Electric Harley production bike?
Is H-D about to become the first old-school bike firm to embrace electrics?
SPOTTED on set of the next Avengers movie, it would be easy to write it off as just another prop-builder’s special. Except this electric Harley-Davidson just looks too convincing – suggesting it could be a future production model.
It’s not just that the bike looks complete. All the details scream ‘production bike’.
For instance, those US-market side reflectors front and rear. Would you really lumber a one-off machine with them?
If that’s not convincing, how about the fact the rear hugger looks designed to meet production rules which say bodywork must extend as far as the back of the rear tyre? Surely for a jaw-dropping prop they’d just have left the tyre exposed?
Those brakes are H-D stock parts and not the sort of crazy, eight-piston, rim-mounted madness that movie makers usually love, particularly on stuff like the Avengers (where, let’s face it, physics takes such a back seat it’s effectively been left at home.)
That battery pack and power unit also look like authentic production parts.
The machine was spotted during filming of Avengers: Age Of Ultron, in Seoul, South Korea, ridden by a stunt double for pregnant Scarlett Johansson.
Previous movies in the Marvel franchise have been tied in with promoting Harley, particularly the Captain America films, so the company’s ties with the series are without doubt.
If Harley really is going to make this thing, it could be ground-breaking in more ways than one. It might be the first electric bike that mainstream riders will actually take very seriously, and it could broaden Harley's appeal. A double win? Let’s hope so.
