If there is one standout memory from our time on the Harley-Davidson LiveWire in Portland, it was just how quick the newest motorcycle from Milwaukee is.
With a 0-100km/h time of just three seconds, the electric Harley accelerates like very few motorcycles this side of a fully-fledged superbike.
Now the US-based manufacturer has laid down official records with the LiveWire in an exhibition at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis.
Behind the 'bars of the LiveWire was three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion, Angelle Sampey, who stepped off her Harley-Davidson FXDR Pro Stock competition machine for the LiveWire in order to lay down world record-breaking runs on the quarter and eighth-mile at the drag strip.
Sampey and the Livewire covered the eighth-mile distance in a best time of 7.017-seconds, while the full quarter-mile course was completed in just 11.156 seconds at a top speed of 177.59kph (110.35 mph). Interestingly the 2020 LiveWire is top speed limited to 110 mph meaning the bike was tapped out as it crossed the beams at the end of the strip.
“Let me tell you what’s amazing,” said Sampey.
“That was the first time I rode the LiveWire. I could not wait to get it on the track. The LiveWire is so easy to ride. Just twist the throttle and go, and you really go!”
Sampey and her Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines teammates, Andrew Hines and Ed Krawiec made a number of head-to-head drag race runs on stock LiveWire models, with Sampey posting the quickest times. Sampey is one of the most successful women in motorsports history with three Pro Stock Motorcycle championships (2000-2002) and 43 Pro Stock motorcycle wins to her name.
The LiveWire recently arrived in New Zealand dealerships with a price tag just shy of $54,000. Harley-Davidson is offering licenced riders a complementary test ride of the new LiveWire through these dealerships – currently limited to Auckland Harley-Davidson and Road and Sport Harley-Davidson in Hamilton – to try and convert the internal combustion faithful to the electric Revelation powertrain.