If you've always fancied a Livewire electric bike but have been put off by the cost, then plans centred around the new Arrow platform could just be the answer.

'Arrow' Platform Can Be Configured Into Many Different Styles of Bikes

The Harley Davidson Livewire took the world completely by surprise when it was launched a few years ago. Despite a high price-tag, it has been relatively successful for the tradition-bound Milwaukee company and showed there was more than heavy, v-twin cruisers to it that we might have thought.

Late last year, the Livewire brand was spun off the parent company to become a brand in its own right, with 'Harley Davidson' appearing nowhere on the bike. At the same time, a tie-in with Taiwanese company Kymco was announced, which would give Livewire access to smaller model engineering know-how.

But the big news is the new 'Arrow' platform that has been in development since 2017 and which will be used to spawn a whole new range of bikes with different styles and levels of performance and range. The key to the platform is that it is a modular design, with the battery pack that doubles as a monocoque frame, allowing a variety of steering head angles and swing arm configurations to be bolted on, giving different wheelbases and different characteristics for different models.

The battery/chassis unit will come in different sizes. 50v, 100v, 350v and '400+' volt versions are mentioned in an investor document and these will be either air or liquid cooled. The motors will be similarly available in air or liquid-cooled configurations and all the variables - battery, motor, headstocks, swing arms as well as fork/wheel and bodywork combinations could give rise to a bewildering variety of models, all sharing many components and thus saving costs.

At first, there will be a middleweight 'S2 range, followed by a smaller S3 range (which is where the Kymco partnership comes into play) and, later, a heavyweight S4 range.

These are exciting times for Livewire and, by extension, Harley Davidson. Few would have predicted that such a traditional company would steal a march on every other motorcycle manufacturer but they did and it's going to be fascinating to see the new models as they appear in the coming months and years.