Revelationary Revolution

From V-twin to the sound of silence. How does the LiveWire fare?

- Alan Cathcart

No two ways about it. For Harley-Davidson, the most conservative motorcycle company on planet Earth with 116 years of traditional two-wheeled engineering, to beat BMW, Ducati and all four Japanese manufacturers into the mainstream electric-motorcycle marketplace, is little short of astounding. It’s the fulfilment of a far-sighted project which began back in 2010. And in 2015, Matt Levatich, Harley-Davidson's then-newly-appointed president/CEO, gave the green light to develop the LiveWire for series production, with the result that it’s now available for purchase at a US price of $29,799 + tax.

However, if compared to the rival Zero SR/F’s $20,995 + tax price tag in its most expensive guise, which also includes features absent from the Harley like a windscreen and heated grips, that’s a hefty premium to pay for that hallowed name on the ‘tank’. To power the LiveWire, Harley has employed a liquid-cooled internal permanent magnet motor dubbed the Revelation, developed in conjunction with one of Europe’s top suppliers of such motors for vehicular use. This delivers 105 bhp with a rev ceiling of 15,000 rpm, and 11.93 kgm of torque at 1 rpm. Harley claims this will propel the 249-kg bike from 0-100 kph in 3.0 secs, and 100-130 kph in 1.9 secs, with top speed limited to 185 kph.

The Revelation is energised by an air-cooled 15.5kWh lithiumion high-voltage battery pack which Harley calls the RESS, or Rechargeable Energy Storage System. This is positioned lengthways in the cast-aluminium frame, with heat sink horizontal finning that’s both visually appealing and functional, even if the only time the battery gets hot is when it’s being charged, at rest. Harley claims the LiveWire gives a range of 235 km in city use, which drops to 152 km of combined stop/go and highway use, and to 110 km at sustained 110-kph highway speeds.