The third member of the LiveWire S2 family of electric motorcycles is here. The 2025 LiveWire S2 Alpinista is an upright standard sport bike that joins the sport-cruiser Mulholland and the tracker-style Del Mar. The three share the same drivetrain, with ergonomics and wheels serving as the defining attributes.
Typically, our tests involve quite a bit of riding in a broad range of circumstances. In the case of the 2025 LiveWire S2 Alpinista, we were given our run of western Los Angeles for an afternoon, though that included an impromptu freeform photoshoot as we rode through Culver City and into the Baldwin Hills. So, you’ll have to excuse us if the photos aren’t quite up to our usual standards—the clock was ticking, and I wanted to ride.
Although positioned as a sport bike with LiveWire boasting its sport-touring credentials, the Alpinista is a bare-knuckled urban brawler that lacks the battery capacity to venture far outside the city limits. While we didn’t have it long enough to get into the intricacies of range and charging, we can report that 90 minutes of hard urban riding, including a top-speed test run on the obscure Marina Freeway, ate up 40 percent of the 10.5 kWh battery’s capacity.
The calling card of the S2 platform is its acceleration prowess. In the case of the Alpinista, which features sport-bike ergos, the claim is 0-60 mph in three seconds. While I didn’t have a stopwatch to check that, rest assured that the Alpinista is wicked off the line and requires you to only twist the throttle to go fast—no clutching or shifting required or available.
This, of course, is a highly addictive feature. Every time the light turns green, you want to feel that 194 ft-lbs of torque being sent to the pavement via the 180mm-wide Dunlop Roadsmart IV tire. On the freeway test, the Alpinista’s 84 horses were good for 99 mph, as advertised. There’s undoubtedly more there, but that’s all LiveWire is willing to hand out as a top speed.
Although the 2025 LiveWire S2 Alpinista weighs in at 433 pounds with the battery packed full of electrons, it feels impressively light around town. The bike is narrow and nicely balanced. Lane splitting is a religion in Southern California traffic, and we take communion at every opportunity. With the bar-end mirrors in the under-grip configuration, there’s nothing stopping you from snaking to the front of every queue.
Part of the fun of the 2025 LiveWire S2 Alpinista around town is something that many people think ruins the fun—the lack of vibration and noise. You feel like you’re Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia evading the Imperial Scout Troopers on a stolen 74-Z speeder bike. The whirring twist-and-go aspect of the Alpinista transports you to Endor, and it’s hard to beat that.
The Showa suspension does a superb job of soaking up the bumps and bruises that litter the poorly maintained roads of Los Angeles. What does the city spend its money on? Who knows? We certainly know it’s not the fire department.
At the same time, it has legitimate Showa sport-bike suspension to go along with the Dunlops and generous cornering clearance. While twisties are few and far between in urban western Los Angeles, a few passes up Hetzler Road to Culver City’s Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook provided a glimpse of the 2025 LiveWire S2 Alpinista’s sporting prowess. Don’t tell anyone, but I easily quadrupled the modest 15 mph speed limit in spots—remember, 0-60 in three seconds. A couple of sweepers on Entrada Drive and the esses on Adelaide Drive in a spared Pacific Palisades neighborhood confirmed what I learned in Culver City—the Alpinista is a sport bike that offers plenty of exhilarating fun.
There are four preset power modes—Sport, Road, Eco, and Rain—plus two programmable modes. The customizable modes let you set the power, throttle response, regen braking, ABS, and traction control to your liking. Given my tight schedule, my testing was limited to the preset modes, which are quite different. All this is done through the same round TFT dash used on the Harley-Davidson Sportster models.
Starting out in the Road mode, I was immediately impressed. Throttle response is good, and there’s more than enough power to rip through traffic. Traction control and ABS never intruded on the fun, and the regen braking felt natural.
That led me to the Sport mode because, well, why not? Yep, it’s more of the good stuff without losing the safety net of ABS and traction control. While I never felt the traction control kick in, my aggressive riding did invoke the ABS a few times. Happily, it isn’t clunky or annoying.
However, the LiveWire rep let me in on a secret that I initially dismissed. He told me that the Range mode was the hot setup. That didn’t sound right, so I kept going wild in the Sport mode. But, it was nagging at me that he had given me some advice, so into the Range mode I took the Alpinista.
Well, what do you know? The LiveWire guy had a point. The Alpinista works great in urban traffic in the Range mode. The throttle response doesn’t get that feeling like the cable has been replaced by a rubber band. It still responds smartly, and any snatchiness from sloppy throttle control is virtually eliminated. The Alpinista is still fast, and a secret weapon is unleashed—regen braking.
The 2025 LiveWire S2 Alpinista has a reverse throttle, so you can use the regen as your primary braking. Now, it has to be said that the radially mounted Brembo M4.32 four-piston caliper does an admirable job on the front 320mm disc. Strafing the steep Hetzler Road tested the mettle of both Brembo calipers, which came through with flying colors.
In traffic, simply twisting the throttle forward to slow down quickly becomes natural. Also, the Range mode has extra engine braking—electric style—and you often just need to shut off the throttle and roll to a stop. If you need to stop shorter, the throttle brake is usually enough. The Brembo M4.32 ends up being an emergency brake. You know you’ve blown it if you need it. This means you’re riding with your hands on the grips and feet on the pegs, never needing to operate any levers or pedals. Yeah, it’s a 74-Z speeder bike.
To say the 2025 LiveWire S2 Alpinista is a blast is an understatement. You would be hard-pressed to find a motorcycle that is more fun in an urban environment. Sure, there’s plenty of EV bigotry out there, and there’s not much that can be done for those people, other than to let them take a spin and renounce their hate. They’ll probably never get it until they experience it. While I grew up with internal combustion engines, love knows no locomotion. It’s all about the right tool for the job, and electric motorcycles excel in urban environments.
At this point, you’re probably thinking, “I would like to get a 2025 LiveWire S2 Alpinista.” Why wouldn’t you? Unfortunately, there are a few drawbacks.
The $15,999 price tag makes the Alpinista a hard sell, no matter how much naked fun it is. That puts you in the range of the BMW R 1250 R, Ducati Monster SP, KTM 990 Duke, Triumph Street Triple Moto2 Edition, or Yamaha MT-10. Those are motorcycles that you can ride all day for hundreds of miles.
Unless you live close to the twisties, you won’t get to enjoy the sporting features the Alpinista offers. As I said, in the city, I knocked off 40 percent of the range in 90 minutes—and that included probably 30 minutes in the Range mode.
You can forget about the sport-touring claims, photos, and videos on the LiveWire website. The highway range is 71 miles at 55 mph—like you’re going to ride that slowly. Even if you do, after those 71 miles, you’ll have to find a Level 2 charger and wait nearly two-and-a-half hours before riding another 71 miles at 55 mph. Sure, the 1.3-hour charging time from 20 to 80 percent sounds good. A little math will remind you that you will only get 60 percent of the range if you ride that way.
This isn’t a problem specific to the LiveWire S2 platform—every electric motorcycle suffers from the same dual limitation of range and charging. I have no idea why LiveWire is trying to push the S2 Alpinista as a sport-tourer, and no way you’re going to ride it in its namesake—the Alps. Anyone who buys an Alpinista for that purpose will be big mad in no time.
On the upside, there’s virtually no scheduled maintenance—it even has a belt drive. While many people will never admit that an electric motorcycle looks good, I think the Alpinista is sharp. The finned battery has a futuristic look, and the battery/motor combo is slim rather than boxy. While you might think you’ll miss the throb of a motor, the vibration-free electric motor grows on you. After my ride, I got on a traditional motorcycle and it felt very rough at the edges, and it didn’t feel that way on my ride to Bartels’ Harley-Davidson in Marina Del Rey.
Electric motorcycles have their place, and there are many things they still can’t do. Riding in an urban environment is where the genre shines. They’re tough to beat, and the 2025 LiveWire S2 Alpinista is as good as it gets in its city limits domain. If you’ve got $15,999 burning a hole in your pocket and you want something different and with a practical niche, grab an Alpinista.
RIDING STYLE
2025 LiveWire S2 Alpinista Specs
MOTOR
- Type: Internal permanent magnet synchronous
- Maximum power: 84 horsepower
- Maximum torque: 194 ft-lbs
- Top speed: 99 mph
- 0-60 mph: 3.0 seconds
- Transmission: Clutchless single-speed
- Final drive: Belt
BATTERY
- Type: High-voltage lithium-ion
- Maximum capacity: 10.5 kWh
- Charge plug: J1772 Type 1
- Level 1, 20-80%: 5.9 hours
- Level 1, 0-100%: 8.4 hours
- Level 2, 20-80%: 1.3 hours
- Level 2, 0-100%: 2.4 hours
RANGE (per SAE J2982 standards)
- City range: 120 miles
- Highway range: 71 miles @ 55 mph
- Combined Range: 89 miles
CHASSIS
- Frame: Modular w/ structural cast-aluminum powertrain
- Front suspension; travel: Fully adjustable Showa inverted 43mm cartridge fork; 4.7 inches
- Rear suspension; travel: Spring-preload and rebound-damping adjustable Showa Free Piston shock; 4.7 inches
- Front wheel: 3.5 x 17; 20-spoke cast-aluminum
- Rear wheel: 5.5 x 17; 10-spoke cast-aluminum
- Tires: Dunlop Roadsmart IV
- Front tire: 120/70 x 17
- Rear tire: 180/55 x 17
- Front brake: 320mm disc w/ radially mounted Brembo M4.32 4-piston caliper
- Rear brake: Brembo PF34 single-piston caliper
- ABS: Standard
DIMENSIONS and CAPACITIES
- Wheelbase: 56.8 inches
- Rake: 24.5 degrees
- Trail: 3.6 inches
- Seat height: 31.2 inches
- Curb weight: 433 pounds
- Colors: Glacier Silver; Asphalt Black
2025 LiveWire S2 Alpinista Price: $15,999 MSRP
