IN THE NEWS
HARLEY-DAVIDSON LAUNCHES ITS ALL-NEW ADVENTURE BIKE
By Scott High
T
he motorcycle on the cover of this issue, if you are not familiar with it, is the all-new Harley-Davidson Pan America. It is a 1250cc adventure touring bike which is a very popular segment of motorcycling. Adventure touring bikes are very capable on the street, but also capable off road. It’s a bike you could ride 1000 miles in a day on the road and the next day ride gravel or dirt roads and mild trails, and by all accounts, it’s a very good ADV motorcycle. The Pan America has been in development for many years, it uses Harley’s new liquid cooled DOHC 4 valves per cylinder, with variable valve timing, 60° V twin 1250cc Revolution Max engine. Although it’s a 60° v twin, offsets for the connecting rods allow it to have a 90° firing order. It produces 150 hp and 94 lb-ft of torque with a redline of 9500 rpm. The Pan America comes in “Standard” and “Special” versions. Both models have cruise control, 5 preprogrammed electronic ride modes with a customizable mode, and much like RDRS equipped touring bikes they have linked brakes, cornering ABS, lean-angle aware
traction control, Hill Hold Control, a Drag-Torque Slip Control clutch, LED lighting, a 4-way hand-adjustable windscreen, a 6.8” color TFT display with Bluetooth for calls and music, and navigation on the screen. The Special adds a lot of electronic goodies. It has electronically adjustable semi-active front and rear suspension, it senses the rider’s weight and adjust the suspension on the fly, it can even drop the ride height 1-2 inches when you come to a stop depending on the rear preload it selected for you. The special models come with aluminum skid plate, engine guards, hand guards, heated grips, center stand, steering damper, multi-position rear brake pedal, tire pressure monitoring, ambient air temp, two additional customizable ride modes, and a Daymaker adaptive cornering headlight. The bikes are being delivered to dealers as you read this, and we will do a ride review when we’ve had a chance to spend some time on it, but we put the motorcycle on the cover because it is a significant departure from the Motor Company’s bread and butter. We hope it’s a sign that HarleyDavidson is adapting to stay relevant and be around for another 118 years.
JUNE 2021 ThunderRoadsTennessee.com
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