Apple announces new unscripted travel series 'Long Way Up'

I think the first two series(Long Way Round and Long Way Down) are still streaming on Amazon prime if anyone wants to see what the series is about.  I enjoyed both, they make for good lazy Saturday viewing.  I hope they go into why they went with the HD Livewire over a more established electric motorcycle like Zero, which have more range and seem to be better suited to more difficult roads/two tracks(guessing HD is a sponsor).  It will be interesting how they handle charging in less developed area's.  If they rely on a diesel generator on their chase vehicle its going to be a pretty dumb to refer to these as sustainable.  With their current range they are still more or less city bikes, as I believe the range drops under 100 miles at highway speeds.

Kudos to HD for figuring out a way to advertise a $30K “Sportster” that has close to zero interest from their current customer base. Hate to break it to them but they aren’t going to get anywhere near the ROI BMW received when they donated the R1150GS and R12GS Adventures’ for the previous two projects. By the way KTM missed a golden opportunity by declining when they were first approached. KTM was a far better adventure bike then, and now.

Gotta think gas would be easier to come by than electricity in some of those countries they are going through.  ;)

baka-dubbs said:

 I hope they go into why they went with the HD Livewire over a more established electric motorcycle like Zero, which have more range and seem to be better suited to more difficult roads/two tracks(guessing HD is a sponsor).  It will be interesting how they handle charging in less developed area's.  If they rely on a diesel generator on their chase vehicle its going to be a pretty dumb to refer to these as sustainable.  With their current range they are still more or less city bikes, as I believe the range drops under 100 miles at highway speeds.

Id be willing to wager my 2016 Bonnie there is a single primary reason they chose the particular bikes they did - money. Once that decision was made and we have all come to terms with the fact that from a straight up motorcycling pov it may not have been the best choice - there is no reason the series shouldn't be great. The question of e-bikes is always interesting and no matter what anybody says I am sure it is the way of the future. How the duo will handle mapping out proper routes in terms of charging will be interesting though I have no doubt that there will be plenty of back-up available, if not along with them then at short notice. 

razorpit said:

Kudos to HD for figuring out a way to advertise a $30K “Sportster” that has close to zero interest from their current customer base. Hate to break it to them but they aren’t going to get anywhere near the ROI BMW received when they donated the R1150GS and R12GS Adventures’ for the previous two projects. By the way KTM missed a golden opportunity by declining when they were first approached. KTM was a far better adventure bike then, and now.

Gotta think gas would be easier to come by than electricity in some of those countries they are going through.  ;)

Yes, the LiveWire is only rated between 95-146 miles of range on a charge. That’s pretty poor compared to a traditional motorcycle. I think they’re too early on this one.

UPDATE:  The LiveWire was apparently a major flop for the company and the CEO had to leave in February this year because of it.
https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-motorcycles-market-harley-livewire-zero-photos-specs-2020-3