after school in the late 70s.  All of our fork lifts and fork trucks were electric.  We had to use an overhead crane to change out the batteries.  I had holes in T-shirts from the acid in those lead acid batteries.

Food processors almost never use petro-fueled handling equipment; too much danger of fuel or combustion products getting into the food somehow. 

PRAB-Versatran, a major robot manufacturer of the 1980s, out of Kalamazoo Michigan, was building a group of process robots for my company, and we visited them all the time to sort out the communication protocols for the control computers (DEC PDP-11) to which they would interface in our factory.   

While we were there, they showed up a robotic production line they were building for Campbell's Soup.   The robots were hydraulically powered, and the "hands" of the robot would be over top of the vats of soup that the robots were mixing and stirring.   To solve the potential contamination problem if a hydraulic line leaked or broke, Campbell's specified that they entire hydraulic system, pumps, lines, cylinders, actuators, etc had to be food-grade clean, and that the hydraulic fluid had to be Wesson Vegetable Oil, clean and edible.   

So the whole hydraulic system was built out of stainless steel with silicone O-rings and seals, and powered by Wesson oil ....

Anyway, that's one way to get around a problem.

Lannis
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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #396 on: July 23, 2019, 09:34:16 PM »
Ok fellers here it is, the mother load of electric motorcycles, by Curtiss motorcycles, to start production in 2020 and starting at the introductory price of 75k. You EV guys feel free to slobber on your laptops or iPhones:)

« Last Edit: July 23, 2019, 09:36:55 PM by Ncdan »

oldbike54

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #397 on: July 23, 2019, 09:49:15 PM »
Ok fellers here it is, the mother load of electric motorcycles, by Curtiss motorcycles, to start production in 2020 and starting at the introductory price of 75k. You EV guys feel free to slobber on your laptops or iPhones:)



 Looks like a Confederate , give me a minute , I'll come up with a better name than Hades , although probably not as good as *Plugindian*  :grin:

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #398 on: July 23, 2019, 09:58:43 PM »
Ok fellers here it is, the mother load of electric motorcycles, by Curtiss motorcycles, to start production in 2020 and starting at the introductory price of 75k. You EV guys feel free to slobber on your laptops or iPhones:)



Curtiss loves his Greek mythology....  When he gets around to designing a Poseidon with a Trident I'll take a look!  They are certainly innovative indeed!

Wonder if you can ride in the HOV lane in California with an electric bike like you can if you are a Tesla or Prius driver...
« Last Edit: July 23, 2019, 10:00:21 PM by PJPR01 »
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Offline keener

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #399 on: July 23, 2019, 10:24:44 PM »
well that Curtiss  is certainly ...well endowed  :bow:  ..............a phallic symbol gone mad i would say  :azn:
« Last Edit: July 23, 2019, 10:25:47 PM by keener »
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Offline twowheeladdict

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #400 on: July 30, 2019, 05:16:43 PM »
Food processors almost never use petro-fueled handling equipment; too much danger of fuel or combustion products getting into the food somehow. 

PRAB-Versatran, a major robot manufacturer of the 1980s, out of Kalamazoo Michigan, was building a group of process robots for my company, and we visited them all the time to sort out the communication protocols for the control computers (DEC PDP-11) to which they would interface in our factory.   

While we were there, they showed up a robotic production line they were building for Campbell's Soup.   The robots were hydraulically powered, and the "hands" of the robot would be over top of the vats of soup that the robots were mixing and stirring.   To solve the potential contamination problem if a hydraulic line leaked or broke, Campbell's specified that they entire hydraulic system, pumps, lines, cylinders, actuators, etc had to be food-grade clean, and that the hydraulic fluid had to be Wesson Vegetable Oil, clean and edible.   

So the whole hydraulic system was built out of stainless steel with silicone O-rings and seals, and powered by Wesson oil ....

Anyway, that's one way to get around a problem.

Lannis

That's cool.  Thanks for sharing that.
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Offline twowheeladdict

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #401 on: July 30, 2019, 05:22:50 PM »


Wonder if you can ride in the HOV lane in California with an electric bike like you can if you are a Tesla or Prius driver...

Aren't bikes already allowed in the HOV lanes?  I mean, they can split lanes, might as well be allowed IN all lanes.  :)
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Offline Tom H

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #402 on: July 30, 2019, 06:12:59 PM »
In Ca., yes there are allowed in the HOV lane.

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canuck750

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Re: Project Live Wire - Electric Harley Davidson merged threadfest
« Reply #403 on: July 30, 2019, 08:30:10 PM »
If the Chinese have their way the future is electric powered vehicles.

A two year old article, but some interesting stats all the same:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/business/china-hastens-the-world-toward-an-electric-car-future.html


Already, China is the world’s largest maker and seller of electric cars. Chinese buyers are on track to snap up almost 300,000 of them this year, three times the number expected to be sold in the United States and more than the rest of the world combined.

The country’s market heft is considerable. China buys more General Motors-branded cars than Americans do. Even for Tesla, the still-small American maker of luxury electric sedans, China has become the second-largest market, even though China’s taxes on imported cars are 10 times as high as those in the United States. Tesla officials have said they are considering opening a factory in China.

A week ago, G.M. and Ford unveiled plans to add a combined 33  electric models to their lineups. Global manufacturers like G.M. and Volkswagen are also moving much of their research, development and production of electric cars to China. China in turn is pressuring them to share that technology with their Chinese partners.


And a current article which is interesting as it notes the increase in electric car market share:

https://fortune.com/2019/03/22/electric-car-showdown-china/

VW, which sold only about 8,000 electric and plug-in hybrids in China in 2018, according to Bloomberg, says it plans to sell an eye-popping 400,000 annually by next year and 1.5 million annually by 2025. Tesla, which resisted manufacturing in China when the country still required joint ventures, shifted strategy after the policy changes and broke ground in January on a factory in Shanghai, its first factory outside the U.S. Tesla says the plant will ultimately produce 500,000 electric cars annually.


When ever I read stories like this I keep thinking back to the National Geographic magazine we got when I was a kid and the pictures of the Chinese all in blue or green uniforms riding thousands of bicycles in Beijing. How the heck did they go from that image to where they are today?
« Last Edit: July 30, 2019, 08:37:44 PM by canuck750 »

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