Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 ST Review

Harley made waves in 2021 when, in the midst of a Covid pandemic, it launched headfirst into the adventure bike sector with its two-model Pan America range. The family grew by another bike this year, as the Pan America 1250 ST joined the fold.

Unlike the existing 1250 Special, which has one wheel on the dirt and the other on the road, the ST is an out-and-out road bike, with a much sportier stance than the existing machines.

For this test, I borrowed the Pan America ST for a one-week review. During that time, I commuted to the London office and took it out for sunny rides on some of my favourite roads and completed around 500 miles on it.

Price, colours, and availability

The new 2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 ST starts at £16,995 and is available in Billiard Grey, Vivid Black, and Brilliant Red - the latter two colours come with a £350 premium on them. The price means the new bike comes in at around £300 less than the Pan America 1250 Special, while it still boasts the same semi-active and electronically adjusted suspension.

What’s new with the Pan America 1250 ST

As its name suggests, the ST variant of the Pan Am’ is a more sporty, road-focused take on Harley’s adventure touring platform. Visually, it has a very different stance to that found on the 1250 Special, with five millimetres less ground clearance and reduced suspension travel. It also boasts a shrunken front fairing, which ditches the expansive stock screen in favour of a much more low-level fly screen.

The seat is also revised and more deeply scalloped than the item found on the off-road inclined versions of the bike. The change drops the seat height to 746mm and make it feel much more like a bike you sit in, and not on.

The geometry changes slightly, with the trail reducing from 108mm to 95mm, while the wheelbase is also shortened slightly from 1,585mm to 1,580mm. The rake remains the same at 25 degrees, with the spec of the suspension, and a switch to 17-inch cast wheels being behind the dimensional changes.

The engine used in the new bike is the same 1,252cc liquid-cooled 60-degree Revolution Max V-twin, which churns out 148bhp at 8,750rpm and 93lb ft of torque at 6,750rpm. The electronic rider aids, such as the lean-sensative traction control and ABS are all still featured, as is wheel lift control and drag torque slip control. Each electronic system on the new bike has been optimised for the more road-focused machine.

What’s it like to ride

Sliding onto (or should that be into) the revised seat of the ST highlights how much the bike has changed from before. It’s feels significantly lower, and even my five-foot-seven-inch frame can almost fully flat-foot on the ground. The bars on the ST are slightly narrower than the 1250 Special (down from 975mm to 895mm), meaning the ergonomics feel more compact and involved than before. The rest of the cockpit is all very familiar, with the same TFT and switchgear, with the most noticeable change being the new low-level screen, which sits well below my chin.

Firing the bike up awakens the 1,252cc Revolution Max engine, which has a distinctly European feel as it ticks over. The valvetrain produces much more rattle and clatter than H-D’s traditional pushrod V-twins, and if this were a blind taste test, it wouldn’t take much to believe this was a European engine from the likes of KTM or Ducati.

Unlike most of its European counterparts, the cable-operated clutch has a distinctly Harley feel to it, with a meaty lever that requires all four fingers to pull it in comfortably. Contrary to the chucky clutch is a light and direct gear lever, which is mated to an up-and-down shifter and blipper as standard on the ST.

Rolling out for my first ride on the ST, and it all feels decidedly different to my last experience of Harley’s Pan America adventure bike. Its smaller wheels and more sporty suspension setting mean that acceleration feels much more aggressive and urgent. I’m starting in the standard Road riding mode (Rain and Sport modes are still to be explored), and even so, the throttle feels very direct. Trudling along at low speeds is highlighting a slight fluff in the fuelling, as the engine seems to hunt at between 3,500 and 4,500 rpm, like it's never quite happy to sit in that part of the rev range. This is likely the engine speed that is optimised for Euro5+ certification, and it can be mitigated by hooking a gear higher than required.

Out of town and now on the open road is where the ST starts to come into its own, with the revised chassis easily making this the best handling of the breed. It might have a similar weight compared to the 1250 Special (246kg), but with its more road-oriented hoops, it changes direction nicely, feeling much more eager to turn and with less upper-body effort required despite the narrower bars. It also feels very sure-footed on the brakes, and I’m quickly asking things of the ST that I’d be wary about doing on the standard bike. It’s partly down to the Brembo stoppers being more than up to the task of hauling the bike up, but the suspension has a very reassuring plushness when I grab the anchors that fills me with confidence. It’s also more controlled at high lean angle and feels much more composed when hammering through a fast set of bends.

Hooking the bike into the Sport riding mode sharpens up the throttle further, stiffens the suspension, reduces the intervention of the traction control and turns down the ABS. Shifting into this sportiest mode had a massive impact on the Pan America, and now, instead of an adventure bike with sporty aspirations, it’s starting to feel more like a thumping great super naked. It may have some 20bhp less than some of its competitors, but you wouldn’t guess it from the saddle. The Rev Max engine pulls hard from low revs and doesn’t run out of steam at the top. It’s not what I’d call refined, and the ultra direct throttle is taking some getting used to. It is, though, exhilarating to ride, as I throw the ST at the apex and then bludgeon the throttle, which sends the co-branded H-D/Michelin Scorcher hoops squirming away beneath me.

And while I’m talking about refinement, the quickshifter, too, should be mentioned, as around town and at more sedate speeds, it's great. Out on the open road and higher up the rev-range, though, it can start to come unstuck. Upshifts above 5,000rpm will engage with a whip-lash-enducing thwack in my back, so much so that I end up manually blipping the throttle to help smooth out the shifts. It's worth noting that the system works fine coming down the gearbox, and blips nicely to match the revs. It's just not quite as refined on the way back up again. I double-checked the lever for freeplay but couldn’t find any, leading me to believe it’s just the way it’s tuned. For me, I’d rather have a little more finesse in the gear shifts and a slightly less brutal feeling.

With the only other changes for the ST being to the ergonomics and bodywork, there are obviously some changes to note. First up, you are giving up some legroom if you opt for the ST. You can go for the Tall Boy seat option (£276), which adds around 25mm, although that would only really be needed if you’re over six foot in height. It’s also worth noting that on the motorway, I found the turbulence from the non-adjustable low-level fly screen to be very uncomfortable. If I stooped a little, I could tuck my head inside the bubble, although doing that over long distances would be murder on my back. It’s counterintuitive to buy a sporty ADV bike like this and then add on a taller touring screen, but if you plan on ever riding your ST on the motorway, that’s probably your best bet.

The rest of the bike’s comfort is great. It’s relatively vibe-free for a large capacity V-twin, and the seat is expansive enough to allow me to move around if needed and it is bolstered by plush yet supportive padding. If there was one other must-have accessory I’d be opting for, it’d be the £142 handgaurds, which, if paired with the heated grips, should keep the worst of the winter weather at bay.

Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 ST Verdict

Adding the ST to the Pan America range feels like the right move, with it filling the gap beneath the 1250 Special where the stock Pan America (no adaptive suspension) used to reside. With the majority of riders opting for the more trick version, bolstering the range with a more dynamic and road-focused machine makes total sense.

The ST has also gone a little way to giving us a bike which seemed to be much needed in the Harley range; the now-shelved Bronx naked from 2019. The Bronx was a full-bore supernaked, built around the same 150bhp Revolution Max engine but mated to a smaller frame and topped off with roadster styling. It's a bike that could have taken the fight to KTM, Ducati and Honda. Sadly, the project got canned, and while the new ST gives us a glimpse of how the Bronx could have shaped up, I can’t help thinking that is still a gap in the range that could well do with being filled.

Overall, the ST is a big success. It’s handling on the road is much improved over the 1250 Special, and had it been a head-to-head test with some European and Japanese competitors, the new Pan America would be right in the mix. The low-speed fuelling and aggressive quickshifter are flies in the ointment, although I’m sure the former could be smoothed out with a remap, while the quickshifter can be mitigated by switching riding modes. It is also a handsome looking bike, with its big-bore supermoto aesthetic bringing something different to the adventure sector.