[Wavshrdr]

I've personally never worried about stopping a charge before 100%. I just got my 20k service done, and the dealer diagnostics didn't reveal any problems with the RESS or the original 12v battery. I fast charge constantly while on the road, then use level 2 the vast majority of the time just because it's while I'm at home of staying somewhere overnight. While slow charging, I almost always charge up to 100% just so I have a full tank when I'm ready to go out again. I never let the bike sit for more than a few days without riding, but also regularly run it down to 5% or less. I've never noticed any degradation of the range since I've had the bike. Just my experience.
One thing I am mindful of is always unplugging the bike after it reaches 100%, or at least when I get up in the morning. Not for any reason other than my own OCD.

Great to hear and thanks for sharing this info. I suspect the dealer isn't doing anything to check degradation. I could be wrong given how clueless most dealerships are about EVs. Even Tesla doesn't do anything about it until you complain about it. So hopefully your aren't experiencing any degradation.

From what I've seen it might be hard to do given how the display shows range in that it seems to take into account how you last rode it. If you pretty much ride the same way and route, like commuting all the time, it might be a lot easier to tell. I would think though after 20k miles you should be able to determine if there is any significant degradation but some people are oblivious to these things or conceptually aren't aware. You seem to have a handle on that.

Given that HD allows up to 20% degradation before it invokes a warranty claim that is a lot of latitude for degradation. Tesla allows for 30% but over 8 years. A 20% on the ELW would be really bad.

@Bob_B - if you don't mind sharing, where do you live? Trying to understand if your bike is operated frequently in temps over 90F. Also good to hear about L2 charging. That was my plan and it looks like it can make for a more consistent and faster charge which to me is the biggest drawback of the ELW; its pathetic L2 charging rate.

My hope is HD actually put some thought into the charge levels so that in reality at we are only at about 80-85% actual charge state of the battery and shows 100% on the display. I also hope there is some buffer on the low end as well. This will really help with the longevity of the pack. They still screwed on the L2 charging and it seems L1 is even worse that I thought but L2 might actually get you to the rate where L1 should have been in the first place. So this has pretty much put the thought to rest of even bothering to use L1 at home. I'll just leave the charge with the bike and use my L2 connection instead. I'll add a fan to blow on the bike to help it cool while charging to allow for the quickest possible charges.

 

[Bob_B]

I'm in Richmond, VA, so I'll take it out in both hot and cold temperatures. The cold doesn't seem to affect the range either like it does with my car. From experience, my range has four categories-
Interstate at constant 70 mph- 72 miles
Primary roads at constant 55-60 mph- 95-100 miles
Mix of primary and secondary roads with lots of acceleration and slowing- 105-110 miles
City- probably 120-130, but I've never used a full charge just in the city.

People complain about how slow the level 1 and 2 charging are, but I feel like it's by design to keep the RESS healthy and not overdo it. That's why I have no problem with charging it to 100%, because so much was thought through with the design. The RESS only draws 3 or 4 amps at 240v, while my Bolt draws 32 amps and still takes 10 hours or so to charge, although the battery is four times the size of the RESS. If I use a level 1 charger with the car, it's about 50 hours to charge.

 

[Wavshrdr]

In general the slower the charging rate the better. After some point, their isn't a lot of benefit to reducing the charging rate. Like everything there is a point of diminishing returns. They could have easily double the charge rate for L2 compared to L1 and likely saw no difference in the longevity of the battery.

The L3 charging is gong to put a lot more stress on it. It would likely be less stressful to be able to top off the battery more quickly when needed with L2 than to keep it a high SoC most of the time. To have such long charge times you need to spend more time planning out your charges than it really needs to be.

I find it allows me to managed the DoD (depth of discharge) better on my other vehicles. I can keep the charge level in the midrange where it is best for the battery pack and then charge when needed but fairly quickly.

The LW is sort of like a Ford Focus electric we had. To really use it, required topping it off every day and running it almost to 0. By the time the car hit 100k mile it had lost over 45% of the battery capacity. As it degraded, it was a self defeating cycle as less range required using more of the remaining available range. It was looking fairly good up through 50k miles and then I saw the decline accelerate after that.

On an avg day up to 50k mile, we'd use about 60-70% of the charge. Then by 60k it was creeping up to 65-75% with same usage. By now you can see where this is going. Increasing the DoD increases the degradation of the battery more quickly. So things may look good early on but you learn quickly in the outer years. Similar issue with a BMW i3 as well.

On my Teslas with L1 it would take about 100 hours for the 3 and about 135 for the S. I haven't timed it but that was about the rate it seemed to charge when I watched them for a few hours on L1. Definitely not the way to go. Definitely helps to have 48 amps on the wall charger when doing L2. I can charge it up totally in about 9-10 hours.

 

[Travesty]

I watched this and nearly every other video on ELW before making the purchase. This one was very helpful.

 

[Adventures on Zero]

I watched this and nearly every other video on ELW before making the purchase. This one was very helpful.

Glad it helped!

 

[William Frantz]

It is a very nice review BTW, there was so much to know about the livewire as well as any other electric motorcycle.

 

[adventuresonzero]

It is a very nice review BTW, there was so much to know about the livewire as well as any other electric motorcycle.

Thanks!