An absolute hoot: Kicking ICE on an electric Livewire road trip

As many of you would know, touring on an electric motorcycle in Australia is challenging, but a recent ride showed that it’s doable, and close to becoming a common event.

Recently, two friends and I completed a hugely enjoyable and successful two-day ride on our Harley Livewires through the Blue Mountains and the NSW coast. We chose our route based on a combination of fantastic riding roads and charger availability – and in today’s world that means a very comfortable 300-400km riding day if you plan a little.

Now, truth be told, touring hundreds of kilometres on a fully laden 250kg motorcycle for hours on end is hard work. Being exposed to extremes of temperature (we ranged from 28°C to 12°C and also fog and rain) and the physicality of being wind buffeted while being locked in a fixed riding position is a mental challenge in endurance.

But it’s also part of what makes it so rewarding.

Unsurprisingly, the very low noise level of electric motorcycles is extremely well suited to touring duties with only wind noise for company.

After enduring your ride your next goal of course is to do it on fantastic mountain roads so you can revel in the thrill of swooping through corner after corner after corner, at speed – as the old saying goes happiness isn’t around the corner, it is the corner!

Your machine is ideally exceptionally well prepared so that it handles, brakes, and accelerates quickly but is also comfortable to cruise on and easy to use.

I’ve toured on many motorcycles, but my near-new Livewire is fabulous. It reminds me greatly of the large capacity Italian V twins I used to love so much, being uniquely spirited but incredibly planted on the road with huge amounts of lazy fat power on tap. But this is better, much better.

The silky smooth and ultra-predictable nature of a 100Hp electric motorcycle is sublimely good and makes the bike easier to ride, especially with its exceptionally good cruise control and safety systems. This also allowed me to semi automate range conservation if needed or just motor up a highway on auto pilot.

Ed, Thomas and I left our Northern beaches homes and took Galston Gorge and Cattai Ridge road to our first break at Richmond where the University has two DCF chargers.

This was a short 1.5hr hop and a great place to check our gear and take a quick break, while getting a precautionary top up before the run up the mountains. Only 2 of the 3 ports were functional but even then we only needed around 30 minutes or so for all our bikes taking it in turns, and it was free.

We then headed up into the mountains on a glorious warm day, all our bikes working faultlessly. When we arrived at Lithgow after another 100km or so we realised we could have comfortably made the entire trip without charging at Richmond.

But the rest break was welcome and it allowed us to be as greedy with power as we wanted on some of the best roads. It was a great strategy.

Lithgow only has 2 ports and we needed to top up to 100% for the next leg so we spent a good hour and a half there cooling off under a tree, chatting to other EV owners and having a feed. If we’d been smarter we would have ducked into the RSL across the street for the entire time, but to be honest the social interaction and tech talk was fun for us.

Our next leg was to Taralga via Oberon on a much loved motorcycle road I’ve ridden many times before. At 157km it was about the limit of our range at high speed and loaded up so we expected to need to conserve a little to make it comfortable and had planned a slow charge stop and break at Oberon visitors centre.

They were very gracious with their Tesla destination chargers (which didn’t work for our bikes) and a few power points but ultimately, we popped a circuit breaker so we apologised, reset it and decided to just push on through.

My ride strategy was to start nice and easy with my cruise control gently piloting me at 80kmh and watch how the range predictions panned out. Within 10 minutes I pushed it up to 85, then soon after 90kmh. I realised I could easily conserve and cruise a little more on long uphill sections and use less energy at high speed on downhill runs which was a nice way to ride.

As the pot-holed kms rolled over, it became clear that a little bit of conservation had built me a nice buffer and I was then able to ride with increasing audacity as we got closer. Although many might scoff at the need to temper your enthusiasm, the reality for me at least is that it’s barely an imposition and more than offset by other benefits.

Although we already knew what our range was likely to be from experience, the gradients, wind and temperatures all factor in.

What became clear on the trip is that typical mountain range riding uses substantially less energy than sitting on a freeway at a constant 110kmh. Speed is much more variable and braking (regen) is much more common so its ideal electric motorcycle territory.

I would comfortably take on relatively high speed 160km legs on my Livewire, which at around 2 hours is more than enough time between breaks and potential top ups. On a boring freeway I’d be at around 130km of range. The lesson, or perhaps benefit is take the backroads, slow down just a smidgen and electric motorcycle touring is 100% doable.

We arrived at the historic Taralga Hotel beaming and each with a comfortable remaining range of around 30km. Suffice to say, beers and amps were sipped with equal enthusiasm (thanks for the power point charging Taralga Hotel!), while we watched a huge storm roll in with the rambunctious and curious locals.

The next day we awoke to light rain and realised our strategic error of plugging Ed’s bike into a game machine power point which had been turned off by the staff when they closed up and his extension cord locked in.

We got him plugged back in and at 67% by the time we were ready to leave and calculated we would all comfortably make it to our next charging stop, even with a detour to take in some recommended local roads.

This was a glorious early morning run through valley mist on big fast sweeping roads and virtually no traffic. Day two is always fantastic because you’re well tuned into riding and it was an absolute hoot, allowing me to really explore the limits of my bike. We re-grouped in Crookwell and cruised past the wind farm to Goulburn just like so many other riders have done.

A dead charge port at Goulbourn again meant a bit of swapping but between breakfast and some more shit talking we were ready to go again in no time.

We again chose a detour choosing the slightly longer and slower but way more fun Tallong to Moss Vale road. While fun, increasing rain and very thick fog kept our pace down and the famous Macquarie’s Pass was a wet and slow crawl, as it can be. I watched as I gained a few percent of energy back dropping down to the coast and maximising regen.

We slipped into Dapto Shopping Centre ready for a break from the physical and mental workout of a few good hours in worsening conditions but well in the Zen zone for motorcycling enjoyment. By the time we had lunch, a few more chats with bewildered passers-by and prepped to ride straight into a looming storm, it was time to go again on our final leg for the day.

We opted to go via the Coal Cliff ocean road, Bulli Pass and Helensburgh which was a wet mess by the time we went through, but our bikes and good riding gear got us through just fine. The commute back across Sydney traffic was predictably tedious and I arrived home after 135kms with 42% remaining on my bike and a sore backside.

When it’s all said and done, this all-electric ride was every single bit as fun as an ICE ride, the only difference being we hung around for slightly longer breaks and spent less than $10 on electricity instead of around $100-$150 on petrol.

Now if you are into longer or faster riding days, I wouldn’t say we are there yet. If you get impatient at the thought of potentially waiting for other vehicles to finish charging or a limited network of reliable chargers, don’t do it. If you ride with large groups, or want 100% freedom with speed or route, it doesn’t quite make sense yet either.

My last two electric motorcycles couldn’t do this trip. They lacked the quality, range, DCFC ability and the network to match didn’t exist. It was another level of challenge strictly reserved for the uber patient. A Livewire will do it today.

Within 6 months, you’ll be able to get bikes like the Energica Experia with between 200 and 250km of similar riding range, or 420km in the city, with more brands and bikes hot on their heels and dripping with features and promise.

Within 12 months hundreds if not thousands more charge ports will emerge, making charging easier and faster, expanding the possibilities. I dearly love my Livewire, but I’m already imagining my next bike’s capabilities.

If on the other hand, you love the thought of silky-smooth power, big fat instant torque and have a little patience to be an early adopter, electric motorcycling is here. Now.