Congrats. Did you buy the requisite 92 pieces of flair including a branded wardrobe?
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Pan America
- Thread starter TK4
- Start date
That's the second room. My buddy says he signed for the new Streetglide in room one then they took him into room two where they bring out the chrome/etc catalogue and he spent more on upgrades than he did for just the glide.
Roadghost
Well-known member
Does this mean you're not going to wave at lesser cretins on other bikes?
If wife breaks his arm, yes he won't be waving for awhile.
Cool. We're going to test ride one next weekend. Neda's 650 is due to get upgraded and I think it will be hilarious if she got a Harley to replace it with.
traded road glide? what the blazes...
sburns
Well-known member
He owns a few bikes, He also owns another harley other then the Pan America
hasn't happened yetCould be worse, trading a BMW for a RG...
Good. Make sure you two try one with arh.
sburns
Well-known member
All joking aside tho... I may not be a very good motorcycle rider, but the one thing I *can* do is ride tall bikes.
Kinda have to, when your inseam measurement is much shorter than your waist measurement. I have oversquare legs...
I haven't owned a motorcycle I could get two feet touching the ground in forever.
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.
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.
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POWERMAN
Well-known member
"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."
Wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out.
Isn't that an odd place to put those fins behind the front wheel?
First time I'm seeing a Harley that is chain driven.
And I was under the impression that Harley's used separate transmission fluid...
I've got a lot to learn lol.
I believe those fins are the reg/rec. Lots of airflow and some spray there so it should stay cool. Not something you want to smash on a rock though.
"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."
Wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out.
Isn't that an odd place to put those fins behind the front wheel?
First time I'm seeing a Harley that is chain driven.
And I was under the impression that Harley's used separate transmission fluid...
I've got a lot to learn lol.
Typical harleys do use a separate transmission. This is not a typical harley. Separate transmission has to add weight and complexity and I'm not sure it improves anything for the average rider.
bigpoppa
Well-known member
"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."
Wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out.
Isn't that an odd place to put those fins behind the front wheel?
First time I'm seeing a Harley that is chain driven.
And I was under the impression that Harley's used separate transmission fluid...
I've got a lot to learn lol.
I can never see anything but a manta ray on that front end
not enough to save the PacificCoast (PC800)
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