Leaks reveal next Harley-Davidson electric motorcycle could go cruiser direction
Harley-Davidson’s electric motorcycle brand LiveWire is still up to its riding leathers in its second electric motorcycle model, the LiveWire S2 Del Mar. But even as the company is pushing out deliveries of that bike, new leaked details are already revealing design information about the company’s next model. And it may just be the more comfortable cruiser that so many have been waiting for.
I hear it all the time, “Why aren’t there any electric cruiser motorcycles?”
If there were, it’d make sense for Harley-Davidson to be the one to make it happen. And it’s starting to look like that could be the case.
While naked bikes, often known as roadsters, feature a modestly tucked ride with rear-set foot pegs, cruiser bikes tend to offer a more relaxed ride with lower saddles and more forward-mounted pegs or even platforms. And those just may be features found on the next LiveWire motorcycle.
That info comes to us thanks to some sleuthing by Motorcycle.com’s Dennis Chung, who helped us get our first look at new details regarding a second model built on LiveWire’s Arrow platform.
The Arrow platform was always expected to have a multi-model future. Its design includes a structural battery that allows major hardware to be built around the same platform, resulting in different styles of electric motorcycles that share the same basic guts, i.e., batteries, motors, and controllers.
While the S2 Del Mar that is currently making deliveries is more of a naked street bike with flat tracker roots, new details show that the next model on the platform is likely to draw from a more cruiser-styled heritage.
Harley-Davidson filed trademarks for the bike this year that suggest it will be called the S2 Mulholland. Just as the S2 Del Mar bike got its name from the Del Mar Flat Track Races, the S2 Mulholland likely draws inspiration from LA’s famous Mulholland Drive, a curvy road that has become a favorite among local and visiting street riders. I took the original Harley-Davidson LiveWire motorcycle down that very road a few years ago when I first reviewed the bike.
Harley-Davidson has lent credence to that naming theme after it was discovered that the S2 Del Mar’s service manual includes references to another model codified as “S2MH”, while the S2 Del Mar has its own “S2DM” abbreviation in Harley-Davidson’s service manual.
But it would take more than a twisty highway moniker to make LiveWire’s next bike a cruiser. Further hard evidence for a more relaxed ride comes from the bike’s saddle height and wheelbase, both of which have been revealed as part of the Harley’s service manual. The Mulholland’s saddle height of 30.25″ is shorter than the Del Mar’s 30.9″ seat height, though only slightly. It appears to have a differently shaped saddle as well.
The wheelbase of the Mulholland is stretched compared to the Del Mar’s, which could mean a slacker rake angle for the front fork or a longer chassis, allowing a more relaxed riding posture.
As interesting as a full-on electric cruiser could be, these modifications could also just be minor changes in a bike that may be more structurally similar to the S2 Del Mar. At this point, it is just too soon to tell.
But with a 2024 model year listed for the upcoming “S2MH”, we could learn more details sooner than we think. A 2024 reveal would be likely, so make sure to keep checking back here for updates.
Until then, let’s hear your thoughts. Would you be interested in an electric cruiser motorcycle? Sound off in the comment section below!
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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