We love a bit of dirt riding and puddle bombing over at VC so when Harley-Davidson called recently and asked us to come and have a go on their new adventure bike - The Pan America - we jumped at the chance (all be it with a few feelings of trepidation since we haven’t spent much seat time on an adventure bike before!)
Since unveiling the Pan America concept bike back in 2018 what was an unexpected move into the adventure bike market
Ok first things first…. I’ve loved the design of the Pan America since I first saw the concept bike at the Motorcycle live show back in 2019 but I'm gonna full on admit that I was pretty nervous about riding this bike before the event. From what I had seen online . I’d ridden a lot off road and done a lot of trail riding but on much lighter, lower dirt bikes and so my main worries were:
A) What was the height going to be like for me. Im 5’6 so not the shortest but definitely not a tall gal.
B) What was the weight going to be like?
But then this was pretty much the opportunity of a lifetime sooooooo I shoved my fear down in my boots, packed my dirt kit and headed out the door for Lake Vyrnwy - HQ of the Pan America launch…and what a HQ it was! Think the biggest lake you’ve ever seen surrounded by epic dense forests of fir trees and sweeping landscapes as far as the eye can see! No too shabby.
Step one of the trip was a genius move by the Harley-Davidson team as we all got to try out the Pan America on arrival with some non competitive (yeah right) slow races held by the awesome team from Mick Extance off road school.
Slow speed training is actually one of the best ways to learn good balance on a motorcycle which you can transfer across into any riding discipline, especially anything off road, trails or enduro. Having done a lot of slow speed training before I knew what I was doing but that didn’t stop me from still being nervous about jumping on the Pan America for the first time.
So on I hop and the first thing I noticed was that the height wasn’t half as bad as I thought. PHEW! Luckily Harley-Davidson already thought of the fact that shorter riders might want to have a good go at this bike too and so they can provide an adaptive ride height suspension for an extra £600 which can be dialled in to suit the rider. And the best bit? It automatically lowers the bike when it comes to a stop! GAME CHANGER! I had the Pan America on the lowest height which was 32.5” high and although my feet weren’t flat on the floor either side, I was super comfortable with the balls of my feet planted firmly on the ground.
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WEIGHT
Next - the weight. A big concern about adventure bikes is being able to pick them up. The Pan America Special weighs in at 258kg so this was pretty far over anything I’d ever ridden off road. Cue The Girl on a bike who demonstrated picking the Pan America up from the ground with a handy “stick your back into it” technique and made it look pretty easy! Obviously this would be a little harder out on a dirt trail (even picking up a dirt bike on the trails can sometimes be a MF) but that being said, I’m never on my own when I ride dirt anyways so the likely hood of having to pick this bike up alone is very slim. Over all when I got on the bike, due also to its manageable height, the weight wasn’t a concern anymore. A few slow race battles under my belt and fear number 2 is quickly squashed and I’m left itching to get out on the bike for a days riding on and off road!
THE RIDE
The next morning we woke up to some amazing sunshine ready to go for a blast!
First up some road riding through some of the most epic Welsh landscape you could ever hope to ride through. Tracking narrow roads on the sides of valleys next to towering hillsides, weaving through forestry and passing waterfalls, the Pan America handled the road with an ease on open roads that would have had my trail bike screaming its head off and although I’ll admit I’m not someone who exactly scrapes their knees round corners the bike just loved it and stuck to the road like glue.
An hour and a half later and we hit up the awesome off road centre at Mick Extance Experience. How would the bike handle rubble, hill climbs, slippy muddy ruts, mini jumps and gravely tight corners? Well this was where the Pan America really came into its own. The size of the bike actually felt fine, even though I was usually used to a much smaller dirt bike, as it handled everything I threw at it. I had a couple of sketchy moments on some v tight gravel turns (my bad) but aside from this I felt comfortable and dared to give it a bit more beans every time I hit a lil jump.
Ok, now something cool about the Pan America is that it also has multiple electronically controlled ride modes so you can suit the bike set up to the terrain you’re riding - Special models are pre programmed for Road, Sport, Rain, Off-Road and Off-Road Plus with 2 extra custom modes that you can programme yourself to your riding style on the special edition. We can attest to the fact that every mode delivered (especially the off road mode) giving you everything you needed when you needed it.
All in all we were blown away by the ride on every level and pulled back into Harley-Davidson with an achy jaw from smiling so much. Could this be the bike that turns us on to some adv adventures? Very possibly indeed.
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STYLE
Ok so, the Pan America is a design that has split opinion across the bike world but then good design always does that. It’s actually a really nice surprise to see a bike like this coming from Harley-Davidson, who usually stick to road riding muscle bikes, and going out on a limb stylistically and not just churning out a run of the mill looking adv bike is something I’m absolutely here for, especially in the defence of something new and fresh (which in my humble opinion, the bike world needs so badly right now).
Most adv bikes can often look, well, a bit same same if we’re honest but the fact that you can actually have an adv bike that carries all your kit, handles both road and off road beautifully and lacks a punch in the head turning style department too? We’re in! This is genuinely the first adv bike that we’d say that we’d add to the VC stables any day and as mostly a bunch of vintage bike, dirt bike and chopper riders, that’s saying a lot.
My fave colour way is the special edition orange and white but there are also some pretty mean looking khaki and grey options too.
SOME OF THE STATS FOR YOU BOFFINS:
ENGINE: Liquid-cooled, DOHC, 60-Degree V-Twin
HORSEPOWER: 150 @ 9,000 RPM
SEAT HEIGHT (HIGH/LOW SEAT): 34.2″/35.2″; 32.7″/33.7″ (With ARH)
GROUND CLEARANCE:8.3″
LENGTH:89.2″
FRONT BRAKE:320mm twin discs. Radially mounted, monoblock, 4-piston caliper, with cornering ABS
REAR BRAKE:280mm disc. Floating single piston caliper, with cornering ABS
WEIGHT (FULLY FUELED):534 lb. (Standard); 559 lb. (Special)
SERVICE INTERVAL:First 1,000 miles (1,600 km), every 5,000 miles (8,000 km) thereafter
PRICE: £15,500
SO THE VERDICT?
The Pan America really has left me dreaming of epic adventures to mountains, forests, hell… even deserts and I’d definitely jump at the chance to put it even further through its paces to see what this bike can really do as my feeling is I’ve only just scratched the surface!
One thing to be learned from going on this trip that no matter how nervous you may be about riding a bike the best thing is just to shove all that down in your moto boots and just give it a lil go. The bike may look big/ heavy/ intimidating but often if you want to ride a bike enough you can nail it (even if that means with a bit of a talking to yourself and maybe even some tuition from someone more experienced)! You might even be surprised what you are able to ride (I was) and at the end of the day had I not taken a leap of faith I would have also missed out on what was so far one of the most incredible experiences on two wheels that I’ve had!
