Livewire Del Mar

[ducatirdr]

Those that know me, know I love useless motorcycles like the Honda Grom, Trail 125 and the SuperCub 125. Add to that bikes like my old Ducati 996 as a lust worthy, yet useless bike. They are good for track days and burning your undercarriage but not as transportation as a daily rider. Well I added another bike to the collection that is probably the most useless of them all. An electric Harley-Davidson Livewire Del Mar. The bike swap a couple months ago down at the Vanilla Bean with a Livewire S1 rider who was interested in my new RT. We did a 5-7 mile loop with him following me as I took his S1 for a hoot of a ride on the winding roads near the Bean. The shove out of the corners with TC cutting in while the front was allowed a bit of wheelie made me realize I was having fun. This slightly silent shove of torque made for a fun ride.

I got home and my YouTube feed suddenly had Livewire content in it. Imagine that! Yes these devices are listening to everything going on. The goal of targeted consumerism worked. A few days later I am test riding a Del Mar after finding out that the prices were reduced to $9,999 till December 15th 2025.

Sadly the place to purchase a Del Mar is big Harley dealers. If you have ever stepped into a H-D dealer lately you will find yourself surprised by the Don Draper coupled with Wolf of Wall Street financial negotiation. We are talking over the top cliche sales plays with ruthless pricing adding fee upon fee. I hate Harley dealerships. Then I found Ocean State H-D. An oasis of old school meets new motorcycle dealership. This is how dealerships used to behave. It wasn't big business. There wasn't corporate sales strategies to get the most out of every sucker that walked into the dealership. This was the price of the bike plus freight without mark up. Not even an admin fee! Well F me! I'm buying a new Harley albeit a Livewire. Something I swore I would never do again.






Let me say that this thing is a hooligan machine. Pulling wheelies and riding them on balance point quite easily. The size of a Ducati Scrambler 800 with the torque ability to do a smooth yank up to a wheelie at 25 mph with no clutch. Just a little body English and up it comes. With the bike being so quiet there is no tell tale clutch up sound announcing to all the goings on. Also that torque really comes into play when you are driving out of corners. The Dunlop DT-1 tracker tires are a nod to the flat track looks. They aren't bad and they do have enough feel to let the rear slide on exit without TC on. Also the bike not having any engine flywheel effect on how quickly the rear tire lights up once traction is broken means that the controller is monitoring how much power can increment even with TC off. It mimics a heavy flywheel tracker motor. For those that understand electric propulsion you can see they put a lot of effort into making this power delivery mimic an ICE power plant even with TC off. Pretty amazing amount of time they had to spend on tuning the controller.

RANGE - It being November and temps in the 40's meant range is knocked down by 25% by the cold temps. The 60 mile trip to the Vanilla Bean and back used up all the electrons but 7%. The bike under 10% goes into a range extending Turtle mode. It knocks acceleration down to that of a Grom. Still its not a safety hazzard as it keeps up with traffic and can reach 65mph in turtle mode. But you are going to burn up that last remaining bit quickly. I was riding it like I was on my Z900RS SE. Really riding it and having fun the whole time.

The bike has a level two port built into it for fast charging out on the road. I haven't used it yet other than to test it out. I have a level two in my garage for my plug in hybrid which I use most of the time on battery.

My plans for the bike are simple. This gets yanked out when I simply want to get a rush of adrenaline during the day between meetings or out to lunch (work from home). It is also a great after work ripper. For the weekend I think its to the Bean and back but that's about it. Although I may plan at least one multi charge 300+ mile long distance day just to experience the drama of finding places to stop for an hour and grab a bite while the bike charges.

[Kurlon]

Test rode one when I went to Daytona, had a blast. The range unfortunately shuts down most of what little riding I do given I start in the middle of nowhere. I'd like to have some more seat time some day though.

[nick5446]

Electric motorcycles rule! Have a blast!

[tls25rs]

If you still have it next summer I might have to ask for a test ride

[boosten lebaron]

Did you look into the kawi ev bike too? I think it's like comparing apples to oranges but I don't really know much about either. I think you can get those kawi bikes for under $5k new these days.

[tsorfas]

You’re so close to me I’d love to test ride this thing.
What a great review also, thank you for sharing.

[ducatirdr]

Did you look into the kawi ev bike too? I think it's like comparing apples to oranges but I don't really know much about either. I think you can get those kawi bikes for under $5k new these days.

There is a saying that Hybrids are the worst of both worlds. Yes, that definitely applies to the Kawi Ninja 7 Hybrid and Z7 Hybrid. Funny thing I was called out on the Z7 Hybrid in this FB commercial for Motorsports Intl - https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1C3G73ArGa/ 3/4 way through they have a z7 Hybrid 50% off.

[Paul_E_D]

Whoa! How did I miss this? When did you buy it? That looks (and sounds) like a blast. A little tracker runabout is on our radar.

[ducatirdr]

Whoa! How did I miss this? When did you buy it? That looks (and sounds) like a blast. A little tracker runabout is on our radar.

I bought it Nov 15th. This winter has been one of the coldest. Even back in November so there wasn't much riding season left yet I did put 221 miles on it before it got the VIP treatment in the living room.

My kids and grandkids got a kick out of it.


The bike is basically a Ducati Scrambler 800 Icon with nearly the same weight and handling (although the 19" front and rear wheels are a bit heavy to change direction). The torque of the bike is pretty fun. As I mentioned it has the torque of a clutch up wheelie at 30mph without a clutch. It honestly feels a lot like the Ducati Scrambler 800 with a breathed on motor. The bike was built with nearly every option known to modern motorcycles. Bluetooth helmet integration for answering phones or music playback with next track and volume on the bars, plus a crappy built in navigation on the screen, to ride modes with lean sensitive ABS and TC. The wildest feature is the bike has some lifetime phone home over air updates for remote updates without need of a USB or wifi. Yes this bike has way too much tech for something you do short rides on.

Yes the bike is a stealthy hooligan machine. It's 19" DT-1 Dunlop tires makes it a bit wonky for handling but on the crap roads around me in the MA/RI/CT triangle its just fine. If the later model Alpinista was the same $9,999 as the Del Mar I would have purchased that one. It's 17" tires would have made the bike a bit more sporty. I do want to take this out on a non sport bike track day next year. I need to keep an eye out for that. If I make it you're welcome to take it out for a rip.

[OneCheekRider]

I totally missed this thread too! Congrats! Looks and sounds rad!

I was looking at getting a used Zero but that transitioned into the Kawasaki Hybrid after I joined the Zero owners FB group and got cautionary tales of buying used (battery failures). Seems like most of the Zero guys suggest to buy new and expect to use the warranty. I'm definitely curious to see how reliable these Livewires are. I think electric would be awesome for my commute & city trips but not sure I'm ready to commit just yet, $10k seems like a great deal but still more than I want to spend and potentially limiting if I want (need?) to extend the range. That's why the Hybrid appeals to me, at least if I can get it for $5k.