14
THE NAME IS
A NOD TO THE
HISTORIC HARLEY
‘SERIAL NUMBER
ONE’ OF 1903
from €3499 / serial1.com
Does that say Harley-Davidson on
the side? Bit of a departure.
Yes, but also no. Biking history tells
us that Harley-Davidson essentially
bolted an engine to a bicycle back
in 1903 when it launched its very
first motorcycle and, according
to the brand, “changed the way
people moved”. You don’t need
a degree in marketing to guess
that Harley is claiming to be doing
the same thing today with the
Serial 1 e-bike range.But why e-bikes? And why now?
Money! The global e-bike market
was estimated to be worth over
$15bn in 2019 and it’s only set
to grow. So Harley has used the
expertise garnered from its recent
LiveWire electric motorcycle and
squished it down... while perhaps
also addressing a bit of an identity
crisis, with the next generation
of biker gangs more likely to have
leather manbags than waistcoats.
There are four models – the baseMosh/Cty, two Rush/Cty variants
for “the sophisticated commuter”
and a 28mph Rush/Cty Speed
range-topper that’s US-only.Yeah, but what’s with the name?
It’s a nod to that historic Harley of
the early 1900s, the Serial Number
One... but the company also didn’t
want to fall into the same trap as
Triumph and Ducati, who recently
released e-bikes that looked a lot
like existing city cycles with a fewbrand stickers (to quote Partridge,
“They’ve rebadged it, you fool!”).
Harley decided to create a separate
company that benefits from H-D
engineering but does its own thing.Hence the hideously high price...
Yes, and the more powerful rides
will set you back over five grand;
but what could be hipper than
cruising the streets on an e-bike
that looks like a motorcycle from
the dawn of the 20th century?SERIAL 1 MOSH/CTY
I C O N