The new face of ADVENTURE
Harley has entered the adventure bike market with a bang. Is this the end of the beaked Euro and Japanese bikes ruling the roost?
Until a few years ago, Harley-Davidson was a motorcycle manufacturer with a huge line-up of bikes, which were all fairly similar in many ways. There was a lot of choice but not that much variety. The bikes were all big V-twins. They all looked like motorcycles have looked for decades. They may have been classed as Sportsters, Tourers and Cruisers, but by and large they all shared the same style and feel – at least to an external observer. They were all unmistakably Harley-Davidsons.
Then, in 2019, H-D launched the LiveWire. An electric bike that didn’t have any of the sound, smell or feel of the rest of the range. It handled superbly, looked sleek and modern, while still carrying the company’s traditional design traits. It proved that Harley is capable of changing direction in surprising ways, and to make it work.
Now the Motor Company, as Harley is known by the aficionados, has entered the adventure bike market.
It may sound like an unlikely occurrence, but big adventure bikes are selling well, and if you can get a piece of that pie you would be foolish to say ‘no thanks’. And the early indications are that Harley is landing on its feet in the adventure category – before the bikes were even in the showrooms it had already sold 40% of its UK production allocation.
At the same time as these new designs have been appearing, H-D has trimmed its traditional line-up (partly a strategic move, partly dictated by emissions regulations), and it now has a range that is no longer quite so vast, but it’s more versatile than many other manufacturers’ stables.
How many other companies can you name that have a significant presence in the cruiser, tourer, electric and adventure market?
But none of that background really matters. What matters is how good the Pan America 1250 S is. That’s the question we went to answer at the UK launch in Wales, and here’s the rub…
All-new everything in two flavours
The first thing to note is that there are two models, the Pan America 1250 and the Pan America 1250 S (as in Special, not Sport). Both models are all-new, built from the ground up. They share the new engine and chassis, but there are some significant differences.
The biggest difference is that the base model features traditional but fully-adjustable Showa suspension, while the S has semi-active suspension, also by Showa. In addition to different damping settings available on the fly, the semi-active set up allows Harley to offer ‘adaptable ride height’ as an industry first. It’s a £600 option for the S model, but I can see it being popular. In simple terms, the suspension lowers the ride height as you come to a stop and then climbs up to normal ride height again as you set off. The change is not an instant drop and lift, and you don’t really notice the ride height rising as you take off, but you do appreciate the lower seat height when at standstill. It has the benefit of not having to shorten suspension travel to achieve a low seat height like some lowering options do, so the ride quality is uncompromised. It’s clever.
Other goodies that the S has over the standard bike include centre stand, engine bars, aluminium skid plate, cornering lights, heated grips, hand guards and steering damper. Both bikes come as standard on cast wheels, but wire-spoked wheels fitting tubeless tyres are available for £400.
In terms of pricing, Harley has entered the market with a competitive price tag on the bikes. The standard bike costs £14,000, and the S starts at £15,500. For reference, the basic BMW R1250GS starts from £13,705, and the R1250GS Adventure TE that has semi-active suspension, heated grips, cruise control, etc., costs £18,410. With the Harley’s tech spec very close to the BMW’s, it’s pretty obvious where the Americans are hoping to poach the customers.
Swiss Army Knife for the road Since nothing in Harley’s range really lent itself to helping develop the Pan America, the engineers pretty much had a blank canvas in front of them for design and build. What they wanted to do was to create a multi-tool; an all-round bike that would handle onand-off road.
The road from nothing to a finished product was long. One million development miles were covered with about half of that off-road. In addition to that, Harley did extensive research into what adventure riders of other bikes wanted, what Harley riders wanted, and what would make an attractive offering to both.
Key to the development process was ‘function first’ mentality. Everything had to be functional. This is what H-D quoted as the reason for not including the adventure ‘beak’ on this bike – for the Harley engineers it served no functional purpose, so it was out.
Although having a distinctive look (as much as it may divide opinion) must have been an important consideration from a sales point of view too. It would not be wise to try and mimic what’s already out there and doing well.
Engine for adventure
The beating heart of the Pan America is the brand-new Revolution Max 1252cc liquid-cooled V-twin. Of course it’s a V-twin, it’s a Harley after all, but it’s a thoroughly modern motor with impressive power figures. Peak power is a claimed 150hp (BMW 1250GS has 136hp). Maximum torque figure is 128Nm (BMW 1250GS has 143). What those figures mean in practice is that the bike has the muscles to move its 258kg (wet) bulk. That weight, by the way, is 10kg less than the GS Adventure.
“The engine has a relaxed feel. It’s not fast revving, just as you’d expect, and it builds its power in a calm way.”
The engine starts with a lovely V-twin rumble, but there is no shaking or vibration that you might expect from a Harley. Apparently, the engineers have reduced the vibes with counterbalance weights in the engine to the minimum, but they purposely left a tiny bit in to make the bike feel alive. It’s a good call, and there’s definitely no issue with any vibes affecting the ride.
The engine has a relaxed feel. It’s not fast revving, just as you’d expect, and it builds it’s power in a calm way. Benefitting from variable valve timing, it pulls from low revs, but you get more from the engine if you lift the engine speed a bit higher. It’s not too lumpy low down, but you certainly have more fun if you hang on to gears a little longer.
Talking about gears, the new gearbox is excellent. It’s nothing like the old Harley boxes that had all the delicate sophistication of a heavyweight boxer on a bad day.
This new set up is light and accurate, and you don’t really miss a quickshifter even if you are used to one. The clutch is light too, although with the sweet box clutchless shifting is a doddle. And how about this: the brake and clutch levers are adjustable – that must be a first for Harley. Hurray!
“This new set up is light and accurate, and you don’t really miss a quickshifter even if you are used to one.”
Tech-driven
A good example of the multi-tool approach of this bike’s design are the different ride modes. They give a range of throttle responses, limit the engine power and engine braking, and set the suspension accordingly. You have the choice of Sport, Road, Rain, Off-road ,Off-road Plus, and two custom modes.
Our road ride started with small, bumpy country roads. It was (fairly) dry so I felt that the Rain mode was a little too sluggish. The roads were quite bumpy, so I didn’t like the Sport setting either as the throttle response was too sharp and suspension hard. The perfect middle ground was the Road mode, with nicely controllable power and suitably soft suspension.
As the roads got bigger, dryer and less bumpy, the Sport mode was the one to go for, providing ample power and stability.
The Pan America really suits fast and flowing roads where you can stretch its legs. Steering is light, and although cornering is not super-fast, it feels effortless. Once you have entered the corner the bike holds the line well, with the suspension working great in keeping the ride smooth and controlled.
The Pan America has an adjustable screen that’s easy to use on the go. It’s not massive, but it works well, and takes the wind off your body without buffeting your head too much.
I didn’t notice much difference between the high and low settings, but as always, that depends on your height and sensitivity to windblast.
Cruise control is standard on both bikes, and the S has heated grips and hand guards, too. All of them make the ride a little more relaxed, but for me the star of the show was the comfy riding position. The seat is well-padded and very comfortable. With the seat in the higher of the two settings, I found that I could still get my feet on the ground (thanks to the adaptive ride height), and I had much more room for my legs. The wide bars are high and close enough to make steering easy, too.
Our launch ride was not long enough to make any definitive calls about long-distance comfort, but from the few hours I spent on the bike I could imagine this being one of the most comfortable big-mile munchers out there.
Off the beaten track
From the fast A roads we headed off to the adventure playground that is the Mick Extance Experience. Guided by Mick himself we had a chance to try the bike on trails, which highlighted its off-road capabilities.
Big adventure bikes are never going to be as good off-road as little enduro bikes, but for a biggun the Pan handled very well. It’s clear that the centre of gravity is low, making slow riding in a difficult environment much easier. The wide and reasonably high bars helped keeping the lines, and once the off-road mode was selected the traction control and suspension worked seamlessly. Our light off-roading also showed the Michelin Scorcher Adventure tyres in good light. They have been especially developed for this bike (the same tyres fit both cast and laced wheels), and they seemed at ease on- and off-road.
A nice little touch helping the control of the bike while riding standing up is that the rear brake pedal is height adjustable. Every little helps, of course.
Final stretch
On the way back from our off-roading we had a bit more time on Tarmac, and a chance to reflect on the bike’s overall performance.
My overall feeling was of a positive surprise.
The engine does not feel quite as potent as the BMW boxer (apologies for the constant comparisons, but the GS is the benchmark in the category), but it’s easy to ride and certainly doesn’t feel sluggish. You just have to be a bit more ‘on it’. The chassis also seemed very solid and stable. The suspension was faultless in every environment, the brakes were good and strong, and the long swingarm helped to keep things calm even at speed.
The Pan America is absolutely loaded with tech, which most of these bikes are now. It doesn’t have the season’s speciality, the adaptive cruise control, but it does have pretty much everything else you could wish for. Using all that tech is pretty simple with the combination of the TFT touchscreen and switchgear.
The buttons on the switchgear are on the small side, so they take some getting used to, and could be difficult with winter gloves, and it took me most of the day to get used to the indicator switch (instead of cancelling the indicator, I kept indicating the other way…).
As you may have guessed, there is also an H-D app that you can use to link with the bike. This enables using the TFT screen as a satnav, which is another clever little bit of tech.
The main thing that I took away from the ride, however, was that beyond all that tech and unusual looks, the Pan America is a very capable motorcycle. It rides well and offers great comfort. Many will have misgivings about an adventure bike from Harley, but I bet that most people who like adventure bikes will like the Pan if they take a test ride. We might well have a new significant competitor in the adventure market. Watch this space!