Electric motorcycles are such a great way to enjoy life on two wheels. They’re quiet, powerful, and emit no fumes. But electric motorcycles are often prohibitively expensive. LiveWire, Harley-Davidson’s electric motorcycle spinoff, wants to change that. This summer, it’s launching two electric mini motorcycles that should perform similarly to a Honda Grom, but also be affordable. Meet the LiveWire Honcho, the little electric cutie that LiveWire has finally revealed more information about.
As I have written several times in the past, electric motorcycle adoption has faced a bumpy road in America. One of the ways that motorcycle manufacturers get more range out of their ‘lectro steeds is by loading them down with batteries. This works, but it also results in heavier motorcycles that might cost $15,000 or even sometimes twice that. The American motorcycle market is usually seen as one that favors riding for pleasure rather than primary transportation. Thus far, more than one company has found it hard to sell the American biker on a pricy electric motorcycle, especially since some of these expensive bikes will see their range drop below 100 miles when ridden on a highway.
Many companies are pivoting to selling cheaper, more affordable motorcycles. One of them is Harley-Davidson’s electric spinoff, LiveWire. As of the time of publishing, LiveWire does not sell a current model year motorcycle that’s cheaper than $11,999. Last year, LiveWire’s cheapest bike was $9,999. Even Harley-Davidson itself has a bike that’s $2,000 cheaper than that, and the Motor Company is not exactly known for affordability.
To illustrate the state of electric motorcycles in America, our friends at RideApart cite the Motorcycle Industry Council in saying that LiveWire is the number one seller of electric motorcycles with 50 HP or greater in America. The twist? LiveWire sold 653 electric motorcycles in 2025, only 41 more units than in 2024. LiveWire has long had a plan to make itself more accessible, and it’s by producing a line of smaller, more affordable motorcycles. Now, we’re finally getting to see them take shape.
Small Is The New Big
When I first wrote about the minibikes last year, they did not have a name or really any hard information to go with it. LiveWire just rolled out the prototypes and told the world that we’d get one trail bike and one street bike, both with roughly 125cc-like performance.
Late last year, LiveWire confirmed that the bikes would fall under the name of “Honcho” and be the company’s first motorcycles to ride on its S4 platform. This was fascinating news for a number of reasons. Back when LiveWire was spun off into its own company in 2021, it announced a scalable architecture called Arrow. The idea was that LiveWire’s engineers could take the same bones and stretch them out or minimize them to create a whole lineup of motorcycles. The benefit of the Arrow was that it had fewer parts than the Harley-Davidson LiveWire and could be built 44 percent faster.
LiveWire said that its Arrow derivatives would be the S1, the S2, the S3, and the S4. The LiveWire One is considered to be an S1 “premium” bike. The S2s, which currently consist of the Del Mar tracker, the Mulholland cruiser, and the Alpinista sport standard, are middleweights. The S3 bikes are meant to be lightweight machines developed in partnership with Kymco. Finally, there was the S4, which LiveWire said was the designation for a heavyweight flagship.
Well, the S4 Honcho is neither big nor heavy, but maybe LiveWire sees it as a kind of halo model. The term “Honcho” is derived from the Japanese term 班長 (hanchō), which roughly translates to “group leader.” So, these are small bikes with big names.
Some of what we learned last year hasn’t changed since my last report. LiveWire intends to sell the bikes as the S4 Honcho Street and the S4 Honcho Trail. Both bikes have tubular frames and use their battery boxes as structural members. They also have the same hydraulic disc brakes that have their functions linked and are activated with a left and right lever, no foot pedal.
Power comes from a pair of swappable batteries that weigh 40 pounds each. LiveWire has not said anything about charge times or capacities, but did say that the prototype Honchos have batteries from Kymco. At the very least, having swappable batteries means you can own a Honcho without having a garage. You’ll just have to get used to lugging up to 80 pounds of batteries into your apartment.
While unconfirmed, the fact that the batteries of the prototypes were made by Kymco suggests Kymco might have had a hand in some of the design. Here’s what I wrote about LiveWire’s relationship with Kymco last year:
Back in 2022, LiveWire partnered up with Taiwanese scooter giant Kymco, with both companies throwing a ton of money and technology at each other. Kymco gets to play with the Arrow architecture while LiveWire gets to borrow Kymco’s scooter expertise. In 2023, RideApart reported that Kymco’s Ionex EV platform, which features swappable batteries, will be shared with LiveWire. Cycle World reported in 2024 that Kymco was also leading the development of LiveWire’s Arrow-based lightweight S3 platform.
The differences between the Street and the Trail are few, but important. The Street has a telescopic fork up front, a monoshock in the rear, 12-inch wheels, street tires, and a 30.5-inch seat height. It also has all of the lighting, turn indicators, and mirrors to make it street-legal.
The Trail does away with all of the street-legal stuff and trades the street-friendly suspension for a taller fork and a taller rear shock. The Trail version’s off-road tires have meaty lugs, and the seat height is a slightly taller 32 inches. The Trail version even has a reverse mode. It’s said that the Honchos are sized to be bigger than a pit bike, but not full-size. So, about on par with 125cc gasoline-powered bikes.
LiveWire’s marketing shows models enjoying the S4 Honcho Street like you would a Honda Grom and the S4 Honcho Trail like you would something like a Coleman minibike. Apparently, this marketing might not be incidental. Cycle World has reported that, at shows, they’ve heard the Honcho unofficially called an “electric Grom” and LiveWire’s website describes the Honchos as “mini-motos.”
This, I think, is good. The Honda Grom is a great benchmark for a 125cc-style motorcycle, and I hope the Honchos are just as fun. LiveWire hasn’t published the final specs yet, but the specs from the prototypes were promising. LiveWire said the prototypes could go up to 100 miles on a charge, had a top speed of 53 mph, and could accelerate to 30 mph in three seconds. I would expect to see in the ballpark of 12 HP to 15 HP. LiveWire also said that the prototype Honchos weighed “around 250 pounds,” which would make them a little heavier than the Grom, but not by much.
Of course, the 100-mile range figure is optimistic and likely assumes rolling slowly around a city. But even if you got 50 miles of range ripping around the Trail version, that’s some good off-road fun right there!
All of that assumes that LiveWire can nail the price down. A Grom-like bike should have a Grom-like price. Sadly, LiveWire has not revealed pricing either. The S4 Honchos were also supposed to come out this spring, but LiveWire delayed the launch to likely sometime this summer. I hope that, whenever these do come out, they have a price far below $10,000 or even far below $7,000. You can get a Honda Grom for $3,899, including destination charge, and that kind of low price is going to be hard to beat.
I think these little bikes could be winners if LiveWire doesn’t screw up the price. I could see the Honcho Trail being a cool little ride you put into your truck bed and use for a weekend of hunting. The Honcho Street can be a fun, cheap-to-run urban ride. It’ll be even more appealing if it can do stunts like a Grom can. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.
Top graphic image: Harley-Davidson/LiveWire
Another motorcycle that is DOA unless law enforcement starts actually enforcing E-Moto laws.
I’ve built a few ebikes, and ridden a Ruckus and they are fun. I can’t fathom spending $6000-7000 on one of these. I’d just buy a Miata and do a $300 track day instead and then commute on backroads with a huge smile. I’d want to ride one with someone else, and then the cost is doubled.
This seems like just the type of thing I want to buzz around the woods near my house. A lot of hiking trails nearby, so I don’t want to have a loud gas bike and drive people nuts, but I do want to be able to get around quickly when needed, and much of it is too narrow or too steep for a cheap used mule or whatever.
Pricing is critical. In terms of specs, this is about equal with the NIU MQi GT100, which costs about $6k delivered. If HD could come close, they would sell quite a few. But I predict the Harley would be closer to 7000-7500 OTD.
Personally, I’d prefer the moped style over a monkey bike.
Finally, a Harley product I’d be interested in. These electric trail style bikes look like a lot of fun, whipping around on one at an offroad park or on dirtbike trails is probably a hoot.
These remind me a lot of the Cake bikes. They never made it to market in the US, and only in a very limited way in Sweden. I hope these make it to market.
“Both bikes have tubular frames and use their battery boxes as structural members.”
Yeah uh see they are full of BS. The batteries are NOT structural members. The battery tray/opening doesn’t appear to be structural either, as you can clearly see the tubular frame around it.
I think the big reckoning for all the motorcycle companies is the influx of cheap, affordable chinese eBikes. I have a couple, and man, it is hard to deny how awesome/fun/useful a full suspension e-mtb is for less than $999. I unlocked the 27mph top speed and use it instead of my car for short errands.
Seconded. Although I’d trust a $999 e-bike’s battery about as far as I can throw it. Too many unexplained fires are a matter for the courts.
I have two pedal assist bikes – a Fuell (RIP) and a RadWagon 5. In both cases they are often the fastest & most practical method for getting around my traffic-choked neighbourhood. Probably wouldn’t buy the RadWagon again, though. Too many bespoke parts, and their controller is locked down tight, so that any adjustment to assist is impossible.
That’s the benefit of chinesium bikes; everything is sort of universal since these companies are just mashing universal components together. My brakes went out after a crash so I bought Shimanos. The twist throttle was annoying so I spent $12 on amazon for a thumb throttle and it plugged right in. My fork is going bad so I can just use anything that fits.
The E-Bike of Theseus 😀
I mean the RadWagon has Tektro brakes, Shimano derailleur…but the chain rusted over in <400km when I’ve had chains be spotless at ten times that. And like most of the powered bikes, exactly zero effort made to add lightness; the thing is built like a tank.
Compare/contrast the Fuell with its belt drive, Bosch mid-motor, etc… I’m not sure that one entirely “gets what you pay for” in the e-bike space but there’s an argument.
Anyway if I were buying another long tail cargo bike I’d be taking a hard look at the Surly Big Easy (recently highlighted by FortNine).
I’ve ridden expensive ones, and they are FAR superior for actual mountain biking trails (steeps, drops, jumps) but for most chill gravel roads/urban areas, cheap eBikes are fine. I honestly PREFER the thumb throttle on super tight switchbacks so I can avoid pedaling and clipping a pedal on my inside foot.
The profile doesn’t scream “electric bike” like so many do – tricky mission accomplished.
Depending on the price, these seem to have finally caught up with the upper trim Surrons. I guess that’s good? I like the retro styling. I just don’t know if I can bring myself to support a company that has fostered a culture that… I am not a fan of
I have seen Sauron clones from lots of vendors on Amazon claiming 50+ mph and up to 100 Miles per charge with two batteries. a lot of them are under 1500 bucks. only a few have the Monkey bike styling like this, but still. This might be a hard sell unless it gets classified as a moped for licensing. But then it would also end up with I think a 35MPH speed cap.
The reason this might sell vs the cheap Amazon “e-bikes” is that this will come with the correct paperwork to legally register it as a motorcycle, which is what it is, and can then be legally ridden on the road.
None of the Amazon options have a pathway to legal riding on the road and are too fast to ride on greenways, so they stand a very real chance of being crushed into a $1500 paperweight if you use them the way they’re advertised.
you must be in Cali, they are more lax on this currently in the middle of the US. but yeah, at some point the politicians even around here are looking to hang a hook on road safety and the under 50 CC and E-Bike issue is popping up occasionaly still.
I used to commute on a motorcycle and have been considering getting something small for my 3 mile, sub 45mph commute. An electric motorcycle would be ideal, but everything is just too expensive to be worthwhile.
This could be a fun option, until I remember I’m 6’4 and an “all-the-gear-all-the-time” kind of rider, which makes for a pretty hilarious image on such a small bike.
https://a.co/d/0e1bOwNm
I think the biggest hurdle right now is the legislation black hole most of these vehicles are getting plopped into.
Unlike the “e-bikes” causing issues, this (at least the street version) is being handled exactly like any other motorcycle from a traditional brand and will be treated as an electric motorcycle, with all the registration, insurance, and licensing requirements applied. An important distinction is that LiveWire will provide the correct documentation to get this legally titled, registered, and insured as a motorcycle.
The problem is how many “e-bikes” are sold with features that disqualify them from the legal e-bike classification and therefore require insurance, registration, license, etc to ride on the road. Most of the companies selling them pitch them as the same as any other bicycle and eligible to be ridden like one, but also don’t provide any documentation to allow the owner to title, insure, and register them as a motorcycle (which is what they really are).
I’m also fairly sure that for most areas, there’s not even a legislative black hole, there’s just a lack of knowledge on customers’ part and lack of useful information or deliberately incorrect information on the sellers’ part.
The example in your link has a 4500W motor and 38 mph top speed, meaning in every jurisdiction I know of it can’t be classified as an e-bike and therefore can’t be treated or ridden like a bicycle. That means it’s not legal to ride on greenways (or sidewalks, where bikes aren’t allowed anyway) and requires insurance, registration, etc on the road.
The issue is that the seller says it’s good for commuting, when they know they aren’t providing any means to title, register, and insure the thing as the law requires to actually ride on the road.
There was a short time I commuted by bicycle (no electric assist at all) and looked heavily into getting an e-bike to keep that going on my longer, slightly higher speed commute.
However, the 28mph assisted top speed (for class 3 e-bikes) isn’t enough to make my commute safe, so I gave up on it. I could have bought one of these overpowered “e-bikes”, but I recognized that it would not be legal to ride without registration and insurance and most sellers don’t even offer a way to achieve that legal requirement, so it would be an expensive garage decoration.
That’s part of the appeal of LiveWire doing something like this, since it would be the legal way of going about getting an electric two-wheeler.
I was interested for a bit in Huck cycles, since it’s somewhat local to me and they provide the necessary documentation to register legally, but it looks like they went under. Likely because people saw what they charged and decided they could get the same thing from Alibaba or whatever for 1/2 the cost, and didn’t realize that Alibaba thing isn’t legal to ride anywhere but ORV trails.
the fact that it has the pedals is the work around in our area at least. were it to not have those, it would be an electric motorcycle and have to be titled as such. Around here it is just a fast bicycle to the popo.
I think the issue is that too many consumers think that just having pedals is the workaround to having a 40-50 mph cheap commuter and the sellers are happy to let them believe that, but that’s almost universally not the case in the US.
There’s an E-bike classification system that I think does the best job of defining e-bikes (and by exclusion any motorized vehicles that wouldn’t qualify as e-bikes, regardless of if they have pedals):
https://ebikes.org/ebike-classes-state-laws/
There are 36 states that adopt these classes, but most of the rest either have similar rules (20-25mph powered top speed, 750-1000W motor limit, must have pedals) or they require license, registration, and insurance just like a car or motorcycle.
The two exceptions are Kentucky, which says as long as you follow the rules of the road like regular bicycles there’s no restriction to what an e-bike is, and Hawaii, which is similar but says you have to register for $30 at a city hall. I assume both of those states presume you’re talking about something with pedals.
While riding something like your Amazon link on the street is technically illegal since it has too large of a motor and too high a top speed, you can probably get away with it if you keep it below 20-25 mph, because that top speed is the main thing that sets it apart from the legal ebikes.
But rip around at 40 mph and the cops probably aren’t going to see it as a fast bike anymore. At that point you need to have a license plate and be following all applicable laws for motorcycles.
thing is, if you go 20 or 25, the cars piling up behind you on the same streets that a pedal only bike is also fully legal on the danger still seems to grow. simply because of aggressive and inattentive drivers.
Yeah, the main reason I’m in favor of speed/power limits to be classified as an e-bike is the opposite problem – powerful “e-bikes” on greenways and bike trails. It’s not an issue if they’re limited to about 750w and 20-25 mph, since I can do that on a regular pedal bike. It’s much more dangerous for me when Amazon sells an “e-bike” that can do 50 mph and some kid thinks that means he can ride it on the local mtb trails and slams into me at 45 mph.
Basically I just want to see “e-bike” defined as a top assisted speed of 20-25 mph. That’s the max to be allowed where regular bikes are allowed.
Anything faster or more powerful is an either an electric motorcycle and has to have license, insurance, and registration and can only go where motorcycles can go or it’s an electric dirt bike and only allowed in the places dirt bikes can go.
Are we sure these are S4 platform and not S3? They definitely sound more like S3 while the descriptor Harley gave for S4 sounds more like a Goldwing-type competitor.
Honestly I don’t get the obsession with Hydraulic brakes on small dual sport bikes like this over cable brakes/pushrod brakes
In my experience on dirt/gravel you run out of traction long before you run out of braking force.
Also for electric bikes drums make more sense from an efficiency standpoint as they don’t drag, so longer range, better regen, etc.
Not that manual brakes have to be drums, for little bikes like this, especially with regen braking, cable brakes/pushrod brakes are more than enough to skid the tires.
I mean… most mountain bikes have hydraulic discs these days, I just bought a set of shimano levers/calipers for $55. Going back to older style brakes makes no sense man.
I understand they’re the new hotness, but unless you’re on the surface of the sun cables and pushrods don’t leak.
I’ve been riding hydros on MTB’s for at least 15 years, I’ve never had one leak yet.
New hotness? Hydraulic brakes have been the standard mountain bike offering for like 25ish+ years on pretty much anything nicer than a WalMart bike ever since disc brakes became commonplace. Even before then, I have an early 90s mountain bike with hydraulic disc in the front off a moped and hydraulic rim brake in the back and they both still work flawlessly. All that is ignoring these things are motorcycles, which have had hydraulic brakes since like the 50s and became the standard in the 60s. Cables systems are worse in pretty much every single way. Worse clamping power, worse feel, more finicky, etc. Most cable brake systems suck compared to most hydraulic systems.
I’ve never had a hydraulic brake system leak beyond a loose bleeder I didn’t tighten enough. I’ve certainly had to continually adjust for stretching cables and continually played with cables to make them try and slide smoothly in their housing/sheath.
The only hydraulic brakes that are a minor PITA are SRAM ones that don’t run mineral oil and use DOT fluid instead.
Yeah, cables just snap, stretch, fray, tear through the housing, or pull out of the attachment point. Hydraulic are way more reliable.
Hydros or nothing. I HATE cable discs.
If you think cable is bad. Wait till you hear cable/hydro hybrid brakes.
I’m familiar. I have zero interest in any bikes with those. I see those a lot when looking at drop bar bikes, if I see them in the spec sheet I move on.
self adjusting brakes are nice. the cable setups require maintenance adjustments and if you miss that and the brakes fail at speed then that is actually pretty dangerous.
Spoiler Alert: It’s Harley Davidson (ok, a spinoff), they will definitely screw up the price.
That has been the Harley way. It will be interesting to see if the new CEO is any different.
We don’t have an RV, but if I did, I think I’d have one of these tucked away for running around the campground / state park / forest as well as trips to the general store. Small enough to put on a rack on a trailer hitch. Seems like a perfect companion for a class a / b / c RV.
The term “Honcho” is derived from the Japanese term 班長 (hanchō), which roughly translates to “group leader.”
You just blew my mind. I would have sworn it was a Spanish/Mexican term?
These look like hella fun, but the pricing will be key. Their cheapest regular motorcycle is now about $12k, so these much more simple mini-bikes will hopefully come in close to that Grom price mentioned. I’m going to guess $5k.
Also, I really hope they are working on longer-range versions of their existing motorcycle lineup. That is the single biggest hindrance now that they’ve lowered their base price to far more reasonable levels.
Man, I thought Honcho came from a Native American language/term.
I had a class in college with Margaret Cho’s brother. His name is Hahn Cho, pronounced “Honcho”.
Just now realizing that the Head Honcho would be right at home at the Department of Redundancy Department.
Almost as bad as saying “MSDS sheet”.
Don’t forget your ATM machine PIN number.
It’s been simplified. It’s now SDS sheet
The cheapest Harley is the Nightster at $9,999. The are also launching a cheaper single next year that will be based on the X440 sold in India.
Every Harley should be electric to save our eardrums. F*cking obnoxious vehicles for a generally f*cking obnoxious clientele.
MAHA! Make All Harleys A-lectric!
Every Harley comes out of the factory with street legal exhausts the meet federal and state noise requirements. The first thing many owners do is throw away that exhaust, remove the catalytic converter, and put on a straight pipe.
After the emission tampering settlement Harley no longer sells illegal exhausts themselves but there are lots of aftermarket options.
MAHA would solve this cultural problem instantly!
Solving problems by merely declaring them “not a problem” is an interesting way to conduct business.
I beg to differ as far as the result goes. They might meet the federal and state noise requirements on whatever technicalities they require, but they are still obnoxiously loud and intrusive in a way no other stock motorcycle exhaust is – all big brands included.
Is it the “Harley benefit of the doubt”, is it that they straight on cheat, is it that they satisfy the limits at the decibel level for a specific frequency, but are full blown in the lower frequencies – they keep that inimitable, LOUD, ugly, antiquated sound of mechanical inefficiency at work.
If Harley’s sound was a middle-aged man, it would be a mostly strong guy walking bare-chested with a beer belly and arm fat on his otherwise strong arms, that would look way beefier with a shirt – and suggest hidden power rather than revealing love handles.
Stock Harleys are not loud. I’ve rented just about everything in the catalog over the years. Not a Harley fan myself but they are no louder than a Ducati twin other large motorcycle.
Get off your high-horse. HD, just like every other bike manufacturer, and every car brand, needs to hit certain STOCK sound decibel limits. Period.
It is a testiment to how low those sound requirements are that seemingly every rider decides to install aftermarket exhaust. And they probably figure that if they “must” buy a new exhaust, might as well get a really loud one. Unintended consequences from having too-strick volume limits on stock units.
“It is a testiment to how low those sound requirements are that seemingly every rider decides to install aftermarket exhaust”
No, that’s a testament to how self-absorbed the riders are who choose to install the aftermarket exhausts.
Loud pipes save lives and with seemingly ever more brain-dead and distracted drivers out there, I don’t blame a rider one bit if they want louder pipes. Doesn’t help that newer cars are too isolating for drivers – blocking out sounds and making people not pay attention to the road.
A distracted driver’s “oppsie” can easily be the difference between life and death to a motorcycle rider. Stupid regulations make riders unsafe so you better believe riders WILL take it up on themselves to stay as safe as possible.
If it’s so dangerous that they feel the need to burden everyone with ear-splitting sound everywhere they go, I’d recommend running around in a safer toy instead of forcing their insecurities on everyone else.
Most of the noise goes backward since that’s the direction the tailpipe points. The most common car-motorcycle collisions are head-ons and cars turning left in front of an oncoming cycle. Rear ending a stopped bike is up there as well. How do the loud pipes help here?
A lot of these safety-conscious riders leave their helmets at home.
They say it’s about safety. Doesn’t seem like it’s really about safety.
Damn Karen you need to chill
Eat recycled food James
Coming to residential streets near you, soon – and running every stop sign, ridden by 12 year olds in flipflops & shorts (no helmet, of course) that figure themselves invincible.
I hate the fact that I had a similar thought, but it is definitely a real problem.
I think it’s gonna be super rare for a 12 year old to be getting these. It’s not like the super powered ebikes you can get delivered to your door from China. I assume you’re gonna have to go into a dealership to get this just like a a Grom and that right there is going to keep a huge number of kids out of it, let alone the likely cost is a few multiples higher than those ebikes as well.
Also going to require a motorcycle license to operate.
Not the Trail, since it isn’t a street legal bike. But I don’t think people willing to ride them dangerously where they shouldn’t be, are going to be stopped by the lack of a license.
People seem to be presuming that some parents will buy their kids the Trail, and then the kid is going to ride it dangerously and/or where they shouldn’t be.
I think it’s just going to be too expensive for that. Why drop $3k, $4k, or $5k (or whatever these are going to cost) on this, when a SurRon will cost half that?
I think it’s more likely this ends up displacing some Groms in roaving groups of 12O’clock Boys, but again, the price will likely prevent that from happening in any real numbers.
Surrons are $3K to $8K depending on the model.
Well, shit. Replace SurRon with “generic ebike”
Surron is selling 40K bikes a year in the USA so it isn’t surprising that Harley is trying for a piece of that pie. It will be interesting to see if the legal status helps them sell some bikes as the Surron are not legal as a street bike or off-road.
Licensing isn’t the real barrier here. If you don’t ride motorcycles I think you’d be surprised at just how many are out there regularly riding without a license. Plus, the Trail model isn’t even street-legal and wouldn’t require a license anyway. The true barrier to a motorcycle is the price tag and the dealership buying process. Buying online lowers people’s guard, leading them to assume a product is safe and regulated just because it’s so easily accessible. This leads many parents to unknowingly buy high-speed ebikes for their kids. They misinterpret cheap, direct-to-shipped “bikes” when they are actually much more like a moped or even motorcycle in disguise.
That’s a fair point limiting the marketability of these entirely if the “cheap” e-bikes off Amazon will outperform them all day long.
How about 14 year olds?
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-13/mom-faces-charges-after-son-on-e-motorcycle-allegedly-struck-fatally-wounded-man
This is such a geriatric take.
I have no idea what has gotten into people where they think that every non-city neighborhood is a retirement community, but it’s tiresome.
I live in a place like this, and the bored, retired boomers are CONSTANTLY calling the police on kids riding ebikes. They’re not stunting, they’re not weaving in and out of traffic, they’re not ripping up local parks or riding through anyone’s flower bed. They’re just buzzing along, going to a friends house, going to the gym, school or someplace to get junkfood. These are not hardened criminals, they’re kids goddammit. You know, like all of us once were when we probably did something stupid or careless out of youthful ignorance. The only difference is that we were forgiven and the sins were forgotten.
Sure, some kids will do stupid things on these, just like adults do stupid things on their own bikes or cars. Young stupid people grow up to be old stupid people in many cases.
Seriously, leave the kids alone.
Give your head a shake. Rural kids will have old XTs like they’ve always done because you can’t ride out of the ditch with 12″ wheels.
Thank god someone with some sense. We build our environments in this country so that a motorized vehicle of some kind is necessary to do anything. Then we get mad at young people for a) trying to get around with the means that are available to them or b) being online a lot because they have no accessible mobility.
Well said. Do kids in my neighborhood sometimes annoy me with their e-bikes and mini-bikes? Sure. Was I one of those kids in the 80s/90s but with dirt bikes and three wheelers? Absolutely.
And yet there is little to no enforcement of the all the laws that bad drivers routinely break, which lead to 40,000 traffic fatalities per year.
Maybe our ire is directed at the wrong thing.
I saw these bikes at the One Moto Show in Portland a few weeks ago. They look very oddly proportioned in person. The “street” version also didn’t have mirror or lights to make it street legal which I thought was odd. Maybe they took them off for the show. The rep did say that both bikes have room for a 3rd battery under the seat in the storage compartment.
If priced right the Street could be a great local commuter but Harley doesn’t have a history of pricing anything competitively. Maybe they will with the Livewire brand.
Potentially 120 lbs of battery on this thing? Damn.
Oof. I’m sure plenty of people will be bowled over by one of these trundling down city trails.
It’s already a problem with the cheaper e-dirtbikes.
40 to 120 lbs depending on how much the owner wants to spend.
I think that they already look oddly proportioned in the photos
Any adult sized bike on 12″ wheels does.
If they can hit the $4,999 price point, they may have a winner.
Of course in mini-bike sales, a winner will move literally tens of units. The Grom, a runaway leader sells about 10,000 bikes a year in the US.
There were 42K Surrons sold in the USA last year.
I mean he does rule Mordor.
According to them, they’ve sold 110K bikes globally to 2023, and about 40K more since.
https://surron.com/course
I see the 110K milestone in you link – nothing about 40K since.
My number came from an interview on ADV Rider with a guy that collects motorcycle data and sells that info to companies.
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit, the Street might just be the perfect commuter for me and my <2 mile commute to work with 45 mph speed limits. Let’s see how that price comes in and whether or not I’d need a motorcycle endorsement on my license to ride it.
The Trail seems like what a lot of irresponsible parents are buying their kids as “E-Bikes” already. That’ll sell great until the lawsuit. At least, cheaper clones of them will, but they’re the American company whomst lawyers can touch, so they’re the scapegoat…
The Street is a much more interesting proposition as an urban commuter. I have seen people stunting on Groms – not saying where, when, or what I thought of it at the time – so if it’s well balanced and good for that, there might be a market, especially on the more eco-conscious west coast.
Imagine a pair of Honcho Trails in the back of an El Camino!
Or if you wanted to go all electric, you could put the two in the back of a Slate.
Why not put your pair of Honchos in a Jeep Honcho?
Now just give it 16″ or 17″ wheels and sell it under $5k and it’ll be a success.
In 1966 my brother bought an HD 50 cc toy motorcycle. We set up an obstacle course that ran up the front lawn, into the living room and then hallway for a difficult left turn then right then left again to get out the back door to the backyard A quick(?) oval around the elm tree and back down the driveway to do it all again. We were crazy fuks, but it’s how we learned to fall on a bike, shift actual gears and laugh our butts off. Parents of course at work.
PS. I would buy that bike again if offered to bop around the neighborhood or snag a custard at Kopps. Hell even a short run to Aldi’s for milk snd eggs.
I have full confidence that Harley can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory based on pricing alone.
I don’t want to defend Harley too much, but this is a problem basically ever electric motorcycle offered in North America has faced thus far. And amazingly enough, the S2 and One are actually extremely competitively priced ($12k and $16.5k), so they are clearly working on it (or burning money until it all implodes).
I can’t help but feel at this end of the market (aka, the bottom), Harley can’t be competitive compared to what’s pouring out of Asia.
This bike is also coming out of Asia and is made by Kymco. I will be interesting if Harley lets Livewire compete on price.