Or maybe to be more precise, congratulations to Harley-Davidson's engineering teams and to 'corporate' (under Matt Levatich and Jochen Zeitz) for giving its engineers the freedom and space to sit at the top table of contemporary motorcycle industry technology.
No new platform is ever perfect, all design and engineering is a compromise, but the quantum leap needed to jump from Cruisers and Tourers (even the M-8 iterations) to the Pan America, genuinely is the kind of era starting initiative that isn't seen that often during even the longest of careers.
Regular readers will know that while I have been optimistic and excited at the prospects of seeing Harley 'get it right', I have also been pessimistic and fearful that they would not do so.
I guess it has as much to do with the split identity my own career has, one that sees me focussed on my 'day job' in the custom motorcycle industry, which is what I think of as 'home', and my moonlighting in the 'mainstream' (metric) motorcycle market in Europe.
Through International Dealer News I am accustomed to reporting on all the other major (and many not so major) OEMs and on most of the 'other' sectors of the international motorcycle industry - to a greater or lesser extent.
The advent of and subsequent gradual growth of the 'Dual Sport' market - or what is mostly thought of these days as being the Adventure Touring market, has been a long, gradual evolution rather than an immediate revolution.
a bloody good start-point
The first real ADV to appear from one of the 'majors' and go on to sell in significant numbers was Honda's 'Africa Twin'. Initially it was born out of Honda's Paris-Dakar success as the XRV650/RD-03. Those first 'Africa Twin' models were so closely based on their race bike design that they were produced by HRC - Honda Racing Corporation - rather than Honda Corporate. It made its debut in May 1988.
Within a year or two, Honda had upped its game in a market where the other principal players (certainly in race terms) were BMW, Cagiva and Yamaha, by upgrading to the four-time Paris-Dakar winning NXR750 derived volume produced XRV750 (RD-04).
From then on more than a decade of sales saw frame improvements and a steady increase in what we'd think of these days as creature comforts, rather than race aids, as Honda and the other manufacturers in the sector gradually moved away from their race bike origins with their production offerings and focussed on improving and developing their bikes' road-going characteristics.
Honda ceased production of the 'Africa Twin' in 2003. At that stage, end-of-series was a relatively more commonplace response to the increasingly tight emissions regulations than it is now. In response to the clamour from enthusiasts and dealers, especially as BMW ADV sales surged, Honda brought the 'Africa Twin' back in 2016 (as the CRF1000L) and has been updating it every 24 months ever since (narrower frame, Venture Sport version etc).
The reason for using the history of Honda's place in the ADV market as a case study for Harley's entry into this space is to demonstrate just how gradual the process of evolution in the market has been, even for one of the majors, and how central race results have been.
The market that Harley is entering is very different now. BMW and Yamaha are still there (the current Yamaha Ténéré 700 is pulling up trees in retail sales terms in Europe, and everyone knows about the GS of course) but, as a brand, Cagiva is mostly 'resting' at present.
Instead, Triumph (Tiger), Ducati of all people with its 'Multistrada', and KTM are the players eating away at the others. They are, effectively, growing the market by spreading the ADV gospel to their own brand-base. In doing so they are injecting capital into the sector and offering an ever-deepening arsenal of advanced tech in the cockpit, the engine, the chassis and the suspension. The ADV market is now mature, and contrary to the glamourous videos, is mostly to be found in urban, suburban and peri-urban environments. That's where some 80 percent of the miles get done.
The ADV market is no longer one where simply being robust enough is good enough. It is one where rugged and durable build quality have to be matched by design and engineering sophistication - with advanced suspensions, chassis tech that is so way ahead of anything we were seeing just 20 years ago and, thanks to regulatory pressure, engine technology that is just 'out there' compare to what we were seeing ten years ago. The future-facing progress that the 'mainstream' OEM community has been driven to make in the past decade has been staggering - probably more even than was seen in the prior three decades.
Hence my excitement being mixed with pessimism. The air the likes of BMW, Yamaha, Honda and, especially, Ducati all breathe is not the same that we have seen being allowed to fill the lungs of Harley's engineers in the same timescale. Despite the Rushmore touring chassis and the largely 80s/90s tech M-8, Harley's engineers have been held back in the past decade.
Could they step up? Would they be allowed to step up? As individuals, of course they could, but in the past watching Harley corporate changing direction has been like watching an aircraft carrier trying to do a 180 in a swimming pool. So, my fear was that either they wouldn't be able to do it at all, or that if they did, by the time they were ready to go to market, their target would have moved.
In contrast to Harley's historically glacial pace, European and Japanese (and even Chinese and Indian) manufacturers are lightning fast and responsive. There was potential for considerable brand damage - damage that might be generational in reputational terms.
So, to coin a phrase - "and now breathe."
Stage One has been successfully navigated. The Pan America (RA1250/S) is not just a good start-point, it is a bloody good start-point - for any manufacturer.
