Went to the dealership and picked up a Pan Toronto S for a couple of days.
I've always thought this was a strange-looking bike. It's like the designers desperately wanted to make sure everyone knew this was a Harley, so they basically imported the tank and nose fairing from the Road Glide into Photoshop, went to town on it with the Squish/Stretch tool and then pasted it onto an adventure motorcycle.
It reminds of when Porsche did the same thing by making every one of their new models a stretched and squished version of the 911. I guess it's one way to lure existing fans of the marque into a new market segment.
Took a cold ride up north to hit up some roads in the Kawarthas and the Haliburton Highlands
I test rode the PanAm a few years ago when it originally came out. But the ride was quite short and I don't think I got a good feel for it. I've got the bike for a couple of days now, so I got a chance to get to know it a bit better.
First thing I noticed was that the engine was a lot vibier than I remembered - especially at low-to-mid revs. I also had to get used to the menu system, which was not intuitive as to how to customize all the options. The biggest head-scratcher was how to turn off the annoying Adaptive Ride Height feature, which lowers the bike as it comes to a stop. I'm not a fan of it.
When I did my initial test ride, the Harley "expert" that was leading the demo ride couldn't figure it out. The guy at Durham HD couldn't figure it out. After Googling how to disable it, it turns out you have to copy an existing Mode, like Sport, and make it a Custom mode. Then you can edit that Custom mode which will give you an option to change all the bike options, like throttle response, engine braking and... Adaptive Ride Height.
I hate it when products make you read the manual.
I mean this half sarcastically but also half-seriously. Operating and modifying options from the UI should be more intuitive, IMO.
I was given some PanAm spare parts in case the bike broke down on the road. The spare parts did not fit in the panniers, so they gave me extra storage...
Another annoyance was the weird Harley kickstand that they put on this bike. The "jiffy" stand is one of those signature HD features, originally patented in 1930 and used on every big Harley since. It locks the kickstand in place so the bike doesn't roll off of it when parked on an incline and in neutral.
The mechanism is a bit disconcerting because once the foot of the stand touches the ground, the bike keeps on leaning till the stand locks into place. I was never sure whether the stand was broken or if I had deployed it properly. Conversely, taking the bike off the sidestand, the bike needs to be leaned uncomfortably farther to the right for the foot of the stand to leave the ground.
Personally, I think they should have put a conventional kickstand on this adventure bike, if it's meant to be parked on uneven ground. *shrug* Maybe it's just me.
2026 Harley-Davidson Pan Toronto S
Ok, enough bitching.
Overall Harley did a pretty good job on their first stab at an ADV. Coming from a GS, it seems like the engineers grabbed a R1250GS and copy & pasted the exact geometry of its rider triangle onto the PanAm. If you ride ADV bikes, the sitting and standing position is instantly familiar. The engine is torquey and the ride modes can be customized like every other modern motorcycle out there.
What I really like is the throttle shaping while in custom mode. Most motorcycles roll on the power slower at 0-10% throttle with a quicker response once the throttle is open. This allows a smoother start and easier gear shifts. The PanAm allows you to bypass this shaping and select "Direct Throttle" which gives you instant power delivery on roll-on which is great to dig yourself out of loose surfaces like deep sand, as well as spin the rear tire easily for quick direction changes.
Although with 150 horses on tap combined with 575 lbs wet weight (for the S), you do run the risk of digging a deeper hole in the sand, rather than launching the bike out of it...
Fit and finish on the bike was quite good. It had all the typical road-oriented, faux-dirtbike features that all ADV bikes have, including the flimsy plastic handguards which shatter instantly on contact with the ground. It comes stock with crash bars which not a lot of ADVs do, that's nice. You can turn off all the electronic aids in Custom mode, if you're so inclined. Which I was. I rode with everything off and "Direct Throttle" on which I think gave me a pretty good idea of what the bones of the bike feel like.
I only rode some gravel roads up north, so never got a chance to test out the suspension on the gnarlier stuff, but the ride was comfortable on gravel and tarmac, with the electronically adjustable damping performing the same as BMW's Electronic Suspension Adjustment.
Overall, a fun bike. Still think it looks a bit strange though. I wouldn't buy one, but I wouldn't turn down a ride on one!
I've always thought this was a strange-looking bike. It's like the designers desperately wanted to make sure everyone knew this was a Harley, so they basically imported the tank and nose fairing from the Road Glide into Photoshop, went to town on it with the Squish/Stretch tool and then pasted it onto an adventure motorcycle.
It reminds of when Porsche did the same thing by making every one of their new models a stretched and squished version of the 911. I guess it's one way to lure existing fans of the marque into a new market segment.
Took a cold ride up north to hit up some roads in the Kawarthas and the Haliburton Highlands
I test rode the PanAm a few years ago when it originally came out. But the ride was quite short and I don't think I got a good feel for it. I've got the bike for a couple of days now, so I got a chance to get to know it a bit better.
First thing I noticed was that the engine was a lot vibier than I remembered - especially at low-to-mid revs. I also had to get used to the menu system, which was not intuitive as to how to customize all the options. The biggest head-scratcher was how to turn off the annoying Adaptive Ride Height feature, which lowers the bike as it comes to a stop. I'm not a fan of it.
When I did my initial test ride, the Harley "expert" that was leading the demo ride couldn't figure it out. The guy at Durham HD couldn't figure it out. After Googling how to disable it, it turns out you have to copy an existing Mode, like Sport, and make it a Custom mode. Then you can edit that Custom mode which will give you an option to change all the bike options, like throttle response, engine braking and... Adaptive Ride Height.
I hate it when products make you read the manual.
I mean this half sarcastically but also half-seriously. Operating and modifying options from the UI should be more intuitive, IMO.
I was given some PanAm spare parts in case the bike broke down on the road. The spare parts did not fit in the panniers, so they gave me extra storage...
Another annoyance was the weird Harley kickstand that they put on this bike. The "jiffy" stand is one of those signature HD features, originally patented in 1930 and used on every big Harley since. It locks the kickstand in place so the bike doesn't roll off of it when parked on an incline and in neutral.
The mechanism is a bit disconcerting because once the foot of the stand touches the ground, the bike keeps on leaning till the stand locks into place. I was never sure whether the stand was broken or if I had deployed it properly. Conversely, taking the bike off the sidestand, the bike needs to be leaned uncomfortably farther to the right for the foot of the stand to leave the ground.
Personally, I think they should have put a conventional kickstand on this adventure bike, if it's meant to be parked on uneven ground. *shrug* Maybe it's just me.
2026 Harley-Davidson Pan Toronto S
Ok, enough bitching.
Overall Harley did a pretty good job on their first stab at an ADV. Coming from a GS, it seems like the engineers grabbed a R1250GS and copy & pasted the exact geometry of its rider triangle onto the PanAm. If you ride ADV bikes, the sitting and standing position is instantly familiar. The engine is torquey and the ride modes can be customized like every other modern motorcycle out there.
What I really like is the throttle shaping while in custom mode. Most motorcycles roll on the power slower at 0-10% throttle with a quicker response once the throttle is open. This allows a smoother start and easier gear shifts. The PanAm allows you to bypass this shaping and select "Direct Throttle" which gives you instant power delivery on roll-on which is great to dig yourself out of loose surfaces like deep sand, as well as spin the rear tire easily for quick direction changes.
Although with 150 horses on tap combined with 575 lbs wet weight (for the S), you do run the risk of digging a deeper hole in the sand, rather than launching the bike out of it...
Fit and finish on the bike was quite good. It had all the typical road-oriented, faux-dirtbike features that all ADV bikes have, including the flimsy plastic handguards which shatter instantly on contact with the ground. It comes stock with crash bars which not a lot of ADVs do, that's nice. You can turn off all the electronic aids in Custom mode, if you're so inclined. Which I was. I rode with everything off and "Direct Throttle" on which I think gave me a pretty good idea of what the bones of the bike feel like.
I only rode some gravel roads up north, so never got a chance to test out the suspension on the gnarlier stuff, but the ride was comfortable on gravel and tarmac, with the electronically adjustable damping performing the same as BMW's Electronic Suspension Adjustment.
Overall, a fun bike. Still think it looks a bit strange though. I wouldn't buy one, but I wouldn't turn down a ride on one!
