The BMW GS rules the roost in the big adventure bike market in South Africa and globally, and many manufacturers have tried to win back a piece of that pie. Some like KTM and Yamaha have had limited success, and now Harley-Davidson is giving it a go too.
Strictly speaking, this is not Harley-Davidson's first adventure or touring bike. Historically their range of motorcycles has been used to hit the open road and seek adventure, but not the off-road kind. The launch of their Pan-American opens up a world of off-road adventures for fans of the American brand.
The Pan American was an opportunity for Harley's engineering department to design an all-new bike from the ground up, which is a departure from Harley's norm where the majority of the motorcycles in their traditional line-up are evolutions of historical designs; some of which are decades old.