Finally saw the HD Pan America in person...

[chris 2WJ]

agreed on that, the solid colour suits it better.

 

[Drakhen99]

To clarify I was referring to the styling of the bike from the front in particular the black plastic bits in between the winscreen and the headlight.

I'm going through my footage at the moment to see if I can extract a viable first impressions video from it. First time doing this so a bit trickier than I thought. The biggest constraint was only having it for an hour.

Bike reviews are HARD. Especially when you have a limited amount of time with them. Witness my LiveWire and Iron 1200 test ride videos. Rubbish, I say! It's so hard to get to know the bike AND talk about it intelligently at the same time, at least in my opinion. I would wax poetic about my Street Glide for hours, but I've owned it for almost 2 years and have over 10k miles on it.

I have noticed the more I look at them the less I like the orange and white paint scheme. They look much better in the black or grey.

I'm gonna go ahead and agree to disagree with you. The grey looks good, but that white/orange combo to me is sexy as all get-out, and I have a big want for the Pan America in that color scheme.

-John

 

[Moto Mengy]

Bike reviews are HARD. Especially when you have a limited amount of time with them.

I enjoy doing bike reviews, but I simply do rider impressions from the seat, I don't bother going over specs and sales pitches and such. Doing a "professional" style bike review does indeed take a lot of work.

 

[mymotorrad]

Adam Waheed of Motorcyclist Magazine does a very good job from the seat and off. John Burns is good as is Morgan Gales and Andy Cherney, but all of those are journalists. The problem with influencers is that they aren't journalists. They tend to be fans, which is to say more biased and when fêted with food and drink on one of the junkets, it's like free advertising. There's no wall between the money side and the journalism side. All of that said, have fun doing it I guess.

 

[mymotorrad]

Bike reviews are HARD. Especially when you have a limited amount of time with them. Witness my LiveWire and Iron 1200 test ride videos. Rubbish, I say! It's so hard to get to know the bike AND talk about it intelligently at the same time, at least in my opinion. I would wax poetic about my Street Glide for hours, but I've owned it for almost 2 years and have over 10k miles on it.



I'm gonna go ahead and agree to disagree with you. The grey looks good, but that white/orange combo to me is sexy as all get-out, and I have a big want for the Pan America in that color scheme.

-John

I like the Orange and White better too. I am not a fan of neutrals, even though I own a bike that is such. BMW is king of the 50 shades of silver or gray. I won't do that again. I like colors.

 

[Drakhen99]

I like the Orange and White better too. I am not a fan of neutrals, even though I own a bike that is such. BMW is king of the 50 shades of silver or gray. I won't do that again. I like colors.

I used to think I liked color... I had a white Vaquero, a gold Vulcan 800, and a dark blue KZ650SR. Then I painted the tins on the 800 when I bobbed it, now it's Ford's True Blue [great color IMHO], traded the Vaquero in on my Street Glide, which is Billiard Blue, and still have the blue KZ... so I guess I just like blue.

I had a blue F-150, then I went to buy a RAM 1500 and I wanted white, which I couldn't find, so I looked for blue, couldn't find that either. I punted and looked for a red one - nope, no dice there either. I ended up with silver ... literally my 4th and final color pick. I wasn't buying another black truck, and they didn't make a green one. Lucky me though, silver hides a lot of dirt, so I don't feel compelled to wash the truck each week.

-John

 

[mymotorrad]

I used to think I liked color... I had a white Vaquero, a gold Vulcan 800, and a dark blue KZ650SR. Then I painted the tins on the 800 when I bobbed it, now it's Ford's True Blue [great color IMHO], traded the Vaquero in on my Street Glide, which is Billiard Blue, and still have the blue KZ... so I guess I just like blue.

I had a blue F-150, then I went to buy a RAM 1500 and I wanted white, which I couldn't find, so I looked for blue, couldn't find that either. I punted and looked for a red one - nope, no dice there either. I ended up with silver ... literally my 4th and final color pick. I wasn't buying another black truck, and they didn't make a green one. Lucky me though, silver hides a lot of dirt, so I don't feel compelled to wash the truck each week.

-John

I like blue best and plum crazy purple on a challenger is the bomb as they say. Billiard blue is very nice. The teal is too and the billiard burgundy. Not crazy about mattes. My wife has a white ascent. White is popular in AZ. With blue, Ford’s blue flame was really nice. I am not doing neutrals anymore though.

 

[Drakhen99]

I like blue best and plum crazy purple on a challenger is the bomb as they say. Billiard blue is very nice. The teal is too and the billiard burgundy. Not crazy about mattes. My wife has a white ascent. White is popular in AZ. With blue, Ford’s blue flame was really nice. I am not doing neutrals anymore though.

Yeah, white's gonna be popular wherever it's hot a lot. Around here, so many people want 50 Shades of Gray, and not the book. BORING! [to me]

-John

 

[chris 2WJ]

Bike reviews are HARD. Especially when you have a limited amount of time with them. Witness my LiveWire and Iron 1200 test ride videos. Rubbish, I say! It's so hard to get to know the bike AND talk about it intelligently at the same time, at least in my opinion. I would wax poetic about my Street Glide for hours, but I've owned it for almost 2 years and have over 10k miles on it.

Yep I would probably abandon my video but I would really like to build a decent review history for my channel and I'm not going to get lots of opportunities to do this kind of thing often.

Also agreed on the going over the specs, that information is a few clicks away on the manufactureres website and doesn't really add much for me.

 

[chris 2WJ]

Adam Waheed of Motorcyclist Magazine does a very good job from the seat and off. John Burns is good as is Morgan Gales and Andy Cherney, but all of those are journalists. The problem with influencers is that they aren't journalists. They tend to be fans, which is to say more biased and when fêted with food and drink on one of the junkets, it's like free advertising. There's no wall between the money side and the journalism side. All of that said, have fun doing it I guess.

I think the line between journalists and influencers is a bit blurred due to the fact that both get kickbacks in terms of freebies, invites to launches/trackdays, long term loans etc. If I was in this sort of position I would want to be on the best terms with the hands that essentially feed me.

 

[mymotorrad]

I think the line between journalists and influencers is a bit blurred due to the fact that both get kickbacks in terms of freebies, invites to launches/trackdays, long term loans etc. If I was in this sort of position I would want to be on the best terms with the hands that essentially feed me.

The journalists aren't the ones that have to be on good terms per se, but the publisher. Yes they get invited on junkets and they always have, but there is a line of professionalism. The one's I read aren't fanboys like a lot of youtubers I watched. Watch Adam Waheed's review of the indians in AZ and then her training wheels or boxhead. It's quite a bit different I think. It's more thorough and balanced. Journalists get paid per article, while youtubers get paid per view. It's a different metric. Once it's written and money passes hands, that's it. As far as kickbacks, you'll have to elaborate. A lot of folks level accusations at journalists and they don't know what the fuck they are taking about.

 

[nophix]

Yeah, white's gonna be popular wherever it's hot a lot. Around here, so many people want 50 Shades of Gray, and not the book. BORING! [to me]

-John

Man, I can tell you while my wife and I were car shopping, that was the same bloody problem. She keeps ending up in grey, I keep ending up with black or white. So annoying! And the sad part is, I bought my current car new! Unless I wanted to wait months, it was a choice between black white or grey....

 

[mymotorrad]

Man, I can tell you while my wife and I were car shopping, that was the same bloody problem. She keeps ending up in grey, I keep ending up with black or white. So annoying! And the sad part is, I bought my current car new! Unless I wanted to wait months, it was a choice between black white or grey....

Some manufacturers will take orders. It'll take 2-3 months, but you'll get exactly what you want.

 

[Drakhen99]

Yep - I could've placed an order for a different-color RAM, but I was not driving that POS Ford any more. In the end, silver looks good on this truck.

My bike...? My wife picked it out, I rode it & loved it, so she paid for it, and I brought it home. It's pretty when it's clean, but it's some of the hardest paint to keep clean and shows every swirl and scratch in it.

-John

 

[mymotorrad]

Yep - I could've placed an order for a different-color RAM, but I was not driving that POS Ford any more. In the end, silver looks good on this truck.

My bike...? My wife picked it out, I rode it & loved it, so she paid for it, and I brought it home. It's pretty when it's clean, but it's some of the hardest paint to keep clean and shows every swirl and scratch in it.



Can one order a HD? I know a BMWs can be ordered. I've never heard of ordering a japanese bike though. I've looked into ordering a dodge challenger. I know Ford can do orders.

 

[Drakhen99]

AFAIK, any vehicle manufacturer will take orders. I know you can order HDs, but it again was one of those "I ain't riding this thing home" situations... although I did ride my Vaquero home, just to strip off the add-ons before trading it in. Epilogue: I sold all the parts off the Vaquero during COVID and put the almost-new highway pegs on my Street Glide, where they matched the aesthetic better than on the Kawi.

-John