A few months ago, I mentioned to longtime Harley-Davidson rep Jennifer Hoyer that I had never ridden the Pan America, and she was surprised. To be sure, it is a bit odd, as I have tested every other H-D model, and I love adventure bikes. The Harely-Davidson Pan America debuted as a 2021 model, and we sent Associate Editor Jess McKinley to wring it out. Heavy demand for the bike in the press fleet resulted in no easy availability for the next couple of years. In 2023, we did get the Special iteration. It was quickly snapped up by Associate Editor Freeman Wood for a review and ride to San Francisco, and I never ended up in the saddle. I had pretty much given up.
Jen didn’t forget, and it seems my lack of Pan America experience isn’t unique in the motorcycle journalism world. In response, Harley-Davidson invited a few Pan America virgins to ride the ADV bike in an unlikely place at an unlikely time—during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. When I was told Harley-Davidson PR Manager Paul James would be tagging along—a super-nice guy and great rider—that piqued my interest further. A few days later, flights were booked to Rapid City.
As it turns out, I was staying in historic Deadwood, about 20 minutes west of the belly of the beast that is Sturgis. That’s not a problem for me as I am not crowd-oriented. Regardless, there was no shortage of motorcycles and motorcyclists on Main Street. Driving into Deadwood from Rapid City, it was astounding how many motorcycles there were on Interstate 90—they easily outnumbered 4- and 16-wheelers. That shouldn’t have surprised me, as the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally attendance is measured in the hundreds of thousands. Regardless, there’s nothing like seeing it, and I was there at the start of the Rally rather than at the peak.
Prepping for the ride, I looked at the weather. Temps were peaking in the mid-80s, and there was little chance of rain on ride day. I packed the pajamas-like mesh layer of the two-layer Rev’It Stratum GTX jacket and pants combo so I would be fully ventilated on the ride—most of which would be off-pavement. I left the waterproof outer shell at home in the closet.
Much to my surprise, it was gray and rainy when I woke up, ready to ride. Fortunately, it wasn’t too cold, so I resigned myself to getting wet early and drying out as the day warmed and the air flowed through to facilitate evaporation.
Given the relative complexity of the 2024 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special I was riding, the local ride leader went into great detail regarding how to properly set up the bike for the gravel roads we would be tackling. Additional talk centered around the Adaptive Ride Height feature and how to build a custom mode—not that there was time to nail down the perfect power setting, throttle response, traction control, ABS, and suspension action. The preset setting would have to do.
The big takeaway for me from the parking lot presentation was that the Off-Road mode is the way to go. I was warned that the Special-exclusive Off-Road Plus has a very aggressive throttle response, and you lose essential rider aids, such as rear ABS, linked braking, stoppie control, and anti-skid engine compression adjustment.
At the same time, the Pan America was outfitted with dirt-focused Michelin Anakee Wild tires—precisely what I wanted for the gravel roads. There was talk of an optional hard route, though I’m always wary of that when I don’t know what “hard” actually means, I’m not familiar with the bike, and I’m far from home. I decided to play that by ear as the ride developed.
We had Harley-Davidson Packtalk Edge mesh intercoms on our helmets so all the riders could communicate; it’s a Cardo device with additional H-D-specific enhancements. The ride leader requested we keep the chatter down so we could focus on using the devices for safety announcements. That was a bit disappointing, as I like to have running commentaries with my riding partners. However, I wasn’t calling the shots, so my lips were uncharacteristically sealed.
By the time we got underway, the clouds had parted, and the roads had dried, so Rain mode didn’t get tested. In town, I went with the moderate Road mode for the ride on busy roads to Lead, home of the Homestake Mine, which yielded nearly 44 million ounces of gold before it was closed in 2002.
Now, Lead is famous for the Sanford Underground Research Facility, where dark matter and neutrino experiments are conducted deep underground at the old mine site by presumably mad scientists. Oh, and I did break radio silence to ask how Lead is pronounced—it’s pronounced: “Lead”.
While I hadn’t ridden the Pan America, I am familiar with the Revolution Max 1250 motor via the Sportster variants I’ve tested. Of course, Max is tuned to ADV spec and in a heavier chassis, so there was plenty to learn. After Lead, the traffic lightened, and I got a taste of the Sport mode on the way to the first dirt turnoff at Savoy—the enticingly named Roughlock Falls Road.
We stopped there for a few minutes, and I asked the Harley-Davidson techs about the Adaptive Ride Height feature that lowers the bike as it slows to a stop. It didn’t seem to be working on my Pan America Special—at least, that’s what I thought. After a couple of quick tests, it turned out it was working so smoothly that I simply did not know it was dropping and rising as I came to stops and accelerated away. Color me equally embarrassed and impressed. I’m paid the big bucks to notice these things.
I dutifully clicked the Pan America Special into Off-Road mode, avoiding the dreaded Off-Road Plus mode, and hit the dirt.
Many of the gravel roads in the area are high-quality and can easily be tackled in an automobile, as the locals who live on them do daily. With the Anakee Wild tires, riding the gravel roads was a piece of cake. In the Off-Road mode, the Pan America Special felt vague and sluggish. It was easy enough to ride, though not particularly fun. I found myself losing touch with the fastest riders, though far ahead of the riders with little-to-no off-pavement experience.
As the ride went on, the chit-chat over the Packtalk Edge increased. We were all having a great time. The riders up front gave good advice to the backmarkers, and we would note and discuss things we were seeing along the way. Eventually, the conversation was non-stop, just as I like it.
We made our way into Wyoming to check out the view from Cement Ridge Fire Lookout Tower in the Black Hills National Forest. This is the highest of a network of towers that monitor the region for fires. Unexpectedly, we got an impromptu tour of the facility, along with an informative and fascinating explanation of how the region’s towers work together to pinpoint the location of smoke. As we all know, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. That tour included a visit with the tower dog—you can’t beat that.
There were a couple of challenging jeep trail portions for photos, and I got a sense of how the Harley-Davidson Pan America Special worked when the going got tougher. I was still in the standard Off-Road mode and doing okay on the rocky climbs, though I did not feel as confident as I’d like. Although I always made it through the rough parts with a reasonable margin of error, I just didn’t feel good about it. The idea of the promised “hard route” wasn’t sounding enticing.
As we left Cement Ridge, I decided it was time to strike out on my own and try Off-Road Plus. A dedicated mode button on the Pan America made it easy to give the “forbidden” Plus mode a shot.
Within about 10 seconds, my opinion of the Harley-Davidson Pan America Special’s personality changed completely, and for the better. The throttle was now snappily responsive, and I could spin up the rear wheel at will—we were running street psi in the Anakee Wild tires.
Just about everything we were doing became more fun with the bike in Off-Road Plus mode. With the traction control and rear ABS off, I could back it into corners or drift through them, depending on conditions. Yeah! When I hit stutter bumps, the engine wasn’t constantly being cut off by the traction control. Instead, I was powering through them. The firmer suspension gave me a better feel for the gravel roads, so the Pan America Special felt better in every way off-pavement.
With the Pan Am ripping along in Off-Road Plus, we were at lunch in the historic mining town of Rochford sooner than I wanted, even though I was hungry.
While we had the gravel roads to ourselves, Rochford (population in 1878: 500; now: 8) was packed with motorcycles and vendors—people were selling beer on the side of the road out of coolers and leather-wear from under pop-ups. The atmosphere was 100 percent positive, and the weather was absolutely perfect.
We chowed down at the 114-year-old Moonshine Gulch Saloon, across the street from Rapid Creek. It’s one of those imaginatively decorated joints with a limited menu that’s done right and fun people running the place. My pulled pork and fries combo was excellent, and I didn’t hear complaints from people who ordered burgers or chicken strips.
As I ate, a Harley-Davidson tech whispered a little something in my ear. He told me that, in the dirt, the standard Off-Road mode was right for the stock tires, and the Off-Road Plus mode was the hot setup when knobbier tires were installed.
That, of course, made perfect sense. With the highly street-oriented stock tires, you want to do whatever you can to prevent wheelspin and lockup. Traction is already at a premium. With a tire like the Michelin Anakee Wild, slip and slide is welcome, and it was.I thought back to my testing of the KTM 1290 Super Adventure R. It had nicely knobbed adventure tires, and I just could not get on with it in the standard Offroad mode. Yet, everything changed when I clicked it into Offroad Pro. The big KTM performed as it was supposed to off-pavement. I’m definitely filing this one away for future use.
More gravel roads came our way, and I enjoyed every moment on the Harley-Davidson Pan America Special. Pretty much every corner was a chance to light up the rear tire and send the bike into an ear-to-ear grin. Acceleration was controllable and rapid—just as the adventure gods intended.
Toward the end of the ride, we arrived at a fork in the road. One direction was the earlier-discussed hard way, and the other was a paved ride back to Deadwood. By now, I was anxious to take on the hard option, and everyone went for it, except a short influencer who had virtually no off-road experience. She had been plucky all day and rode impressively, but she wisely chose pavement for the rest of the ride.
This last section was certainly rockier and more challenging. Paul James had the misfortune of ending up right behind me, and I roosted him with rocks at every opportunity. Isn’t that what dirt-riding friends are for?
The trickiest section was a succession of shade-shrouded gulleys with water crossings featuring submerged rocks and mud that you couldn’t see. Every attempt was a crapshoot—give it some gas and hold on.
As I wasn’t leading the way, I got a sense of a decent line through the water crossings as others went through, so I never had an issue. It helped that the approaching downhills were easily navigated.
However, the exiting hillclimbs were a step up in difficulty, with deep ruts, rocks, and some slick spots to match the wet Anakee Wilds. This necessitated good line selection and solid commitment. My line choices are often unorthodox, so I wasn’t playing follow the leader, as skilled as he was.
Fortunately, I didn’t regret a single decision, though there were a few nervous moments as my line was hardly wider than the Michelins, with a drop-off on one side and a deep rut on the other. Still, I will often select the smoother, if riskier, lines and go for it, using momentum as my essential ally—as it frequently is on an open-class adventure bike. The Pan America Special rewarded me with a confident ride and no crashes.
After a return to the easy gravel roads, it was time to hit the pavement. It had gotten a bit late, so the endless lines of motorcycles on the backroads had dissipated. I got some time on the Pan Am in Sport mode, and was rewarded by the expected spirited ride and a good workout for the quickshifter. Sure, it took a few corners to get comfortable with the Anakee Wild tires on the pavement at speed, but they acquitted themselves nicely. And, yes, the accessory titanium Akrapovič muffler has a cool sound and looks great.
Even though I was getting hungry, the ride ended too soon as we pulled back into Deadwood. All in all, a 100-mile ride with about 80 miles off-pavement is nothing to complain about when testing an adventure bike shod with dirt-friendly tires.
As we tore down the highway, the Packtalk Edges went silent. I thought I had been dropped from the communications group. I spoke up—“Is anyone there?”—and got a couple of rapid responses. We had gotten uncharacteristically quiet as a group, and it caught a few of us by surprise. At that point, the ride leader chimed in that he enjoyed listening to our banter and regretted discouraging us at the start.
My job is to make every ride educational for me, and this excursion on the Harley-Davidson Pan America Special did just that. I got to know the bike, even if I didn’t have time to deep-dive into the customizability of the rider aid system—that will have to wait until I get it for a bit longer. I certainly learned something about off-road power modes on big ADV bikes and how they interact with the tires, and it’s something I won’t forget.
As a side note, the lead rider told me he preferred the standard Off-Rode mode with the Anakee Wild tires, though it required his seriously aggressive throttle hand to make it work. I’ll have to try that at some point, even if it is at odds with my riding style.
Just as I’m about learning on rides, I also like to have fun. There certainly was something special about riding on completely empty dirt roads in the Black Hills, knowing that just a few miles in any direction, the paved roads had riders nose-to-tail at a pace that was just a bit more conservative than I prefer.
I never thought the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally could offer so much riding fun—all you have to do is get off the pavement and let ’er rip.
Action photography by Justin Edelman
Still photography by Justin Edelman and Don Williams
RIDING STYLE
2024 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special Specs
ENGINE
- Type: Revolution Max 1250 60-degree V-twin
- Displacement: 1252cc
- Bore x stroke: 105 x 72.3mm
- Maximum power: 150 horsepower @ 9000 rpm
- Maximum torque: 94 ft-lbs @ 6750 rpm
- Compression ratio: 13.0:1
- Valvetrain: Chain-driven, DOHC, hydraulic self-adjusting lifters, intake & exhaust VVT; 4vpc
- Cooling: Liquid
- Lubrication: Semi-dry sump
- Transmission: 6-speed
- Clutch: Wet multiplate w/ assist and slipper functions
- Primary drive: Gear
- Final drive: Chain
CHASSIS
- Frame: Alloy steel stressed-member trellis w/ stamped, cast, and forged junctions
- Front suspension; travel: Fully adjustable Showa semi-active electronic fork; 7.5 inches
- Rear suspension; travel: Fully adjustable Showa semi-active electronic shock; 7.5 inches
- Wheels: Cast aluminum (wire-spoked optional, $1000)
- Front wheel: 19 x 3
- Rear wheel: 17 x 4.5
- Tires: Michelin Scorcher Adventure (Michelin Anakee Wild, as tested)
- Front tire: 120/70 x 19
- Rear tire: 170/60 x 17
- Front brakes: 320mm floating discs w/ Brembo 4-piston caliper
- Rear brake: 280mm disc w/ floating Brembo single-piston caliper
- ABS: Cornering aware
DIMENSIONS and CAPACITIES
- Wheelbase: 62.2 inches
- Rake: 25 degrees
- Trail: 4.3 inches
- Seat height: 33.4 – 34.4 inches
- Ground clearance: 8.3 inches
- Fuel capacity: 5.6 gallons
- Estimated fuel consumption: 46 mpg
- Curb weight: 569 pounds
COLORS
Billiard Gray
Vivid Black (+$300)
Alpine Green (+$550)
Red Rock/Birch White (+$650)
2024 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special Price: $19,999
