Electric scooters are near-ubiquitous in South-East Asia, particularly China. 30-50 miles of range is plenty for a little urban runabout. You don't need a lot of power to replace a 50cc or 125cc engine, so the battery is small enough to carry up to your apartment and it can charge reasonably quickly from a normal 13A outlet. Electric scooters are often replacing absolutely filthy two-stroke scooters, so they have a disproportionately positive impact on local air quality.
Electric scooters have the potential to be the new Honda Cub - simple, economical transport for the masses.
In addition to carbon emissions reduction, the most immediate benefit is a godly reduction in noise pollution. In SF we have these bastards who love nothing more than to rev up their engines and make noise, on residential streets, at night. I so loathe that aspect of bikers.
I would love it if police would pull people over for their loud motorcycles, check that the system hadn't been tampered with, and if not seize them and revoke the rider's motorcycle license... probably not going to happen though.
As a rider, I can't want until Harley crashes and burns. Ungodly loud and ungodly TERRIBLE sounding machines. I only wish I could afford a Ducati but at least a Duc with Termis sounds GOOD in addition to pissing everyone off. I don't know why anybody would want to ride what sounds like a flatulent cow.
And their riders' need to go wide open throttle at low revs any time they see someone within earshot they think they might be able to 'impress' just murders any desire I have to ever ride one.
I can't say for sure I won't find myself being drawn to a 'cruiser' style motorcycle at some point in life. But I can say for sure that I will never, ever want to associate myself with that particular brand.
Harley has made racebikes in the past, both flat track as well as track bikes. Although yes, they are known for their cruisers.
Agreed, though, of course many people find any loud vehicle annoying. I've seen the occasional ricer banging their R6 off the rev limiter at the gas station. The difference is, the loud sportbike is gone in the blink of an eye. The loud Harley rider feels the need to 'show off' in every 30mph pedestrian zone they can find.
The 90 degree difference between firing pulses is what makes the engine shake and sound the way it does.
This is pretty much everywhere in the US. Aside from local ordinances, there is nothing you can do about. To call people bastards for a loud bike is one thing, but have you ever heard 'loud pipes save lives'?
The sequence is, slow for a stop sign or intersection, full throttle, then heavy breaking for the next block, full throttle, mind you, modified, again. It's infuriatingly annoying.
“Loud pipes save lives” is ridiculous. If you need to be irritatingly loud to be safe then your hobby is too dangerous.
I wish soundproofing standards for buildings were much higher.
Apartment listings only ever focus on just one of the major senses, vision. They make sure the photos look good with prop furniture and just the right lighting. But the experience of actually living in a place involves all of the senses.
I would love to see an apartment listing saying "60dBA soundproofing", "99.9% odor isolation", etc. All of the senses matter.
I'm in Japan and have the same problem with kids with modified exhausts being loud in quiet neighborhoods. This is Japan, where people are NOT loud, and it's even forbidden to talk on the phone on a train or bus.
Assholes are assholes around the world.
Yes I have, and it's complete and total nonsense.
Here are a few good articles on the subject: https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/stop-saying-loud-pipes... https://canadamotoguide.com/2016/07/29/the-truth-about-loud-...
tl;dr version is that basic physics says most of that noise goes backwards, so while a driver may be more likely to notice a louder bike the majority of the increased noise is going in exactly the wrong direction to be useful.
It's a bogus claim made by people trying to justify their annoying exhaust choices.
You'll note that the people who tend to be most vocal about "loud pipes save lives" also tend to be the ones wearing little to no gear and/or riding like jerks. We're not talking about the most safety conscious people out there.
Though, I am a very considerate and conservative rider, whose default is to putter along and disturb as little as possible, especially around humans but I try to respect nature as well. Harleys... yeah, I mostly agree with you.
Then by doing it to show off at red lights etc. they are taking lives by putting loud pipes in constant legal jeopardy.
When the riders who use that phrase don’t wear helmets (and they usually don’t), it seems more than a little insincere.
Departure from their typically... lacking bikes(liquid cooling, engine designed in joint with Porsche). With drastically different styling. They had a niche but never really caught on.
Harley also briefly had a Performance Bike company, Buell that they shuttered.[2]
I'll disagree with your point 4. Even though they're still behind, modern Harleys aren't the stereotypical leaking/broken down rattling apart of the past.
Buell did release the 1125r near the end, which was finally a bike that could truly compete with other sport bikes, and used an engine made by Rotax. Sadly it was too little, too late, and the 1125r had reliability problems to boot.
In short, Buell never stood a chance of being anything beyond a very small, niche brand.
American sportbikes have always had problems, even without harleys heavy hand. The Buell story really is a sad and facinating one for anyone interested in business.
Look at the electric bicycle crowd. Mods, mods, mods. Yes, you can get an electric bicycle to go above 50MPH, but you don't have the tires and brakes to stop the thing.
They're not targeting existing customers, this is a growth story about attracting new, younger, urban/suburban customers.
To make matters worse, things like electric motorcycles, discontinuing the Dyna / FXR line, and changing from an air cooled engine to a liquid cooled engine is also annoying their diehard demographic.
The only demographic which seems to be growing (though, I'm extremely biased on this) is younger kids who are getting into customizing motorcycles. Not "Orange County Chopper" bikes, but buying old Harleys (or Triumphs or BSAs or Hondas for that matter) and making them into cool choppers or cafe racers or whatever. The problem is, this demographic doesn't give Harley any money. They don't want the Harley branded everything. They want old bikes that they can get cheap aftermarket or NOS parts for and they want to ride those.
Even if millennials suddenly thought Harley was cool, they wouldn't have the money to afford one.
Though for the points you listed and others, I expect the run of the mill that they're none for to continue for a while as well. But they have the possibility of owning two markets, so why not?
Unfortunately as I'd need a car anyway, I'm guessing this is going to be well outside my price range. Is there any info on pricing yet? I couldn't see it in TFA.
Longtime Harley rider here, what I love on my Harley, the vibration, the sound, the smell, this Harley as nothing of it, I would never buy it and probably the average Harley rider shares my opinion.
Which is? I'm out of the loop.
This will fail.
1. Harley demographic is entrenched, hard to pivot. Most associate with wealthy boomers and 'lowlifes', or working class murica. Not things as popular today. Other, better, performance ebikes exist, and outside this restrictive submarket, but are not thriving. And I will casually remind readers of Southparks opinion. That said, they do have diehard fans that would buy anything they made.
2. Motorcycles are all about freedom. Range issues, or even the idea of them, robs confidence. This will change, but gas is way more energy dense and on a bike it matters even more than cars. Going into the mountains is not when you want to wonder if your range will halve going up hills with gusto, or screwing it on for the corners.
3. Price perception. The electric will be awesome. Torque is so fun on bikes. But to harley riders, I think it will fell like a 'toy'. And for the price point, its gonna be a tough sell.
4. Tinkering. You do not buy a harley as an intelligent person without ever expecting to work on it. Hell, that is part of the classical appeal of them. There are more than a few explorations of life and motorcycle maintance in print. Maybe this is just my bias, but the connection with the machine is part of what makes motorcycling so intimate.
I very much welcome being incorrect. I shopped for an ebike and bought another used sportbike instead.