If you want LiveWire’s Alpinista to behave like a gas motorcycle with long range and fast fill-ups, you’d be looking at the newest and sportiest Arrow S2-powered electric all wrong. On an electric motorcycle aimed at urban users, expectations need to shift. Riding as long as you want until you are sore and tired is not a reality; because of range limitations, electrics are generally designed for slaying city blocks on shorter rides not conquering the Great Plains. Short and thoroughly planned-out trips are an electric motorcycle’s bread and butter, especially LiveWire’s Del Mar, Mulholland, and now, Alpinista. The three bikes are positioned to give a simple and enjoyable experience with a claimed range of 120 miles in the city and 71 miles on the highway. Mind you, thanks to the sporty nature of the Alpinista, you’re almost compelled to push the bike into a more traditional motorcycle usage and distance, because it’s a powerful and excellent-handling naked sportbike.
Check out the story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/livewire-s2-alpinista-review/
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Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/
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Check out the story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/livewire-s2-alpinista-review/
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ
Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/
Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld
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SportsTranscript
00:00This is the LiveWire S2 Alpinista, LiveWire's latest electric motorcycle on the S2 platform.
00:08And as you can see, it looks very similar to the Delmar and the Holin.
00:12The only thing making this thing different is really just the wheel sizes, the tires,
00:16a little bit different styling, and the price.
00:19This thing comes in at $15,999, but it uses the same Aero System 2 battery and powertrain
00:25as the other bikes, and claimed range is about the same as well.
00:29You have 120 miles of city, 71 miles highway, and 90 miles of combined range, but that's
00:35under 55 miles per hour.
00:37To put the LiveWire Alpinista's real-world range to the test, we rode it three distinctive
00:42ways.
00:43First, full aggression, riding hard with no concern for efficiency.
00:47Second, a typical street ride, mixing city and highway and having fun along the way.
00:53And third, a hyper-efficient run, staying under 55 miles per hour and sticking to city
00:58streets.
00:59The question is, how much do these riding styles actually impact range?
01:04Will the results be closer than expected, or will the differences be dramatic?
01:08Let's find out.
01:09That's the thing, you have to kind of be methodical where if it was a gas bike and you like, you
01:14know, an aggressive sport mode, you just put it in there and stay in there the whole day
01:18if you wanted.
01:20But with this thing, you kind of have to plan out your spirited riding and yeah, when you
01:25can really give it all the juice, so yeah, we'll do eco for now and yeah, when the road
01:31calls for it, we'll drop it into sport mode.
01:49It'll do wheelies without traction control on, but it kind of limits it, it'll let you
01:57get it up and then I think it has some sort of lift control, like wheelie control, so
02:01you can get a pretty good one and it'll set it down nice and gently, which actually is
02:05pretty cool, especially for people maybe that aren't super experienced with wheelies, especially
02:09on an electric bike, because it's almost kind of like a, uh, a sale of, what do they say?
02:15Fail safe.
02:16It's like a little safety net.
02:17So, but if you want to get them and try to really extend it, like balance point style,
02:22you got to turn traction control off.
02:28So we're in eco mode, it, uh, you know, obviously they call it range mode.
02:32I'm just going to call it eco mode because that's kind of how I think of it, but yeah,
02:36it's going to have a lot of regenerative braking, which is nice, you know, not only to help,
02:40uh, put energy back into the battery, but it's nice around town or in a little parking
02:46lot like that.
02:47Cause you don't have to be on the brakes.
02:49The regen slows the bike down so much.
02:51Road mode is going to be not the most aggressive, but it's going to be fairly aggressive with
02:56a little less, uh, regenerative braking.
02:59Sport mode is the most aggressive throttle map with the least amount of regenerative
03:04braking.
03:05We have a cruise control, which I think will be very useful on this bike because you can
03:10kind of make sure you're not speeding and draining that battery.
03:14The mirrors are nice.
03:15They're not my favorite, but they, uh, because there's not a whole lot of vibration, there's
03:20almost no vibration on an electric motorcycle.
03:23They're, uh, they're super clear even at 60 miles per hour.
03:26All right.
03:27We're about to, uh, I'm going to jump dropping into sport mode.
03:30The light's green.
03:31I'll show you just how quickly this thing, it just jumps off of the line.
03:37See, 65 is the speed limit.
03:39So I think, yeah, we'll just do 65, 96%.
03:43So yeah, you can see once you get over 55 miles per hour and you're at a, you know,
03:50high sustained speed, it just, uh, starts sucking the life out of the battery.
03:56Just cruising at 65, this bike is very comfortable.
03:59The ergonomics are super neutral.
04:01I'm about, I'm probably, I would say five foot eight, 28 inch, uh, inseam and the, uh,
04:09the reach of the handlebars is super comfortable and if I, if you're shorter, you have more
04:13room to scoot up, but the handlebar reach is super comfortable and neutral.
04:18Uh, the reach to the pegs, I'm at less than a 90 degree angle on my knees.
04:23So yeah, I mean, I could spend all day on this thing.
04:26We're in California, so I'm stacking up traffic behind me, 45, so let's, let's just increase
04:32it to 50.
04:33All right.
04:34Look at that.
04:35We are basically at the water in Laguna.
04:38It's just right down there.
04:39There's PCH.
04:42And from the cycle world headquarters to this spot is exactly 11 miles according to the
04:47live wire.
04:48And we have, uh, lost 10% battery life.
04:53It's clear that when you are at high sustained above 55 miles per hour and you're not chopping
04:58the throttle, getting some regen back that this thing, it just, it just sucks the juice
05:03out of it.
05:04All right, let's talk about the battery and the powertrain for a second.
05:07This is a 10.5 kilowatt hour battery with a claimed 84 horsepower, 194 pound feet of
05:14torque.
05:15And they say this thing will go from zero to 60 in three seconds.
05:18And I believe them because this thing is unbelievable.
05:22And how that translates out on the road is incredibly fun.
05:26There's no gears to shift, no clutch to use.
05:29It just has the most amazing and powerful torque hit right off the crack of the throttle.
05:34And it just keeps surging through the power.
05:37It just keeps pulling.
05:38And so that's what's made it such a fun and honestly one of the best wheelie bikes I've
05:42I've been on because you have that torque to get the front wheel up and then you just
05:46never have a lack of power.
05:47Even when you're at 60 miles per hour, you just screwed the throttle on and you can correct
05:52the wheelie or when you're in the canyons, you're mid throttle through a corner and as
05:57you spot the exit, you give it some throttle and it just jumps off a corner.
06:02It just always is like surged up and charged and ready to just throw a lightning bolt to
06:06the rear tire.
06:08It's really impressive.
06:10And then when you want to just be chill or you're a new or beginner rider, you throw
06:14it in eco mode and it's just it's the simplicity of an electric motorcycle.
06:18You just twist the throttle and go.
06:20It's so intuitive, but in eco mode or range mode as they call it, it's not this crazy
06:25aggressive hit that can, you know, scare someone or break the tire loose.
06:29Just roll into the power.
06:30It's really just a fun and relaxing ride.
06:33And then you have that more regenerative braking in range mode, so you can just chop the throttle.
06:38You don't have to be aggressive on the brakes.
06:40It's just all you have to worry about is just steering the motorcycle, looking ahead and
06:45just applying the throttle that you need.
06:49So 30 and then, oh, I got to zip in front of a car.
06:52Oh, that thing comes to life, even in eco mode.
06:56It's pretty, it kind of throws you back if you're, if you don't anticipate it.
07:01It's really, it's pretty exhilarating.
07:04It kind of has, especially in sport mode, it kind of has like the, the low end torque
07:09and hit of like a big twin, big V twin or something like that.
07:14But then it pulls in the mid and top range, like a, like an inline four.
07:19So like I need to squirt in front of this car and it'll just keep going, keep going.
07:23I mean, this thing will go to a hundred miles per hour or it's limited at 99, but it'll
07:28get there very quickly.
07:30I think maybe 55 might be the new speed limit, I don't know, but cars, it always feels like
07:35cars are stacking up behind me when I'm trying to conserve battery on this thing.
07:41So we could talk about charging times.
07:44If you're out and about, let's say that, instead of 80%, you're at 20%, you would be, and it's
07:52all, it's not even lunchtime, which is barely lunchtime.
07:55You'd be thinking, okay, I'm not going to make it the rest of the day.
07:59So you have a couple options.
08:00You have a level one charger, you have a level two charger.
08:04A level one charger is included when you get this bike for, you know, like your typical
08:09household outlet, it'll, uh, it'll charge the bike from zero to a hundred percent and
08:19right around nine hours.
08:21So overnight you come home from work, you could do that.
08:25It'll charge it from 20 to 80%.
08:28Like if you're out having lunch or you rode to the office, you plug it in during the day.
08:33It'll charge it from 20 to 80% and, uh, five to six hours, I think right around there,
08:40somewhere between five and six hours.
08:43But if you have a level two charger, whether it's yours at home, one at the office, or
08:47just out and about at a local mall, that is where this thing will really work as a, an
08:53errand getter and, you know, juicing the thing up during lunch and while you're running
08:59around town because I believe it charges from zero to a hundred percent on a level two charger
09:05and I think like 140 minutes or so and it'll charge it from 80 or 20 to 80% on a level
09:13two charger in about 70 to 80 minutes, somewhere around there.
09:18So, you know, a lot more realistic on a level two charger for using this thing and running
09:24through a couple battery lives throughout the day, go to lunch, charge the thing up
09:29for an hour.
09:30You'll get, uh, you'll get quite a bit of range back.
09:33For some, this isn't a replacement for gas motorcycles.
09:36It's an addition to, or just another option.
09:39But for some, this could be your only motorcycle depending on your lifestyle and just kind
09:44of what you intend to do with it.
09:45You know what?
09:46Let's get to try that, uh, power mode I made.
09:49Let's see.
09:50Let's jump into, oh, I can almost, I can already feel that increased power jumping from eco
09:54to road to sport, but it was A. Okay, so now we, oh my goodness.
10:02Wow.
10:03That is aggressive for sure.
10:08And uh, now we're on the freeway, but let's jump back into eco mode.
10:13Yeah.
10:14Yeah.
10:15Let's jump into eco mode.
10:16And eco mode, look it, you get in front of that car right there, still has plenty of
10:20get up and go for sure.
10:22It has, it really still pulls hard in eco mode, but, uh, sport mode, it just, it's like
10:31you're shot out of a cannon.
10:32For most people, it's, it's nearly impossible to, uh, to run errands and commute and do
10:41all those sorts of things, or go ride your favorite back roads and stuff like that without
10:46getting on a freeway or a major highway or a fast street for, you know, at least a few
10:52miles.
10:53All right.
10:54I got over in the far right lane behind these semis, we'd been going about 55 and the percentage
10:59hasn't dropped, uh, as quickly as it was when we were going 70.
11:03So we went, I don't know, we started at 29, we went seven plus miles and we lost, uh,
11:12over 10% battery life, right?
11:15And we, yeah, we started at 72 about when we got on the freeway, we're down to 58.
11:20We went from 29 miles on the odometer or the trip to 37.
11:26So yeah, I think at most highway speeds in most areas, uh, you're going to experience
11:36losing over 1% range or battery life per mile.
11:42You kind of got to pay to play on this thing.
11:43The harder you ride it, the quicker you're going to drain that battery, higher speed.
11:47So yeah, we're finding out kind of what, if you're going to ride kind of aggressively
11:52and just kind of how you would with a gas motorcycle, what kind of range you're going
11:56to get.
11:57So, but yeah, really impressive.
11:59The brakes, the suspension, the chassis, but you have a Brembo four piston caliper up front,
12:04a single piston Brembo caliper at the rear.
12:07And these brakes are really nice.
12:09They're sharp.
12:10They have a good initial bite and they just have so much feel at the lever.
12:13You are really progressive.
12:15And that just allowed me to feel really comfortable getting the thing up into a no stoppie and
12:19modulating it, trying to get it a little higher and, and locking up the rear, which
12:23was really nice.
12:24Like coming in and like, not that you can hack on this thing, like a gas bike, but just
12:28you have a really sporty, uh, braking package out of this thing.
12:32And that goes the same with the suspension.
12:33You have a 43 millimeter inverted Showa fork up front with compression and rebound adjustment.
12:39And then a Showa monoshock with a progressive linkage at the back with preload and rebound
12:45adjustment.
12:46And this stuff is really good.
12:47Opened up the compression a little bit for my lighter weight.
12:50It's taut.
12:51It has really good holdup and that goes with the chassis.
12:54Like it just, it has so much feel and it's agile because I think the weight is low, but
12:58you don't have that, uh, internal combustion, the gyro effect, but it just has really direct
13:03feel.
13:04It's not super quick handling, but it's sharp and to give a little bit of an, like an initial
13:09input and it just is a very stable, sporty package.
13:12It's really impressing me at what you can do on this thing.
13:15All right.
13:16So we're going to do a little launch right here.
13:17They claim zero to 60 in three seconds.
13:20So we're in sport mode.
13:22I got traction control on because I'm afraid I might loop the thing out, but I'm just going
13:26to grab a handful of throttle and send it.
13:28So here we go.
13:29One, two, three.
13:46I'm really impressed with the performance of this bike.
13:56This is the first Livewire I've ever been on and not that I doubted it, but I definitely
14:02didn't think I could ride this thing like a high performance naked bike, but it's, you
14:07certainly can.
14:08I think we're going to turn right here onto El Toro and see if we can make it out to the
14:15canyon for a couple of twisties with enough range to rip up some canyon roads and still
14:20make it back to the office.
14:21All right.
14:22I don't know if you can see, but there's the mountains back there.
14:26They're really not far away, but right now with 30% battery life left, they seem far
14:34away.
14:35Probably only five, five, five, 10 more miles, but now that we're getting low on battery,
14:43it's becoming more of a concern to me.
14:46For someone looking for an additional bike in their garage, something with tons of performance,
14:51build quality, and the unique experience of riding an electric motorcycle, yeah, this
14:58comes at kind of a premium price tag of $16,000, but it works.
15:04When you ride it and use it the way it's intended to be used, it has zero complaints.
15:12It'd be criminal not to put it in sport mode for these twisty canyon roads.
15:17Let's get it.
15:19Brakes are good.
15:20A lot of good feel, good bite, progressive stopping power.
15:25This thing just feels like a scalpel out here.
15:28It turns in ... I mean, you got to put a little bit of effort like I talked about, but once
15:32you do, it just carves.
15:35It just carves up.
15:37It just ... You just look through the corner.
15:40It follows the line that you set, and then you have all the power to just rip off the
15:46apex.
15:47You spot the exit and just zing.
15:51Look at that.
15:52Just jumped forward.
15:53Oh.
15:54Oh.
15:55Good thing I have traction control on.
15:59I kind of goosed it on the exit there, and the rear end broke loose.
16:05A little bit of cold pavement, maybe some cold tires.
16:08That will take it easy for the rest of this canyon road.
16:13The results are in.
16:14We rode this thing three different ways and got three different results.
16:18One, we rode it like a hooligan with no regard for range in sport mode, hard on the throttle,
16:24well above 55 miles per hour, and we got 55 miles of range.
16:29Two, we rode it like you would on an everyday ride.
16:32We did stints on the freeway.
16:33We rode through the city, and we rode on some back canyon roads, above 55 miles per
16:38hour at times, below 55 miles per hour at other times, and we got 79 miles of range.
16:45Number three, we rode it super conservatively with range in mind, staying below 55 miles
16:51per hour on city streets, and we got 92 miles of range, which is still less than what Live
16:56Wire claims of 120 miles of range in the city below 55 miles per hour.
17:02However, the Live Wire Alpinista is one of the most fun, exhilarating motorcycles I've
17:07ever been on.
17:09The power plant is amazing.
17:10The power comes on like an uppercut punch from Mike Tyson, and then just keeps pulling
17:15like a rocket ship trying to leave the atmosphere.
17:18It's truly incredible.
17:19And the chassis is amazing as well.
17:21Super sporty handling, agile, quick to steer.
17:25The suspension's really good.
17:26The damping control is excellent.
17:28It's soft and supple in the initial part of the stroke.
17:31Good for city riding, but then it has plenty of hold up when you're out doing spirited
17:35riding in the canyons.
17:37And then the Brembo braking package is awesome as well.
17:40Super sharp response at the lever, progressive stopping power.
17:44It's really a good motorcycle with great fit and finish.
17:47For me personally, I drank the Kool-Aid on electric motorcycles after riding the Live
17:51Wire Alpinista.
17:53It's so much fun, but the fun just doesn't last long enough.
17:56I can't wait for battery technology to improve so I can get 200 miles out of a single charge.
18:03Now if this works for your use case, the Live Wire Alpinista is one of the most exhilarating
18:07motorcycles on the market, and you should definitely consider it.