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Earle Motors Founder Goes Down the Baja on HD Pan America 1250 Special

The brain trust behind Earle Motors, Alex Earle jumped atop a Harley-Davidson Pan America with a signature spun Earle Motors polished aluminum tank on a two-wheeled adventure touring trip down the highways and byways of Baja California in Mexico.
Baja Trip 7 photos
Photo: Alex Earle You Tube
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Joined by fellow tourer Jon Beck, the two set off to ride the paved, dusty, and sandy byways on and off Mexico's Highway 1 or Autopista Uno. The Baja stretches from Tiajuana, Mexico, on the southern border of the U.S., all the way down to land's end in Mexico's hottest vacation destination of Cabo San Lucas.

By car and traveling non-stop on Highway 1, the 1,659-kilometer (1,030-mile) trip would take approximately 22 hours to complete. However, as one could tell by the Twitter feed courtesy of Harley-Davidson, Earle and company ventured out on the road less traveled to test out the capabilities of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based motorcycle manufacturer's Pan America.

Earle's affinity for adventure touring over unforgiving landscapes is clearly expressed in the YouTube video, and even clearer is his enjoyment and appreciation of the performance of Harley's adventure touring machine offered. Harley-Davidson describes the Pan America first offered in February of 2021, as being “for riders who see touring as detouring-on road and off.”

The Pan America was somewhat of a savior for Harley-Davdison, which had suffered a huge downturn in sales as a result of an aging customer base and the impact of the you-know-what. More than somewhat, however, was the idea to introduce its first adventure touring motorcycle to its lineup in the form of the Pan America. It turned out to be just what the company needed as by September of 2021, the company claimed the offering was a huge success and became the best-selling adventure touring machine in the U.S.

The exact model year of the bikes on Earle's trip down the Baja is not clear but they appear to be 2023 models. The 2023 Pan America 1250 Special is powered by an all-new liquid-cooled 1250 cc engine dubbed the Revolution Max V-Twin with Electronic Sequential Port Fuel Injection (ESPFI), providing 150 horsepower (152 ps, 112 kW) at 9,000 rpm and 94 foot-pounds (127 Nm) of torque at 6,750 rpm.

The chassis is designed for its intended use with electronically adjustable 47 mm inverted forks up front to help dampen the ride in off-road conditions, while a mono-shock automatic electronic pre-load control and semi-active compression & rebound damping do the same in the rear.

A four-piston caliper in the front and a single-piston caliper out back help bring the satin black aluminum wheels to a halt.

LED lighting ensures that the biker can see and be seen whether in daylight hours or at night. A 6.8 (17.3 cm) viewable area TFT provides the display for all of the operational specifics, including speedometer, odometer, tachometer, fuel level, clock, trip, and many others.

In addition, the Pan America features all of the safety goodies as standard that are critical to safely navigating off-road conditions that include but not limited to anti-lock brakes, traction control, hill hold control, and tire pressure monitoring.

It's clear from the video that the Pan America was not only taken through its paces but performed admirably, at the very least. We will have to wait and see what the next off-road adventure from Earle holds, but it will likely take him back to the ruggedness of some remote locale.

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