Harley-Davidson’s Pan America adventure motorcycle is the real deal

Feels lighter than it is. Nimble, flickable. Rev happy, powerful. Wow! Comfortable. Approachable. The best bike Harley has ever made. Game Changer.

These are just a few of the phrases I heard echoed in person, and then in review after review of this bike, and my experience with this new machine yielded all the same feelings.  Harley has exceeded all expectations and thrown down an innovative, competitive, and possibly dominant motorcycle into the hyper competitive Alpha ADV segment.  Some few hoped and dreamed of a blank slate, ground up, heavily researched, tested, and executed bike that expanded HD shops as a resource to the dirt tourers among us and helped grow the sport of big bikes off road.  I’ve been known to be a bit of an optimist at times, and many who trusted Harley were sorely disappointed with the Street series bikes that held so much promise.

 

So many manufacturers have fulfilled some of my wildest dreams recently, with bikes like the V4 Multistrada, drop tank 1290R and Norden 901, ZH2, Scrambler 1200XE, V4 Streetfighter, and even the T7, 450L, and the Monkey.  My faith, I’m sure, was pure naivete, but I had dreams of a dirt Harley with gobs of torque and a dealer network to keep me in replacement mirrors and turn signals in every town. The Pan America brought me over to its brand astride my 2016 GSA even though I was fully convinced I already owned the best bike on the planet for what we like to do. Let me say it again without hesitation; Harley Davidson has exceeded all expectations.

 

You can’t have a tech bike without TLAs yall. And the Pan America has Three Letter Acronyms galore, like  VVT, IMU(six-axis Inertial Measurement Unit), BFF (Showa Balance Free Forks), LED (Adaptive Cornering on the S Model), touch screen TFT, EFI (wink), ABS (Cornering Adaptive) MTC (Cornering Adaptive), HHC (Hill Hold Control), TPS (Tire Pressure System), SAS (Semi Active Suspension) with VLC, (auto 30% sag Vehicle Loading Control), high RPM (Yes a revvy HD), OHC (Dual type), and my favorites; HLA (Hydraulic Lash Adjusters), HCT (Hydraulic Camchain Tensioners), and ARH (Adaptive Ride Height).

Low maintenance and low seat height; it is here that Harley delivered innovation in a segment that was already reaching for new ideas. Manufacturers are slapping radar on radar, delivering variously successful approaches to VVT, and adding drop tanks(which I love) attempting to make V-twin bikes handle and fall like boxers. The Pan America needs no valve adjustment. Full stop. Now That will get any moto traveler’s attention. One could only hope for a low maintenance bike for South American, African, and Asian touring, it wasn’t even considered a possibility that I’m aware of. Harley delivered with a motor that performs as well as protects itself with robust oil recirculating pumps and knock detection for running low quality fuel.

Seat height is the number one barrier to big bikes off road in my industry experience representing BMW, KTM, Kawasaki, Ducati, Triumph, Yamaha, and Husqvarna, along with Dragoo Adventure Rider Training of course. Seat height vs. ground clearance trade-offs always seemed to yield a compromise; and, with the Adaptive Ride Height option, under 29” seat height guarantees the Pan America is approachable to more riders. Two significant innovations that don’t even approach gimmicky or a farkle from a brand that may have been criticized once or twice for expensive useless shiney stuff.

Like most Harley’s, the capacity for power and performance from the Revolution Max seems to remain short of it’s potential…at 150hp… The bike hits 9500 RPM in gear after gear with the rev limiter coming on well before the motor seems to want to stop pulling; this power plant is really something special.  It will be fun to see what the tuners pull out of it, and of course many eagerly await the new Revolution Max powered muscle cruiser.  Will it have more power or will it be tuned for higher torque? HD has been doing this motorcycle thing a long time, and when the new CEO says send me a Pan America I’ll test it out in Kenya, it looks and sounds like there are riders at the helm.

 

Editor Note: A complete review, highlighting the bike’s prowess both on and off-pavement of the new H-D Pan America, will be featured this fall in the print and digital editions of OutdoorX4 Magazine. f you’re not already subscribed, click HERE to sign-up.

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