The Harley-Davidson Pan America Is Such A Different Kind Of Motorcycle, You Won’t Believe It’s A Harley

Harley-Davidson sometimes has an unfortunate reputation with many riders around the world. They see the company’s large cruisers and their leather-jacketed riders as what’s wrong with motorcycling. That’s a shame, because when you give today’s Harley-Davidson a chance, you might get blown away. Perhaps the best example of Harley’s surprising awesomeness is the Pan America. This is not a bulky cruiser, a wide trike, or the like, but an adventure bike. Not only does the Harley-Davidson Pan America look like something Halo‘s Master Chief would ride, but it has legitimately great ideas under the tank.

I recently got the chance to take Pan America on a ride through California wine country followed by some hot mountain curve action. The Pan America handled the ride unlike any other Harley I’ve ever ridden. I kept having to look down to confirm that yes, I really was on a Harley and not something like a Triumph or a Honda. A number of Harley’s current products have me doing that and that’s awesome.

[Full Disclosure: Cardo Systems, Harley-Davidson, and Indian Motorcycle invited me out to Southern California to experience two motorcycles plus a new piece of helmet communication gear. My contacts paid for my travel, lodging, food, some of my fuel, and lots of alcohol.]

[Author’s note: Before I continue, I will also note that I was instructed to bring only what could fit in the small cases of the Indian Super Chief I rode in on. A helmet, armored jacket, gloves, and boots were all I could fit in my luggage with barely enough room for regular clothes. I had to swap my armored pants for thick jeans. Unfortunately, I put the jeans on way too high that morning, resulting in the pictures you’re about to see where the pants end before my boots. Don’t be like me, get it right before you ride!]

Harley-Davidson has been on a path of reinvention. It knows that while many of its customers flock to the gigantic cruisers and trikes, the brand cannot be a one-trick pony forever. Big and cushy touring machines are great, but today’s riders are a diverse group of people. They don’t just want to eat up endless highway miles on a motorized La-Z-Boy, but they want to go on off-road adventures and tear up their city streets in style. Adventure bikes are in and Harley-Davidson is getting a piece of that pie.

The Harley-Davidson Pan America is a new idea born out of a plan for Harley to reach more riders than it did before. It wasn’t a secret that Harley-Davidson was largely stuck in the past. Harley’s customers were older, wealthier folks attracted to American motorcycles that looked and in some ways felt like they were 50 years old. The company gave this demographic a lot of metal to play with and as a result, the Bar and Shield rang the cash register enough to rake in grand profits.

Harley hasn’t always been saddled with building large machines. Its past, which isn’t even that long ago, includes the uneasy marriage it had with Buell Motorcycles and projects including the revolutionary V-Rod and the Sportster XR1200 street-tracker. Yet, when these ventures didn’t pad the bottom line, Harley went back to what it knew best.

In 2018, the Motor Company knew it was time for a change. The “More Roads To Harley-Davidson” initiative was launched in the summer of that year and it was an ambitious project. Harley was pretty honest with itself by pointing out that the industry was shifting, but Harley wasn’t. The company’s data showed that young people just aren’t buying motorcycles like they used to and while Harley was still growing, the curve was getting flatter each year.

Harley-Davidson’s other findings included the fact that the cruiser market was losing steam while adventure bikes and small displacement motorcycles were growing well. To put it another way, Harley was finding that many people would rather buy a BMW GS or a Royal Enfield than hop on a Harley Street Glide, and that was a problem. Further, not everyone is interested in paying so much cash for a motorcycle.

More Roads To Harley-Davidson sought to fix that. The plan was incredible in its nature. Normally, a company might try to do thing or two differently to grab new clientele. Harley was flipping its own script.

The Motor Company wanted to expand its customer base by 2 million. How was it going to do that? Harley planned on planting seeds by making products for children. It would get women into motorcycling by first teaching them to ride at Harley’s academy and then selling them on a motorcycle. Harley even put Scarlett Johansson on a prototype Harley-Davidson LiveWire in an Avengers movie.

But this wasn’t all, because Harley also wanted to launch 100 new motorcycle products. These wouldn’t just be cruisers, either, as the brand set its sights on what was trending back then. Harley-Davidson rolled out stunning concept after another, ranging from the electric LiveWire to a tantalizing Bronx streetfighter. Emerging markets would get smaller displacement Harleys, too.

Unfortunately, as Motorcycle.com wrote, Harley didn’t really have enough time to make all of this a reality. Annual sales were falling and getting caught up in global trade disputes wasn’t helping the bottom line. Moving some production overseas was also a risky move for a company that prided itself on being American. CEO Matt Levatich left his role in 2020 and was replaced by Jochen Zeitz. The new CEO nerfed More Roads To Harley Davidson, instead going for something called Hardwire. This plan cut Harley’s workforce, reduced the number of dealers, delayed new models, and spun off the eBike division.

Thankfully, Hardwire didn’t cancel everything. Projects like the streetfighter died with More Roads, but the company moved forward with the Sportster S, electrification, small displacement bikes for developing markets, and this, the Pan America.

America Goes On An Adventure

The Pan America is not Harley-Davidson’s first adventure bike. The brand has done plenty of off-roading in its history, but its first motorcycle in the adventure-touring style was the Buell Ulysses. Like all Buells, the Ulysses was a weird ride, one that felt like a sportbike with the ground clearance and off-road tires of an ADV. Of course, it also technically doesn’t count since Buell wasn’t directly a Harley-Davidson.

Still, Harley’s engineers took notes from the Ulysses (below). They also reached far and wide to existing Harley customers and owners of the proposed ADV competition. Harley wanted to know why someone might buy a BMW GS and what might make for a better ADV.

After years of waiting, riders finally got to see and ride the production Pan America in early 2021. Sadly, I missed its launch, but I got to ride it now, and I’ve been missing oh so much.

The centerpiece of the Pan America, aside from a feature I’m going to tell you about in a bit, is its engine. When you lay your eyes on a Harley-Davidson Pan America, you’ll instantly figure out that this isn’t your grandfather’s V-twin. This engine, dubbed the Revolution Max 1250 or “Revmax” for short, is an impressive piece of engineering.

Harley says the Revolution Max 1250 isn’t some recycled engine with new parts, but a clean-sheet design meant to blow the competition out of the water. In its talks about this engine, Harley-Davidson details an almost scary level of detail. Engineers went with a 60-degree V-twin with a narrow profile. This was done to centralize the mass of the engine for better handling, improve rider ergonomics, and to allow the engine to fit into compact spaces.

Ok, that’s pretty cool, but the engineers went further. One goal of the Revmax was reducing weight, so engineers used finite element analysis and deployed optimization techniques to minimize mass in cast components. Harley gives the example of engineers finding out how to shave weight from the starter gear and camshaft drive gears.

Further weight was shaved with the use of single-piece aluminum cylinders with nickel silicon carbide-surface galvanic coatings, plus forged aluminum pistons. Even more weight was reduced by using magnesium for multiple large pieces. Finally, one more weight-saving measure comes from the fact that the engine was designed to be a structural member, eliminating the need for a heavy frame to cradle it.

Harley’s engineers didn’t stop at putting the engine on a diet. This thing has variable valve timing, independent hydraulic adjustment for the roller-finger valves, and dual counterbalancers. Look, normally these things wouldn’t be much to gush about, but remember that we’re talking about a Harley-Davidson here.

Also quite un-Harley is what this engine can do. The Revmax 1250 pumps out 150 horsepower and 94 lb-ft of torque at the crank. That horsepower lights up at 9,000 RPM, just before the engine’s 9,500 RPM redline. That’s right, this is a Harley engine that wants to be beaten like it owes you money. My Buell Lightning stops the show 7,500 RPM; a Pan America would leave my Buell like it’s sitting still.

To put this engine into perspective, it’s making more horses than the BMW R 1300 GS that was released just last year and torque isn’t far behind. It’s still a few more ponies than a Triumph Tiger 1200 makes as well. Remember when Harley power was at the bottom of the pack?

As I said before, the engine is a structural element, or the main structure, to be exact. Attached to it is a front portion, an alloy steel trellis, and a forged aluminum middle piece. The wet weight of the Pan America Special, which is the standard Pan America in 2024, is 569 pounds. That’s right on par with the competition.

Like Magic

Let’s get to my favorite part here. I love adventure bikes but I don’t love how tall they are. I don’t have long legs, so towering seat heights make stops uncomfortable. I was on my tippy toes almost daily on my old 1999 Triumph Tiger and I thought there had to be a better way. Harley-Davidson realizes this and its solution is brilliant.

For the additional price of $1,200 (this should be standard, guys), you can option your Pan America with what Harley-Davidson calls Adaptive Ride Height. Now this sounds like the fancy electrically adjustable seat that Ryvid has with its Anthem, but it’s so much cooler.

A standard Harley-Davidson Pan America Special has a seat height of 32.1 inches. Combine that with the width of the bike and my feet are only barely touching the ground when stopped. If I do my tall bike hack — that’s left foot on the ground and right foot on the brake — the Pan America is leaning too much for comfort. You can lower the seat to 31.1 inches, but that’s not good enough.

The Pan America has an electronically controlled suspension programmed to give you 30-percent preload sag no matter how much weight the bike is carrying. The electronic system has another trick in that it can automatically lower the seat on a stop so you can put your feet down with confidence. The system drops the seat 1 to 2 inches depending on load. Normally, this gets you down to 30 inches, but combine it with an optional low seat and the Pan America will get down to 28.1 inches on stops. When I turned on ARH, the Pan America went from being so tall that I could have hurt myself to me being able to put most of my boots on the ground.

The automatic part of the system is another piece of brilliance. The system begins lowering the motorcycle once you hit 15.5 mph while stopping. When you come to a rest, the motorcycle is already in its down position. It’s so seamless that you never notice it happening. Ok, I did notice it once, and it was when I stopped so hard and so fast there was a delay in the system. But getting able to feel and watch it happen was mind-blowing. Once you get moving again the suspension pumps itself back up and again, you won’t notice it a bit.

Of course, this is supposed to go off-road, so you can set the system to delay the lowering process until after you’ve come to a stop or you can just turn it off completely. I left it on, because it made the Pan America so much more accessible for my short legs.

While we’re on the subject of the suspension, the Pan America has a semi-active damping suspension with five modes catered to riding environments from road touring to hard off-roading. There’s a 47mm inverted fork up front and a linkage-mounted monoshock bringing up the rear. Both ends have electronic controls. You get 6.9 inches of ground clearance, a 17-inch wheel in the rear, and a 19 up front.

Braking is handled by four-piston Monoblock Brembo calipers clamping on a pair of 320mm discs up front. A single-piston Brembo caliper chomps on a single 280mm rotor in the rear. The brakes are linked in all instances except in the motorcycle’s highest off-road riding mode. Of course, like many high-tech bikes, you get tech goodies like traction control, ABS, and the electronics for that linked braking system. You can defeat the ABS and traction control for sweet slides in the dirt and oh yeah, the bike has no problem with big wheelies.

There’s also a full-color touchscreen on hand, or you could use the handlebar buttons to navigate the bike’s functions if you’re a tactile feel kind of person. All of this is only part of what makes the Pan America great. The ride seals the deal.

Like A Rocket

Last Tuesday, I found myself in California wine country, or more specifically, Temecula, California. This was a sort of three-in-one event where I got to ride a couple of great motorcycles before trying out a new piece of potentially life-saving helmet gear from the folks at Cardo. I’ll get to the Cardo gear in my next piece and the Indian I rode after that. Today, I have to tell you about riding a new Harley-Davidson Pan America.

The journalists invited to the event strapped into our gear and hopped on our test bikes bright and early in the morning. Some folks were locals, so they brought their own motorcycles, including an epic Bimota!

Most journalists chose a bagger or a tourer. I was just one of the few to take the adventure bike for a spin. I hopped onboard the Pan America, used the plastic lever to adjust my windshield, and set the ride mode to Sport. I wanted to go whole hog right out of the gate. Only, I discovered instantly that this doesn’t ride like a hog. It’s more like strapping yourself to a Falcon Heavy. At least, upon twisting the throttle I uttered a word that sounded something like “falcon.”

That was because the Revolution Max 1250 hits like a hammer early on in its rev range. It hits so hard that if you aren’t prepared, you will do a wheelie. This is non-negotiable; the Pan America’s power comes on hard, heavy, and doesn’t relent until you hit that rev limiter. If you have a chance to gather your thoughts, you’ll look down at the touchscreen just to read the “Harley-Davidson” displayed on it. No, the bike hasn’t changed since you hopped on board. This really is a Harley and oh my god is it astonishingly quick.

Now, I’m going to be quick to clarify that this isn’t the fastest ride on the block. There are motorcycles that hit harder and fly faster. My Triumph Rocket III scoffs at the Pan America’s mere 94 lb-ft of torque. But then you go right back to remembering that hey, this is from Milwaukee. This kind of performance with the Bar and Shield badge is just something else. I won’t say it’s as fun as my Rocket III or as diabolical as a 325 HP Sea-Doo, but if you aren’t smiling on a Pan America you probably need to see a doctor.

The brutal speed is matched with surprising poise when the going gets twisty. I was in a group of journalists with way more experience than I have. These guys were experienced dirt riders, track rats, racers, and lifelong motorcyclists. They were the sorts of folks younger guns like myself look up to. They gave mountain curves no mercy as I heard floorboards scraping ahead of me. I was up to the challenge, and so was the Pan America as I got in some lean and kept up with the pack.

If I didn’t know any better, I would say Harley-Davidson added a dash of Buell sportbike into its adventure bike. That’s how well it boogied. I won’t say it was a perfect ride. You did feel the motorcycle’s weight in turns and it wasn’t as liberating of an experience as pushing the Zero DSR/X. But it was good, damn good. Each turn kept my heart pumping as if it were trying to match the revs. The gears locked into place with a satisfying click, and the adjustable levers were just perfectly weighted so that my hands didn’t wear out.

I also often have problems with the comfort of motorcycle seats. Bagger seats practically destroy my poor tuchus and leave me waddling like I had a bit too much fun the night before. Yet, other people don’t seem to have that problem. Likewise, some journalists say the Pan America’s seat felt painful after enough time in the saddle. My tush felt great. That’s the funny thing about motorcycle seats and body types. The sweet spot is different for everyone.

Sadly, I did not get to test how it rides off-road, but reviews from other outlets seem to suggest that the Pan America is pretty good at getting dirty. Given the chance, I’d love to test that part for myself.

Looks Great, But Some Details Are Off

All of this is exciting and, if it weren’t for the painful $19,999 price tag, I’d be on the horn with my local Harley dealer right now. But $19,999 + $1,200 for ARH is thousands more than I’ve spent on any new car that I’ve purchased thus far in life. Harley-Davidson has done so much right with the Pan America, but I’m afraid high prices will continue to keep young riders dreaming rather than buying.

And the Pan America is easy to dream about. Personally, I think this motorcycle is the coolest-looking ADV on the market. When I first saw press images of it, I thought that this would totally be the motorcycle Halo‘s Master Chief would ride. And I don’t mean Chief from the weird TV show, either, but the OG Green Man obliterating aliens on your Xbox. I guess I would not call the Pan America pretty, but it has that sort of future brutal chic to it that you find in science fiction. The LED lighting, the almost British Racing Green metallic paint, I can get behind all of it.

Harley-Davidson’s normal fare clenches onto the past like it’s a door floating outside of a sunken Titanic. The Pan America flies through the air with two middle fingers to tradition. It’s refreshing for this brand.

What I do have problems getting behind are a few odd issues that someone should have figured out before the Pan America went on sale. One of them is the rear cylinder’s exhaust pipe’s heat shield. Your right leg is going to spend a lot of its time schmoozing with that exhaust pipe. Harley-Davidson knew this and thus gave the pipes a heat shield. The only problem is that the heat shield is so useless I had to check to see if there was one even there.

It took about 30 minutes of riding during a warm Southern California day to realize there was something off. Unless I was going highway speed, the exhaust practically cooked the upper portion of right leg. Weirdly, you see that exposed skin with the pants I was wearing? That was fine, the heat was further up. I ended up having to move my right leg a bit out of my natural position. Only then was I able to escape what felt like a blaze beginning on my leg. It’s not just me, either, as other reviewers also complained about getting baked.

Once I was able to start ignoring the heat, I began to notice the build quality wasn’t as I expected from Harley-Davidson. The screen was shrouded in thick, low-ish-grade plastic that I just couldn’t stop staring at. It’s such a departure from the high-quality paint and metal that it sticks out. It’s a similar story for the plastic around the windshield. It looked cheap and the lever for the windshield felt cheap. I wondered how well it would adjust the windshield when caked in dirt and mud.

I was also not a fan of the Revolution Max 1250’s sound. Contrary to popular belief, Harleys are actually pretty quiet from the factory. However, even when you ride a factory-stock Harley you can still hear that iconic “potato potato” sound. In making the Revolution Max 1250 into a heart-pumping wheelie producer, it seems a lot of that sound got lost. To my ears, the Revmax sounds like what I’d expect from a Can-Am side-by-side or a Japanese V-twin, not America’s motorcycle sweetheart. No matter what mode I chose or how I rode it, I was disappointed in how much the Pan America didn’t sound like a Harley.

I’m told some exhaust mods improve the sound dramatically and YouTube videos suggest that’s the case. Still, don’t expect to hear that old Evolution engine soundtrack. The Revmax has a new sound to go with its new power.

Harley-Davidson’s Real Flagship

Despite all of this, I am convinced the Harley-Davidson Pan America is easily one of the best motorcycles to have ever been designed by the Milwaukee firm. It’s so different, so good, and so game-changing that you have to confirm that this was really made by the same company that builds Ultra Limiteds. I am so glad the end of More Roads didn’t kill the Pan America, because Harley-Davidson would be stuck in the past without it.

It’s a shame that the Pan America, like others in this part of the ADV segment, is so expensive. A dollar under $20,000 gets you some nice cars. Heck, the BMW R 1300 GS, another bike that is awesome in its own right, starts at a grand cheaper than the Harley. Sadly, Harley’s continued efforts to attract younger riders still seems a bit too expensive. But if you do have that kind of cash floating around, or at least the financing to make it work, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

My day with a Pan America was a great one. I wanted to ask if I could ride it back to Illinois from California instead of taking a flight home. Instead, I might have to see if I can get one as a press loaner. If it’s that good in wine country, it should be a blast when I take it on a real adventure. Stick around, hopefully I can make it happen!

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