Is Harley-Davidson set to reveal a middleweight Pan America?

Harley-Davidson is gearing up to reveal its new models for 2024 and it appears there could be something special in store for adventure riders.

A special launch event dubbed American Dreamin’ will be held online on January 25, with H-D proclaiming in its marketing material that it will be the “Dawn of a New Era”.

While the famous American brand is staying tight-lipped about exactly what it plans to reveal on January 25, there are a few hints.

The headline news will very likely be the overhaul of the Road Glide and Street Glide models which will fall in line with their updated CVO counterparts, but a middleweight Pan America adventure bike could also be on its way. Such a bike would give Harley a slice of the rapidly growing 600cc-1000cc dual sport category.

A middleweight Pan America would likely provide more off-road performance and agility than its 1252cc sibling, and would be powered by the existing 975cc version of the Revolution Max V-twin engine.

Fuelling the speculation was a collaborative Instagram post between the official Harley-Davidson (@harleydavidson) and standalone Pan America pages (@hdpanamerica), but the existence of a middleweight Pan Am has long been rumoured.

Back in 2022, some eagle-eyed internet sleuths uncovered model codes for a Pan America 975. The codes were RA975 and RA965S, with RA being the designation for H-D’s adventure platform.

Harley has the 975cc version of its Revolution Max V-twin engine ready to go, with that unit already fitted to the Sportster S and Nightster models.

It is possible the news could simply be an update of the current 1250 version, but the 2024 Pan America 1250 is already listed on the brand’s Australia website and it looks largely unchanged from previous years.

It would make sense for H-D to enter the middleweight adventure space, with models such as the KTM 890 Adventure R, Yamaha Tenere 700, Aprilia Tuareg 660, Triumph Tiger 900, Ducati Desert X, Husqvarna Norden 901, Honda Transalp, Suzuki V-Strom 800DE, and BMW F 900 GS all proving popular with punters and critics.

Of course, this could all be a red herring and there will be no new Pan America news to be revealed on January 25, but it seems the stars are aligning.   

All images are unofficial renders created by AI.