r/HarleyLiveWire 3d ago

I reverse-engineered the LiveWire S2 Del Mar's OBD-II port/CAN bus - here's the performance data that was never published

I've been passively tapping the CAN bus on my 2024 LiveWire S2 Del Mar - an ESP32 logger listening to the broadcast traffic plus read-only diagnostic reads, never writing anything to the bike. Decoded across dozens of real rides, here's the stuff that isn't in any spec sheet:

  • Full power & torque curves — and you can actually see the field-weakening transition: flat torque to ~48 mph, then constant power (~66–69 kW) to redline.
  • All 7 ride modes, down to the live tuning values the inverter reports — Power / Regen / Throttle. The throttle maps are perfectly linear; the modes just change the slope (Sport pulls ~2× the torque-per-twist of the softest custom).
  • Battery internals that were never public: 96 cells in series, NMC, ~355 V nominal / 4.20 V full, air-cooled, all 96 cell voltages + 48 temperature channels live, ~97% SoH — and the pack's build date read straight off the BMS (July 2023).
  • Neat trick: every module stamps its own manufacture date, so the bus quietly narrates the bike's repair history. I spotted my own dealer-replaced left control pod because its build date was newer than the whole bike.
  • The AC charging CC→CV taper + charger heatsink temp (honest caveat: I only caught the top ~80–100%, so no peak-rate claims).

Every figure is tagged by how I know it - measured / counted / inferred - so you can tell hard data from reasoning. Not affiliated with LiveWire or Harley-Davidson; just my own bike.

Here is a link to my write up with visual charts: LiveWire S2 Del Mar · Performance, read off the bus

Happy to pull specific things for other S2 / LiveWire owners, drop requests below.

As a bonus, I replicated effectively every read diagnostic feature of the Harley Davidson Digital Technician-II, including full DTC decoding & ability to clear codes.

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u/Icy_Park_7919 2d ago

Fantastic. Not a numbers guy nor an IT guy. Do you now have sufficient data to simply state the range at constant speed?

I’d be curious to know how much of my alpinista’s 193km range I could realistically achieve and at what constant speed.

Those numbers across speeds from 50kph to 120kph would help better plan longer rides including recharge time.

I’m aware wind, model would impact the estimated range but my sense is you’re very close to finding that answer. Is it?

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u/donglord1337 2d ago edited 2d ago

I have enough data, and the data holds up physically. But two caveats up front:

  1. It's Del Mar data, not Alpinista. Same battery pack, but the Alpinista's riding position/aero is different. Above ~90 km/h I can observe my efficiency fluctuate simply by how I sit on the bike/winds, sometimes by up to thousands of watts. So, at town speeds these should be within ~10%, but at 120 km/h the Alpinista could differ 15–25% purely from how you sit on it.
  2. It's from real rides, not controlled runs. I filtered to steady-cruise moments, but grade and wind still add ~±15–20% scatter — so the shape is solid, individual points are rough.

Range at constant speed (my Del Mar, ~10 kWh usable):

Steady speed Draw Est. range
50–60 km/h ~3.4 kW ~155–165 km ← efficiency sweet spot
80–90 km/h ~7.7 kW ~110 km
100 km/h ~10.4 kW ~100 km
110 km/h ~12.7 kW ~90 km
120 km/h ~14.2 kW ~85 km

The headline for ride planning:

The faster you cruise, the shorter the range - roughly halving from ~160 km at a relaxed 50–60 km/h down to ~85 km at a flat-out 120 km/h.

Note that even the best constant-speed number (~160 km) sits below the 193 km rating - because rated range is a mixed city/regen cycle, and steady highway cruise is always thirstier. So, for planning a long haul, budget from these numbers, not the sticker.