My Final Thoughts after 500 Miles With The Harley Davidson LiveWire

Welcome back. I'm going for a ride into central London with the Livewire. It's my final full day with it. So I'll take Monica with me and this is its natural environment, the urban environment. So Monica will be on the back and let's see how it copes with at least a couple of hours riding around London. It's been weirdly beautiful weather for the past two weeks, blue skies, no rain. So I'm going to make the most of it. And actually I've just checked, I'm going to have done about 550 miles on this Livewire by the time I've given it back. So I've really made the most of it. Here we go. Okay, so the Livewire doesn't work on long rides. It's anything over about 80 miles or something, and you spend literally half of the entire range of the bike worried about where you're next going to fill up the motor with electricity. But in the city, it works incredibly well and it's transformed. So if you're on a motorway, even if you're in green mode, which is the most eco mode, going on the motorway 60 to 70 miles an hour in eco mode, 90 to 100 miles range, probably about 95 in reality. But in the city, it's completely transformed. And this is the best example I can give. 17 miles we've ridden into Zone 1 London, monochromised. So that 17 mile journey only lost us 11 miles of range. So when Harley Davidson say that it will do 146 miles urban range, I actually believe that maybe, maybe 135, but it's not going to be far off the 146. So you get close to 140, maybe 130 miles range urban, but that drops to about 90 to 95, even in eco mode at 60 miles an hour on the motorway. But here in the city, no clutch, so you don't get worn out in the awful London traffic constantly changing up and down. It feels a lot lighter than the 250 kilograms and it makes the most incredible commuter bike or urban vehicle. It really is brilliant in the city. So we've just managed to find a quiet spot in London to go through the gear for the day. DMD 75 helmet. This is such a good summer or warm riding helmet because it's got this big vent in the front and a massive open space with thin padding. So it's so nice and airy for warm weather. Blackbird Blackhawk jacket, Australian company, really nice again for warmer rides. It's nice and airy. Rocker, Rocker Tech, slim tapered jeans in black and TCX X-Blend boots in brown. And finally, before I forget, of course, gloves, just standard simple leather gloves. Really like these ones. So that's it. One week and 500 miles with the Livewire. I think I know now what an electric bike has to be for it to be genuinely mainstream. So quick rundown of the Livewire stats. £29,000, range of between 90 and 130 miles and 45 to 50 minutes to charge it fully. For an electric bike to be mainstream and be bought by general bikers like myself, it needs to be sub £15,000, a charge time of 20 minutes and a range of 160 to 200 miles, something like that. Once things change like that, then this can be mainstream. But for now, with the way it is, current price, restrictions with the network, only about 100 miles range in total if you average it out, it means that this bike can only be an urban bike, a commuter and a gimmick. And I mean gimmick in a good way in that it's a fun toy to take out on a Sunday, but you have to be really aware of the restrictions of the bike. And of course, it's £29,000, so that is probably the most expensive commuter motorbike or toy or most expensive commuter vehicle you'll ever buy in your life. So it doesn't really make sense for that unless you're very, very comfortable with money. And it's a Harley Davidson. So I guess for me, I would have just hoped if we're looking at from a bike point of view, they would have just softened it and dialed it back a bit. Just make it a little bit more comfortable suspension, a bit softer seat, a bit softer. Monica said this is a very, very uncomfortable place to be on on the passenger seat. So I would have loved it just to be dialed back a bit. But as a first for the mainstream motorbike manufacturers to come along and do an electric bike. Well done, Harley. It's a great job. Fun bike. But we're probably still a way off this big mainstream. And that's it for my adventure with the Livewire. Although tomorrow I've got my 160 mile ride back to drop it off. So I think there may still be one more little adventure to come with this because you never know how things will work out with the charges. But thank you so much for following me. Please do subscribe to the channel. Give the video a like if you liked it and I'll see you in the next one.