PanAmerica ST
- Paul
- Jun 3
- 3 min read
Tall Touring for the real world
We’ve been big fans of ‘tall tourers’ /adventure bikes for over 20 years now. While they seem to have been around since ‘God was a boy’ in modern times the GS from BMW has been the one that set the standard, with many of the other brands re-creating their older models. Yamaha had the Tenere 1200, Honda reinvented the Africa Twin, Ducati have the Multistrada, Kawasaki have the Versys, KTM have the Duke and even Suzuki have the DR. So why not Harley-Davidson?
After the American giant added liquid cooling to their new engines they had a new resource on their hands to pay with. The widely used Milwaukee twin has evolved in a number of directions including the Revolution Max. This is a 1250cc engine that puts out 150bhp, an unprecedented amount of ponies for any H-D.
So when it came time to build their own adventure machine the engine they needed was already to hand. Everything was new from the chassis, electrics, ergonomics. Even the gearing was a first for a Harley. A couple of years later and there are now a number of different models within the PanAmerica range. These include the ‘Special’ as well as a CVO option. Both are dual sport machines, meaning they’re designed to take on the trails as well as ride on the street.
The thing is that the vast majority of adventure bikes can be referred to as tall tourers because that’s what they’ve evolved into. They’re ridden by people who wouldn’t dream of taking to a gravel driveway on one, never mind a forest trail! Rather they like their presence on the road as well as their versatility.
Because they’re used this way most of the manufacturers have designed specifically road biased versions of these machines to add to their range. The Multistrada has a whole lot of sports bike in it, KTMs Duke is on the wrong side of hilarious to ride in the dirt and even BMWs’ standard GS runs on cast wheels. Now Harley-Davidson have added a road biased version of the PanAmerica to their range.
The ST, as this model is known, still has the same long distance 21 litre tank. It still has electronic suspension the front with a manually adjusted shock down the back. Brembo do the radially mounted calipers on the twin discs up front and the engine still produces that 150bhp and 127 Nm of torque. The main differences are the height and the wheels.
On the original the tyres have a definite off road bias with a 19inch hoop on the front married to a 17 inch on the rear. Both are spoked wheels. This is a standard on all off-road capable machines. It’s also tall with a seat height of up to 875mm. The new ST, on the other hand, has cast wheels that have a sports bike size of 180/55-17 on the rear and 120/70-17 on the front. This lends them a significantly higher level of grip and performance on the road. It isn’t an off road machine. Harley have listened to the simple fact that the vast majority of Adventure Bike riders actually what a tall tourer and they’ve acted accordingly.
The other change of note is the seat height. At 805mm it’s a very significant 70mm lower than the original. This makes for a massively different riding position, which in turn allows for a bike that can be ridden in a completely different way thanks to it being so much more dynamic than the higher machine.
But, while it’s a significant departure from the original, it’s a very different bike rather than a better one. Riding both back to back I still found the taller seat height to suit me and my beautiful super modelesque legs better, while the ST was much easier to get the power down on. The PanAmerica ST.
Both can now be test ridden at Waterford Harley-Davidson. Talk to Mo on 051844200 to book a slot.
