Harley Davidson entering the e-bike market

[ncmired]

Per https://www.serial1.com/, as part of broadening (refocusing?) their market.

BMW has had their toes dipped in the e-bike waters for a while.

[73Eldo]

Interesting. Why not? I can see some crossover customers and brand loyalty if they do a decent job.

For me maybe someday I will have 2 Harley's in my stable. Right now its just a couple of their golf carts.

[73Eldo]

I could not get the link to do much at first but it finally loaded. Cool retro/ original style. Belt drive is also cool but I notice its a mid drive with no gears. Had to step through the video but in the one shot where it pans around the rear you can clearly see its a single speed hub back there. I wonder if they are doing some gear change (CVT?) up front or just have some reasonably efficient wide range motor? Maybe the Nuvinci thing in the mid drive? Seems like I saw one of the big guys has some sort of a chain drive CVT sort of thing to replace their pinion drives, that could be interesting coupled to a motor.

[Wheelbender6]

The belt drive is cool, but I want some gearing like a derailleur or IGH. They will probably offer one of those. Anybody see any specs on the motor?

[73Eldo]

Guess our NCM is our inside man. Tons of people breaking the story saying you heard it first here yesterday. Still no real info but a few you tube guys had photos from trade shows that had prototypes on display last year so its apparently been in the works for a while. Really strange thing to me is no mention of it being a mid drive with no gears. All the shots I have seen look like it and the other protos are single speed belt drives. I can't believe people are not wondering whats up with that.

Rumor seems to be the black serial one special edition will be a very limited run and preorders will start in a couple weeks. That is likely what the countdown on the site is counting to. Also rumor is it will be as pictured with the leather grips and brooks saddle and may be stupidly over priced but will still sell out since it looks cool and says HD on it. These SE bikes will ship early 2021 and the regular line 2022. All rumors of course.

[DaHose]

I took a quick peek at that HD e-bike, and it really is sharp looking. I dig how it harkens back to their original motor driven cycles. Although HD is kind of replaying their one-trick pony game, and that always annoys me. All that said, I don't know that I would buy it, but I really do like the design.

Jose

[73Eldo]

I was talking to a random cyclist at a park last night and he said he heard that initial limited edition bike was going to be $3,999 USD. If thats true you will be paying a lot for a name and a little style but I don't doubt they would easily sell even a couple thousand if they make that many of those first edition ones. I still want to know more about the drive like if its got any gearing or is some amazing new design that doesn't suffer from no gears.

[Dshue]

These have been in the news for a while. Before the pandemic hit there was supposed to be a test ride video series. I think the trip was from somewhere in Mexico to southern California. I'm pretty sure they are using Rohloff rear hubs. And only prototypes have been shown in photos, so unless someone catches a pre production test bike out in the wild you aren't likely to see a functional bike until it's unveiled to the public.

[73Eldo]

A Rohlof makes $3999 a little more reasonable.

[Dshue]

A review,
https://youtu.be/h1l8VD2w7wg

[ncmired]

Thanks much, was just about to post the video link.

The price points are pleasantly surprising, along with other refinements like the rear hub.

[73Eldo]

Interesting. I don't think buying one will be very high on my list but I would like to ride one just to see how it feels especially things like having the weight down low. They must have put some restrictions on him or he felt that he couldn't get as detailed as he sometimes does. Some of his videos he gets deeper into details that are missing from this one. Guessing he won't be the only one since there are E bike people with more followers than he has so we will see if they are all basically the same once they all drop. Interesting that there was no mention of if these will be just direct sales or if there will be some sort of dealer or at least demo network sort of thing.

[ncmired]

Interesting that there was no mention of if these will be just direct sales or if there will be some sort of dealer or at least demo network sort of thing.

I've been wondering about this too. While there are some HD dealers who've "softened" their look, there's still a lot of old-school, off-putting to some shops still out there.

I priced out the RUSH/CITY SPEED at $4,999 - an equivalent Riese & Müller comes in at $5,369. Both feature torque sensing, belt drive, aluminum frames with decent components and fenders (racks on the HD).

I do think, in the current pricing range and with the HD brand recognition/appeal, they likely have a sellable product - how and where I'd have hoped they've figured out.

I won't be a customer but have to admit I've, over time and probably unwisely, outspent their price range. A titanium frame, Ultra motor powered Watt Wagon is what I want (but won't be buying).

[73Eldo]

I know direct sales does work for some brands but since service seems to be a huge issue for ebikes if they could figure that out that would maybe give them another edge over competitors. I'm not much of a motorcycle guy but working out of motorcycle dealers doesn't seem that likely or like a real good idea. It seems to me (again not being a motorcycle guy) that many of the HD dealers are pretty much just HD bikes. Some of the other brands seem to be more 'motorsports' so you see a variety of Polaris and Bombardier products which I assume will start offering more and more E models so maybe that is what they are thinking the HD tie in would be? A way for HD to expand? Maybe start selling golf carts and pool tables? Oh wait they already did that once.

[Dshue]

I miss my old AMF Roadmaster friction drive mo-ped. If you put a trunk bag on any modern 20" E-bike you would have a hard time telling the two apart.

[ncmired]

Yeah, the AMF days. They do license out the brand - yes, on pool tables even.

Vrooom, vrooooooooommmmm.

[Dshue]

I would go for the Serial 1 over other similar e-bikes. I think the features and refinements will be better. I firmly believe that cycling centric brands are too tied to traditional cycling and won't advance on their own until they are forced to by non cycling centric companies such as HD as well as cycling centric companies like Priority. You won't notice a difference in the pedal effort to assistance between a Specialized commuter and full suspension emtb with the same motor.