Bad luck comes in threes
Third warranty issue inside six months parks the PanAm once again
Some of us get all the luck, others none of it. Until this year, I’ve not had a single warranty issue with a long-term test bike in my time at MCN, which has involved 80,000 miles in all conditions, nor have I had any issues with regular test bikes either. So, it’s sods law that I should suffer not one, not two but now three issues with this Pan America within just a few months. The first one, if you don’t remember, was when it dropped into limp mode on the M11 because of an issue with the cam position sensor. Then at the 5000-mile service it was noticed that the heatshield had cracked off the rear header, requiring a whole new exhaust under warranty. This time, it looks like the rear shock is the culprit. Not long after getting the bike back from the first service, I spotted a drop of oil on my driveway. Assuming it was either from my other Harley (a feature it seems…) or just an errant splash from the service, I didn’t pay it much attention. Until another spot appeared a few days later.
Peering underneath the bike I saw a drip on the bashplate, then traced the oil up to see copious amounts of it down the back of the gearbox and running down the shock body. Oh dear. As you read this it’s currently being inspected by the experts at Warrs but it looks like a failure of the main seal, which Harley say is a first. Not even their fault either as it’s a third party piece of kit from Showa. Either way, it’s off the road until a new shock is sourced and fitted. The strangest thing though, is it wasn’t that much of a surprise. By pure chance I was sat next to a chap on a flight to Portugal just a few weeks ago who was reading through a Pan America owner’s group on Facebook. I said I had one, showed him a picture of mine and mentioned the cracked exhaust header when he asked how I’d found it. “Ah yes I’ve seen a few of those,” he said. “Eh, where?” I asked. He promptly scrolled through the group and lo there were indeed a few others with cracked header mounts and another couple of complaints about water in connectors. There were also people complaining that the clock doesn’t keep time (mine doesn’t either) and then he asked the strangest question: “Have you had any issues with the suspension?”
“No, not yet.” Who knew
I’d shared a flight with Nostradamus?
‘It wasn’t even that much of a surprise’