2026 LiveWire S4 Honcho Street

The Minibike That Finally Got Some Torque

Every minibike has the same problem. You pull up to a red light, it turns green, you twist the throttle, and then you wait. The Grom does it. The Z125 does it. My own CFMoto Papio does it. It's part of the charm right up until a pickup is sitting on your rear tire.

The LiveWire Honcho doesn't wait. It's a Grom-sized electric minimoto with no clutch, no gears and nearly three times the torque of a Grom, and that one change rewrites the whole experience. I gotta be honest, I figured this would be just another fun little minibike. It isn't. It's the best one I've ridden.

It just can't go very far.

Performance Highlights

The motor makes 14.3 horsepower and 20.5 lb-ft, which sounds like nothing until you remember what it's replacing. The second you touch the throttle the bike shoves you forward, and it'll pull the front wheel up in a parking lot if you ask it to. There's a stretch on my mini route where cars come around a blind corner fast and I usually have to gamble on the Papio. On the Honcho I pulled out, didn't come close to full throttle, and the car was still way back in my mirror. That's the point of this bike in one merge.

Now let's keep it real. It's quick for a minibike, not quick. Zero to 40 took 8.12 seconds, and it tops out right around 60 mph whether you're on a downhill or not. Tuck in and you gain about four miles an hour. Sit up and it's gone. No highway, no 40 to 80, and anybody shopping it as a commuter for the interstate needs to keep shopping.

Turning is pure Grom. It's light, it's playful, and the wide bars give you plenty of leverage to throw it around. It's more stable at 55 than it has any right to be.

The brakes are where it falls down. The lever is mushy and you don't get much feel. It stops harder than you'd expect because the regen is pitching in, but the soft suspension lets the front dive hard as soon as you squeeze, and that dive bothered me more than the stopping power did. Regen comes in three levels and I lived on two. Three kills too much momentum.

Rider Experience and Tech

For a tiny bike, the seat is massive and properly comfortable. Your feet sit almost like you're in a chair, your back is upright, and the bars land right where your hands want them. LiveWire nailed the body position. My one gripe is the grips, which have raised ridges that grab my glove and twist it around.

The tech is simple on purpose. There are no ride modes, the controls are plasticky and the dash is fine. It washes out when the sun is behind you, the gray lettering could use more contrast and the futuristic font made the speed hard to read a couple of times. Here's the thing, though. I didn't care. I'd rather the bike be cheaper than have nicer switchgear on a minibike. The tech that matters is good. You get reverse on a 267 pound bike, which is hilarious, and the two batteries pop out from under the seat so you can carry them into your apartment and charge them in the kitchen. Under the seat there's also scooter-level storage.

Ease of use is the big win. No clutch, no shifting, a 31 inch seat and nothing heavy to hold up. I put it in S tier on the beginner bike tier list and I stand by it.

Range is the catch. LiveWire claims 53 miles, and the estimate on the dash swings hard depending on how you've been riding. At 240 pounds with gear and riding it the way I wanted, I'd call it 30 miles in the real world. You can take it to bike night. You just have to ride straight home afterward.

The Chase Score and Final Thoughts

The Honcho lands a Chase Score of 52/100, which puts it in the Meh tier, and that number needs context. It's scored against every bike on the leaderboard, and it doesn't have the range, speed or brakes to compete with full-size motorcycles. Measured against other minibikes, it's the one I'd buy.

This is for the rider who lives downtown and wants something fun to ride to work and park anywhere, the student scooting around campus, or anybody who wants a pit bike for the track or events. Skip it if your rides run past 30 miles or touch a highway, because then you're paying $1,900 over a Grom for a bike that can't do your job.