Harley-Davidson's Electric Urban Mobility Concept Videos
During a little downtime at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado, H-D took the opportunity to show just how functional its two new “electric urban mobility concepts” are – the ones it showed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, and which our man Dennis wrote up here.
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Jackson “Jacko” Strong is an X-Games freestyle MX gold medalist, among other things, who seems to be quite impressed with the as-yet-unnamed mountain bike-looking ebike, which really isn’t technically an ebike at all as it has no pedals?
Anyway, what we called “Concept 1” seems to lie somewhere between ebike and KTM Freeride – and whatever it is it looks like a blast to ride, as well as entirely unthreatening even for people who’ve never ridden a motorcycle. Also unthreatening for the ecosystem, which is hugely important to many in the intended demographic.
Concept 2, ridden by X Games host and former pro snowboarder Jack Mitrani, is an even simpler device not dissimilar in form to the Briggs & Stratton scooters some of us grew up with as kids. Except for the high-tech looking DRLs and things on this prototype. Wait, the scooter in the opening part of the vid has a light; the one Jack actually rides does not.
Concept 2 is still in a state of flux, then, while Concept 1 is looking nearly production-ready. At the CES show, Harley-Davidson said they’ll go into production in 2021 and 2022. Why not? The ebike market is red hot right now. (I’m still waiting for my Yamaha test unit, of which Yamaha claims to have none since they’re selling so fast.)
On a day when Harley’s stock is down another 6% due to disappointing earnings, it’s past time for The Motor Company to start thinking outside the box. I for one would love to see H-D lead the way into all kinds of clean vehicles just for the sheer irony of the thing. Good luck Harley!
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My perspective, as a long time mountain biker and more recent dirtbike trail rider, the mountainbike/dirtbike hybrid will NOT be welcome on mountain bike trails. PERIOD. "Pedal assist" bikes are already a disputed grey area. Mountain bikers have worked very hard, often against much more powerful "hikers only" groups for access to multi-use trails and even to build our own trails. Adding a "motorized bicycle" to the mix will be bad for everybody (except for those "hikers only" types who want us to get kicked out...). As fun as it may be, if it has a motor it needs to stay off of non-motorized trails. This thing could conceivably be ridden uphill as fast as a bike coming downhill... and the ability to spin the rear wheel, which increases ruts, will really not be appreciated on non-motorized trails that aren't armored the way our OHV trails are.
Edit: "Pedal Assist" bikes, like this Yamaha worry me, because we have such a tentative hold on trail access, but at least they LOOK like a mountain bike. This style of bike is the "eBike that is hot right now". This Harley thing whizzing by hikers on trails will not be ignored... I would hate to drive a rift between two communities I care about, but I will absolutely side with pedal-only mountain bikes against motor-only mountain bikes... That said... I think it would be REALLY fun on some of my local bike trails, with some significant modifications to make it ride like a bike... That massive seat, tank, and tail are really in the way... You need to be able to move front to back, including dropping your but behind the seat, as well as side to side to ride tight/steep technical bike trails. I could never get my 250 down my favorite trails, even if it weighed less than 100lbs. If Harley wants to market these things they should side with big bike companies like Trek and Specialized to lobby for trail access first!
Harley has tried to think "out of the box". Their customers aren't interested. It's easy to say. I'm no fan of HD. But their customer base locks them into the products you see.