’ ve been very keen to ride Harley Davidson ’ s new Pan America , ever since it appeared on the market - and especially since buying and owning my own adventure bike ; a Yamaha Tenere 700 . The Pan America is a brand new model ( and start of a new engine platform ) for Harley-Davidson , a manufacturer that has stuck to its Americana roots of cruisers up until now . So , when I was offered a test machine , we came up with the idea of riding it together with a stalwart of the gravel / adventure touring scene , Suzuki ’ s V-Strom . More specifically , the latest DL1050XT that Jock seemed impressed with when it came out last year . Rather than just do some day rides , I figured that hopping on the ferry to do a gravel road trip around the top of the South Island would be exactly the kind of riding potential riders of both bikes would plan to do for their summer holiday roadie . Ok , so , on the face of it , these bikes are really quite different , and you might not think they ’ re even in the same class , but I would beg to differ . Both bikes fit into the ADV / touring category , have 1000cc + engines , run 19-inch front and 17-inch rear wheels . One is at the bottom end of the price spectrum , and the other is near the top .

ELECTRONIC DIFFERENCES Both bikes are similarly equipped in the electronics stakes though differ somewhat in their approaches , the Suzuki with three sliding scales of control ( SDMS / Throttle map , TC and ABS ). The Pan America , has multiple pre-set ride modes which not only change the throttle mapping , ABS and TC , but also the suspension set up . Setting up the Pan America was a matter of playing with the controls through the full-colour TFT screen , not too dissimilar to setting up a car on a Play Station game . The suspension is electronically controlled , so no sag or preload to do manually . The Suzuki is a bit more hands-on ; we rolled the bars forward

100 KIWI RIDER