Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1488797
COMPARISON TESTI P116 when they started developing the electronic suspension. Speaking of the electronics, they were relatively easy to figure out and adjust, certainly way more than the Ducati's which had all of us getting lost in the myriad of adjustments. Although the Harley was ranked fourth in this test, that by no means indicates this is not a good bike. It is an excellent machine and when you consider this is Harley's first go at the segment—and the fact it has the most famous name in motorcycling on the side of the tank—it is a real alternative the status quo we're so used to seeing. The Pan America 1250 Special is one of those happy surprises that rarely comes around in motorcycling. (pictured) as opposed to the cast aluminum units. The suspension has Comfort, Balanced, Sport, Off-Road Soft and Off-Road Firm damping profiles and works via the vehicle speed, suspension posi- tion, vertical acceleration, roll angle and rate, throttle and brake inputs and the selected Ride Mode. Aside from that, you get traction control, corner- ing ABS, cruise control, hill hold control, wheelie control, tire pressuring monitoring, and there are five pre-programmed ride modes: Road, Sport, Rain, Off-Road and Off- Road Plus as well as two Custom Modes (A and B) and one Custom Off-Road Mode. There's also the H-D Drag-Torque Slip Control (DTSC) system, which es- sentially adds torque to the rear wheel in heavy decel- eration situations, such as aggressive downshift- ing. While the integrated slipper clutch will reduce wheel hop, DTSC takes it further, applying rotational torque to the rear wheel to maintain contact with the ground. Our test bike was very close to stock. All Harley- Davidson did was fit their spoked wheels for an extra $624 and put some knobbies on, which we asked for. There were no extra tech packs or spe- cial electronics upgrades, although we should have asked for the optional quickshifter to be fitted. Our price came back at $20,623 MSRP. HARLEY-DAVIDSON PAN AMERICA VS. BMW R 1250 GS ADVENTURE VS. KTM 1290 SUPER ADVENTURE R VS. DUCATI MULTISTRADA V4 S