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The debut of the Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 was the headline event from 2021 - with the Bar & Shield brand offering its first motorcycle that truly deviated from the company's cruiser lineup.

An integral part of Harley-Davidson's "Hardwire" plan to restructure the company for the future, the Pan America 1250 is a conquest bike for the American bike-maker, with an eye on scooping up some sales from rival European brands.

Was it a success? That depends on whom you ask. American publications certainly seemed to think so, with the Pan America 1250 taking top honors in several of their shootouts last year. Meanwhile, the European press was less-enthused.

We will let you decide if home-team bias, on both sides of the pond, are at play there. For our money, we'd put the Ducati Multistrada V4 S in our garage before the Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250, but reasonable minds can easily disagree on this thought.

Shootouts don't balance the account's books however, and for the bean-counters, the true measure of a motorcycle's success is on the showroom floor.

To that end, Harley-Davidson sold just over 2,500 units of its Pan America lineup in the USA last year, according to our Bothan spies.

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If you have a Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 or Harley-Davidson Sportster S in your garage, then your bike likely needs to head back to the dealership for this latest recall from the Bar & Shield brand.

Affecting 3,917 motorcycles, the recall from Harley-Davidson centers around the the instrument cluster, which may not display the speedometer and neutral indicator at startup when the module is below freezing temperatures.

Because of this issue, these motorcycles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 123, “Motorcycle Controls and Displays” and need to be recalled and fixed.

After a long run-up, it is now really happening: Harley-Davidson is launching an all-road motorcycle with the Pan America 1250. No, not a soft adventure or crossover, but a real all-road, which will enter the category where the BMW R1250GS ruled for years.

As they say within the American brand full throttle marketing campaign: “this changes everything” – even if that’s just the case for themselves. 

The Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 is perhaps the most-anticipated motorcycle for the 2021 model year, as the bike is set to define the future of the Bar & Shield brand.

If the bike is a success on the sale floor, the future bodes well for this iconic American institution. If the bike is another failure, like the V-Rod (and Livewire), then well…Harley-Davidson has a tough road ahead of it.

With the European press launch of the Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 coming ahead of the bike’s debut in the USA (weird, right?), we couldn’t wait when came to evaluating this important machine.

As we get closer to the debut of the Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 for the 2021 model year, information about this adventure bike is making its way into Harley-Davidson’s various channels, which means it’s making its way into the ears of our Bothan spies.

First reported on the Brap Talk motorcycle podcast, our initial news is that the Pan America will debut at a fairly affordable price for the category, starting around the $17,000 mark.

With all the bells and whistles installed, the bike is still expected to be a sub-$20,000 machine, which makes it one of the more affordable luxury ADV bikes on the market.

The long wait is nearly over, as the Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 will finally get its production debut on Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – the Bar & Shield brand tells us (they will “preview” the bike, yet again, on January 19th).

Accordingly, this date will end what will be an almost three-year tease and wait process from the American motorcycle company, as the first Pan America concept broke cover in July 2018.

Since that time, Harley-Davidson has “let go” of CEO Matthew Levatich, and swapped its “More Roads” plan for the current “Rewire” scheme that has seemingly killed many of the diverse models once announced by Harley-Davidson.

The ADV project remains though, if for no other reason than it was the furthest along in Harley-Davidson’s portfolio by the time that current CEO Jochen Zeitz came onboard.

Continuing their glacially slow trickling of information, Harley-Davidson has sprinkled a couple more details to us about its upcoming Pan America motorcycle.

Expected now in late-2020, the Harley-Davidson is an American v-twin adventure-tourer, which the Bar & Shield brand hopes will attract new blood into its cult of two wheels.

At the core the machine, is a 60° liquid-cooled v-twin engine, which Harley-Davidson is giving some specs about at EICMA.

Our Dutch friends at Nieuwsmotor just sent us these images, which show two of Harley-Davidson’s new street model prototypes. The bikes are the adventure-touring focused Harley-Davidson Pan America model, as well as the sport-aspired Harley-Davidson Streetfighter.

Both bikes are shown on what seems to be a trade show display booth, designed to highlight the aftermarket parts available from Harley-Davidson for the models. But, the reality is that this is the first time that these models have been seen in the flesh, free from their (photoshopped) press photos.

Suzuki Motor of America Inc. (SMAI) has announced that company veteran Takeshi Hayasa has been appointed President to the American subsidiary, replacing the recently appointed Toru Muraki. According to a press release from SMAI, Mr. Hayasa has many years of experience serving as an executive with Suzuki Motor Corporation and his sales experience make him a vital asset to the company.

“We’re glad to have Mr. Hayasaki’s business experience and leadership as we plan for continued growth,” said Larry Vandiver, Suzuki’s Motorcycle/ATV Vice President. “The introduction of new products such as the Suzuki V-Strom 1000 ABS and the Burgman 200 ABS shows just part of our growth plan, and Mr. Hayasaki’s experience will help Suzuki Motor of America with these new products and much more.”