During & after the 2021 I was asked by over half a dozen riders to post something about my Pan Am after running it in the rally (just FYI: completed Rally, DNF on points), so here it is.
My bike is a 2021 Pan America Special with both the Semi-active suspension and Adaptive ride height. The only two factory parts added were the HD tank bag and pannier rack mounts. I added Great loop bags to the sides, a Garmin 595 GPS, a Ram mount phone charger (that immediately died), and ratchet strapped a harbor freight hard cast to the pillion for the computer. That was all the prep I had time for (I had 6 weeks & worked full time every day).
To put it bluntly, this bike performed absolutely flawlessly (to the point that I was becoming obsessed with the idea I was missing something – this is the only bike I’ve owned in my life that didn’t have a major issue in the first 10,000 miles). No warning lights, no hard starts, no issues skipping the mid-rally oil change, nothing. Oil level stayed good & surprisingly clean. Water level went down after getting stuck in 4 traffic jams in NY, and went down again after that 45 min long one in AL, but never overheated. No issues firing back up after running out of gas in NY either. It ran fine on regular in NM when Premium wasn’t available. More power than I ever needed and sport bike handling. I was getting 230-250 miles per 5.6 gal tank, it really needs an aux fuel tank.
There are a few quirks I found irritating.
Riding position seemed good, but after 11 days I’d say the bars are too far forward & pegs are too cramped. The bar riser (when off backorder) + highway pegs ought to fix it. Seat also seemed pretty good at first, but after 11 days I think it needs a trip to Russell.
Hi beam/low beam lighting is awful, turning lights are actually useful. Aux lights + wiring from HD available sometime next month. 45W alt, unique CANBUS electric system, and wiring diagrams are not available/complete, so putting Clearwaters on it could be sketchy.
Chain: this bike runs a 530x128 chain. The highest quality 530 chain is only available 530x120, not long enough. I started with 2,500 miles on it and chain stretch was still an issue through the whole first leg (you actually do need to measure/adjust it every 600 miles) before it settled in. I remember 3 times up on the center stand on leg 1 adjusting it, and it was dangerously loose when I swapped tires at checkpoint 1.
Tank bag: the HD one was the only one available that fit at the time. I had to unclip to fill gas, & too small to hold rally book (rally book had to go in hard case, huge waste of time ratcheting every bonus). Hard panniers and/or Wolfman tank bag ought to fix that.
Side stand w/adaptive ride height. When you turn on power the suspension lowers 1-2”. When you do that with the side stand down all that weight goes straight on to the side stand, and you wind up leaning way past center to flip it up – and if your right foot is not on solid footing you run the risk of dropping it to the right. And you really don’t want to drop this bike.
You’d never know it from the handling, but this bike is incredibly top heavy. When I went down on the Jeep trail to Adams it went down so fast & hard it pinned me and dented my motojug – in the sand. I couldn’t budge it, and it took me + CHP two tries to stand it up. Just for a frame of reference I have no problem picking up sportsters, lowriders or FXRTs, and picked up my old F80GS four times during the polar bear rally in Ocala was comparatively easy. Either hard cases to keep it from going over so far or some kind of jack, I have to figure this out.
Is it a great bike? Absolutely, “for a Harley” not needed. Will it be the bike I list when I put in my unfinished business application for 2023? Maybe. If the hard panniers position it high enough to lift it up without assistance there’s a good chance of it. If not, I may just put a faring on my Crossbones, or buy a Road Glide.
Jim
My bike is a 2021 Pan America Special with both the Semi-active suspension and Adaptive ride height. The only two factory parts added were the HD tank bag and pannier rack mounts. I added Great loop bags to the sides, a Garmin 595 GPS, a Ram mount phone charger (that immediately died), and ratchet strapped a harbor freight hard cast to the pillion for the computer. That was all the prep I had time for (I had 6 weeks & worked full time every day).
To put it bluntly, this bike performed absolutely flawlessly (to the point that I was becoming obsessed with the idea I was missing something – this is the only bike I’ve owned in my life that didn’t have a major issue in the first 10,000 miles). No warning lights, no hard starts, no issues skipping the mid-rally oil change, nothing. Oil level stayed good & surprisingly clean. Water level went down after getting stuck in 4 traffic jams in NY, and went down again after that 45 min long one in AL, but never overheated. No issues firing back up after running out of gas in NY either. It ran fine on regular in NM when Premium wasn’t available. More power than I ever needed and sport bike handling. I was getting 230-250 miles per 5.6 gal tank, it really needs an aux fuel tank.
There are a few quirks I found irritating.
Riding position seemed good, but after 11 days I’d say the bars are too far forward & pegs are too cramped. The bar riser (when off backorder) + highway pegs ought to fix it. Seat also seemed pretty good at first, but after 11 days I think it needs a trip to Russell.
Hi beam/low beam lighting is awful, turning lights are actually useful. Aux lights + wiring from HD available sometime next month. 45W alt, unique CANBUS electric system, and wiring diagrams are not available/complete, so putting Clearwaters on it could be sketchy.
Chain: this bike runs a 530x128 chain. The highest quality 530 chain is only available 530x120, not long enough. I started with 2,500 miles on it and chain stretch was still an issue through the whole first leg (you actually do need to measure/adjust it every 600 miles) before it settled in. I remember 3 times up on the center stand on leg 1 adjusting it, and it was dangerously loose when I swapped tires at checkpoint 1.
Tank bag: the HD one was the only one available that fit at the time. I had to unclip to fill gas, & too small to hold rally book (rally book had to go in hard case, huge waste of time ratcheting every bonus). Hard panniers and/or Wolfman tank bag ought to fix that.
Side stand w/adaptive ride height. When you turn on power the suspension lowers 1-2”. When you do that with the side stand down all that weight goes straight on to the side stand, and you wind up leaning way past center to flip it up – and if your right foot is not on solid footing you run the risk of dropping it to the right. And you really don’t want to drop this bike.
You’d never know it from the handling, but this bike is incredibly top heavy. When I went down on the Jeep trail to Adams it went down so fast & hard it pinned me and dented my motojug – in the sand. I couldn’t budge it, and it took me + CHP two tries to stand it up. Just for a frame of reference I have no problem picking up sportsters, lowriders or FXRTs, and picked up my old F80GS four times during the polar bear rally in Ocala was comparatively easy. Either hard cases to keep it from going over so far or some kind of jack, I have to figure this out.
Is it a great bike? Absolutely, “for a Harley” not needed. Will it be the bike I list when I put in my unfinished business application for 2023? Maybe. If the hard panniers position it high enough to lift it up without assistance there’s a good chance of it. If not, I may just put a faring on my Crossbones, or buy a Road Glide.
Jim
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