Gadgetory

harley-davidson motorcycles are known for being black the last week the company unveiled one that was really different project livewire a surprisingly quiet electric bike liveWires Harley Davidsons first electric motorcycle but it isn't actually going on sale anywhere instead probably is touring it around the country to get riders feedback it kicks off today in New York City but Harley let us take an early look at livewire one of its stores in lower Manhattan livewire is a sleek electric bike it almost looks like something off of a movie set but it's completely ready to ride it goes from zero to 60 in under 4 seconds and tops out at 92 miles per hour for now though Harley isn't interested in talking specs just how it feels on the road I'm not a writer myself although I did try out a stationary demo just throughout the engine so we brought in a friend of ours photographer and motorcycle enthusiast first on film provided by Manhattan Culbertson riding an old Honda for a few years now so livewire acquaintance literally took them about five decades into the future superlight it's really agile really like the power just so smooth and so ones on the highway I really want to go I just want to open it up at night as awesome even from owners of traditional Harley's the immediate response is pretty positive I'll be it with some hesitation many saw it is a great starter bike and a good option for those in the city but unsurprisingly the absence of Harley's classic sound was the big turn-off here I think I'd probably missed the the sound of the engine for sure like you know the rhythm and like even like the smell of gasoline like Italy like well kind of nice about that romantic this not writers only concerned either a lot of the classic Harley Owners I spoke with salt library's silence it's a big safety issue I put my baffles out of my my Honda and it just makes people you know because otherwise it's like people won't see those we make left-hand turns in front of you and swerve in front of you so it's like I mean this is so silent it's like yeah there there's definitely a safety issue one told me he thought that an accident was guaranteed on such a quiet bike Harley doesn't see this out as a safety component though the sound that you hear behind me right now is an engineered sound that we put into the product that we feel is you know in its own way very muscular for an electric product so this isn't like any other electric product that's out there retail it's there for the emotion and to that end it's distinctly different from the Harley's that fans know and love one of the biggest things about harley-davidson is like the trademark sound like everyone knows that sound you can hear it coming from a mile away let me know I don't know who this will feel good that's what Harley is out here to gauge them if the writers won't buy it because of the sound Harley's next iteration of livewire whatever that may be might just fix that Harley won't say exactly where it sees livewire going or when it'll put an electric vehicle up for sale but it says there's work to be done in the electric vehicle market and it knows it can help push that forward