Mad Mike
Well-known member
If it helps, I’ll volunteer to pick it up, do the break-in miles, then ride it right to your garage?
|
|
|
Pan America
- Thread starter TK4
- Start date
I gonna give you that you're excited but isn't that really just 4 seat heights?
Congrats on pulling the trigger.
What about a tattoo of a beard?
The seat has 2 positions. There is a higher seat and a lower seat available as options.
I have a great appendix scar, that's it for me.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
This bike is on my serious next bike list. Just waiting for a trusty review from non-journalist, non-blog riders.
I figure it can replace my Vstrom and FJR. I wonder how my wife will react to finding fewer bikes in the garage?
I'll let my grandkids take care of that with Crayola.
Depends how closely she watches your bank account. This thing is expensive.
No kidding, I saw one on the showroom floor fully optioned out. It was $30K+ before tax.
F-n ballers in this thread!
Is there anything that could save a two wheeled bathtub?
Pre new hip I thought about it. I test drove one and actually thought it was not bad.
Why consider setting such a precedent?
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Fortunately She doesn’t comment on my spending. She’s aware that would open an uncomfortable 2 way conversation about how bikes are cheaper than shoes.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Thanks for the review, all that’s holding me back is a few trusty owners, preferably those with prior loyalties to other brands.The Harley demo trailer rolled into town today and my wife and I rode in to test ride the new Pan America. We show up and we were the only non-Harley bike in the parking lot:
One of these things is not like the other.
Kinda felt like this:
Very surprised no other riders from other brands showed up. Maybe it's different in other places, but it definitely doesn't bode well for Harley if they're trying to steal market share from the other manufacturers.
Sitting on the bike felt very familiar. It was like they took all the seating position measurements from the R1250GS and basically grafted a Harley onto those numbers. It did feel slightly smaller than my R1250GS though, the seat is maybe half an inch lower, the seating position is canted slightly more forward, but the riding position is comfortable for long distances.
Getting the bike off the side-stand was effortless. Harley managed to keep the centre of gravity quite low on this bike, very similar to the R1250. That was very surprising given that it's a V-Twin. It made the bike very easy to maneuver at slow speeds. I was ripping some tight U-turns and figure 8s after the demo ride and I'd say it's almost as good as the GS in that respect.
The engine is very vibey in comparison to the BMW's boxer motor. I would liken it more to KTM's 1290 V-Twin engine in their Super Adventure R. It also spewed as much, if not more heat than the 1290. The bike was set up to start in "Road" mode which made the throttle response feel disconnected and lame. It felt like the clutch was slipping. Until I figured out how to put it into "Sport" mode and which made the throttle feel much more snappier and acceleration became instantaneous. Nice engine.
It only took a couple of minutes into the test ride to figure out that the GS market isn't what they are aiming for. It's the Mutistrada/SAR which they are competing against. It's a very capable street bike with gobs of power, something the GS never really aspires to. Riders window-shopping for a GS will probably not care about the horsepower as much as Ducati/KTM cross-shoppers.
I never really got a chance to play around with all the buttons and the TFT dash. The bike was supposed to come with the Adjustable Ride Height, but the demo guys didn't know how to turn it on. I would have really liked to see it lower and raise the bike as it came to a stop. BMW's Wonder Wheel is such a better input system than the Gameboy Controller D-Pad that most of the newer bikes sport on the left handlebar.
Most of the manufacturers are moving to this laced wheel setup where the spokes terminate outside the rim. This allows the bike to have both spokes and run tubeless tires.
The bike handled well, good acceleration, comfortable. Harley did a VERY good job taking the best of all the Adventure bikes out there. The numbers for power and weight are in line with the flagship ADV models for BMW, KTM and Ducati. Styling-wise, it's not my bag of tea. Too boxy-looking.
Really, the only thing stopping them from selling a ton of Pan Americas is the badging. Very surprised no other riders showed up except bike-curious Harley owners who got off the bike complaining how they felt cramped because their feet weren't stretched out in front of them.
Great bike. I like it. I hope they do well, but based on the non-Harley turnout for the test ride, I have my doubts.
On another un-related note, riders in rural areas know how to ride motorcycles. I went out in two shifts, the second ride I took a Road King out. It sucked, I hated it, but I was very surprised at how well people ride out here.
I've done a lot of demo days in Toronto and comparatively, riders in the city have poorer control, both feet out at stop lights, no rear brake, don't know how to ride in staggered formation, pin the throttle on the straights and park it in the corner. Everyone here has been riding dirt bikes since they were 5 years old. Very impressed with the motorcycle skills out here.
My guess at the HD centric test riders has to do with a few things; HDs ability to reach their legacy riders, other brand riders not being familiar with how well HD hosts test rides compared to their current brand, fear of buyer remorse.
Thanks for posting Gene.The Harley demo trailer rolled into town today and my wife and I rode in to test ride the new Pan America. We show up and we were the only non-Harley bike in the parking lot:
One of these things is not like the other.
Kinda felt like this:
Very surprised no other riders from other brands showed up. Maybe it's different in other places, but it definitely doesn't bode well for Harley if they're trying to steal market share from the other manufacturers.
Sitting on the bike felt very familiar. It was like they took all the seating position measurements from the R1250GS and basically grafted a Harley onto those numbers. It did feel slightly smaller than my R1250GS though, the seat is maybe half an inch lower, the seating position is canted slightly more forward, but the riding position is comfortable for long distances.
Getting the bike off the side-stand was effortless. Harley managed to keep the centre of gravity quite low on this bike, very similar to the R1250. That was very surprising given that it's a V-Twin. It made the bike very easy to maneuver at slow speeds. I was ripping some tight U-turns and figure 8s after the demo ride and I'd say it's almost as good as the GS in that respect.
The engine is very vibey in comparison to the BMW's boxer motor. I would liken it more to KTM's 1290 V-Twin engine in their Super Adventure R. It also spewed as much, if not more heat than the 1290. The bike was set up to start in "Road" mode which made the throttle response feel disconnected and lame. It felt like the clutch was slipping. Until I figured out how to put it into "Sport" mode and which made the throttle feel much more snappier and acceleration became instantaneous. Nice engine.
It only took a couple of minutes into the test ride to figure out that the GS market isn't what they are aiming for. It's the Mutistrada/SAR which they are competing against. It's a very capable street bike with gobs of power, something the GS never really aspires to. Riders window-shopping for a GS will probably not care about the horsepower as much as Ducati/KTM cross-shoppers.
I never really got a chance to play around with all the buttons and the TFT dash. The bike was supposed to come with the Adjustable Ride Height, but the demo guys didn't know how to turn it on. I would have really liked to see it lower and raise the bike as it came to a stop. BMW's Wonder Wheel is such a better input system than the Gameboy Controller D-Pad that most of the newer bikes sport on the left handlebar.
Most of the manufacturers are moving to this laced wheel setup where the spokes terminate outside the rim. This allows the bike to have both spokes and run tubeless tires.
The bike handled well, good acceleration, comfortable. Harley did a VERY good job taking the best of all the Adventure bikes out there. The numbers for power and weight are in line with the flagship ADV models for BMW, KTM and Ducati. Styling-wise, it's not my bag of tea. Too boxy-looking.
Really, the only thing stopping them from selling a ton of Pan Americas is the badging. Very surprised no other riders showed up except bike-curious Harley owners who got off the bike complaining how they felt cramped because their feet weren't stretched out in front of them.
Great bike. I like it. I hope they do well, but based on the non-Harley turnout for the test ride, I have my doubts.
On another un-related note, riders in rural areas know how to ride motorcycles. I went out in two shifts, the second ride I took a Road King out. It sucked, I hated it, but I was very surprised at how well people ride out here.
I've done a lot of demo days in Toronto and comparatively, riders in the city have poorer control, both feet out at stop lights, no rear brake, don't know how to ride in staggered formation, pin the throttle on the straights and park it in the corner. Everyone here has been riding dirt bikes since they were 5 years old. Very impressed with the motorcycle skills out here.
The test ride was very well organized and they had a pop-up tent set up where they were cooking up hot dogs and serving coffee and other drinks to anyone who showed up. I was very impressed.
I really hope this bike does well. It would be a shame to waste all that good engineering because of badge-aversion - both within and outside the Harley brand.
Because the bike is comparable to the others in a lot of ways, the innovations like ARH won't mean much. It's the vast dealer network that will sell it.
I want to stay tuned to this. Pan Am in the Iron Butt! Scroll to the bottom of the page.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
That’s one thing you have to say about HD, they can put on an event - not just for bike writers, for riders too.
They are masters of branding and brand loyalty, hell people pay a premium for a Ford Truck with Harley Davidson branding. Nevemind trucks, I’m pretty sure you can buy a thousand things wit the HD brand.
I don’t think Honda or BMW could pull these off.
Iceman
Well-known member
Shared by a trusted friend and experienced rider...
Sent from my SM-A530W using Tapatalk
|
|
|
|
|