Our own reviews(motorcycle edition)

Anesthesia

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2011
Messages
1,352
Location
Turku Finland
Car(s)
'88 Civic 1.6i-16, '05 Accord, '07 Dyna
Let's kick this off with a bike I´ve been meaning to test ride for a few years.

Harley Davidson Livewire

I've wanted to ride this out of curiosity since I've seen this at the local HD dealer often. I was told they´ll not be selling this here in the future when they drop the Harley Davidson name off. Someone might, but the people at the dealer were saying that Europe might not get any.

I like the looks. In this color in particular. The controls are mostly all familiar HD stuff but what is odd at first, is the lack of a clutch lever and gear lever. How they integrated the functions of the screen and modes was intuitive. Took me some time to get used to not using them. After a little while it was very easy to ride. And that´s mostly the biggest feeling I had afterwards. The livewire is very easy, very smooth and fast. They say 0 to 60mph in about 3 seconds. I didn´t try the acceleration from a stand still but I did do a couple of pulls from a low speed. It´s fast enough.

The bike has four modes, highway(or cruise), sport, rain and eco. I tried all of them. Very different bike depending on what you use. Mostly I used sport and cruise. Rolling off the throttle in cruise vs. sport was surprising. The latter produced a much bigger "engine braking" than the first. The acceleration was also a lot sharper. The bike felt fairly nimble, but the center of gravity was a bit interesting. It felt as if it was in the middle of the bike. That sometimes made it feel like it´s heavier than it was but then again it felt perfectly agile in other situations.

The seat was comfortable. A lot more than the kawa Z900 I rode in Austria. Otherwise the over all ergonomics felt very very similar to that bike. I suspect that this would suit me a bit better than the Z900. I had less weight on my arms than on the Kawa. The sound of it was interesting. You hear the driveline whine. Nothing else. Jumping on it from a Dyna, that you absolutely do hear and feel when it´s running the difference is incredible. I can´t say much about the range. It wasn´t full when I got it and the numbers kept changing a lot depending on how I rode it. If they are even remotely correct you won´t get from Turku to Helsinki on one charge(about 160km)

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Harley finally demonstrates a modicum of forward-thinking, immediately lobotomizes themselves.
 
2023 Indian Chieftain Dark Horse.

I´ve already ridden the Indian Scout and FTR before. Both I liked even if they both had things I wasn´t fond of. Riding position was not for me on either one. I was eager to try this one.
The riding position is very....very comfortable. The controls are relatively normal. Only the foot controls are very far forward and that takes time to get used to. The engine(116cui) is very smooth and civilized. Nearly european in how it feels. Compared to my Dyna(96cui) though it feels a bit sluggish. This is surprising when you consider there's a 300cc difference.

I was told later on that this was because I had it in "regular" riding mode. Apparently the "sport" has all the bells and whistles(direct quite translated from Finnish). He did not tell me about the modes. IMO a cruiser doesn´t need riding modes. There is absolutely no need to cut back on power they never have anyway. I looked up the specs and to no surprise - like HD they are not giving you a horsepower number. From various sources on both engines the difference in HP seems to be less than 10hp depending on what source you believe. The Indian has a good amount of torque more than my bike by some tens of newtonmeters. The bike is about 45kg heavier than mine(305kg vs, 350kg). That is a very surprising fact considering the comparable HD Ultra is 400kg. The Indian had a very low center of gravity and it was easy to throw around. At highway speeds it felt slightly nervous above 120kmh on a windy day.

The bags are about 30litres per, very much enough. Ergonomics were very much on point and other than things controlled through the screen everything was quickly on hand. The bike also had a CEL on, the dealers doing the test rides had no idea why or what was up. I asked if this was a possible reason why it felt a bit slow compared to my bike. They again referenced that I had it in the "wrong riding mode". Riding mode that you can only change through the infotainment system. Unlike the Livewire that had a dedicated button for it.

At 43k€ they said it`s a lot cheaper than a comparative HD, this is a matter of how you look at it. A Street Glide Special is a similar style, similarly equipped bike at the same 43k€. Between these two I would say it's a matter of witch one you feel more about. For me the Indian was a welcome surprise in how comfortable it was, but for me that certain something was missing and it felt a bit hollow. Who knows I might feel the same on the comparative Street Glide. I may need to test one to know.
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