It does look nice. Would need to look at it from all angles but as far as aesthetics, that black scheme definitely looks good. To me, it looks much better than the bikes shown in the prototype photos.
I hate orange too, but actually own an orange bike. Performance trumps color, and once you drink the orange Kool-Aid, it's hard to resist (not talking about Harley orange btw).
Yes the pumpkins are strong in most of the series I run. Lol. As a contrarian I have been racing BETAs since 2013 so sticking with red white and blue color scheme. Lol.
It looks like the "crashbars" are there to protect the radiator ONLY. What is that section that is welded to the bar that points forward? To protect the grips and mirrors, and body, they should be pointing out to the side, away from the bike, not forward. If not to protect the radiator, I can't imagine why they are there.
Ugly? YES, but that whole "blacked out" look does that too. I would be hard pressed to come up with anything uglier, for sure. It seems like lately HD had given us a choice of Black, Black Denim, and BLACK-ER! So at least you have 3 choices. LOL!! Maybe THAT has had a negative effect on sales too. What happened to COLOR and CHROME for your choices?
the bars going foward protect the radiator the bar behind it protects the engine from the ground for when it gets dropped.. all adv bikes are ugly because they are made to perform instead of looking pretty. They have other colors for it also like green, grey and white and also the ugly silver orange combo but they will probably have more colors for it when it comes out
Compare the two bikes side by side and I'll tell you what jumps out at me - I would NOT want to clean that Panamerica off after a long day riding in wet red clay (as found on all the dirt roads in NW Arkansas). That radiator is going to catch a lot of debris and maybe damage. The voltage regulator will disappear under a coating of mud on all but the cleanest blacktop as well. And a drop is going to be spendy with that Panamerica. At least it looks that way. I don't think that cage will protect the tank, which looks like a one piece metal tank vs the plastic BMW one surrounded by more (replaceable) plastic.
The design of the PA's skid plate is interesting. My guess is that it offers some protection for the radiator and that there is enough air moving behind it to cool the voltage regulator, if that's a concern.
I'm sure they ran that bike through a lot of mud during its design testing.
One thing I don't like about MANY of the new bikes out, is I like simple, and most new bikes are anything but. Not just this one, but bikes have taken on that look of someones box of spare parts dumped into a frame.
The more zi look at them, the more I like the sportster scrambler posted earlier. Not the best, I am sure in ANY category one might test an "adventure" bike, but the simple, clean appearance, and nearly maintenance free design makes for a fun ride.
Too bad, to me, cause I want to really like the TA but the more I look at it, the less I do.
The design of the PA's skid plate is interesting. My guess is that it offers some protection for the radiator and that there is enough air moving behind it to cool the voltage regulator, if that's a concern.
I'm sure they ran that bike through a lot of mud during its design testing.
The skid plate looks very robust. I wouldn't be concerned about that. But from experience I know that VR is going to take some serious abuse if the owner takes it off road. As mentioned, one good day on fire roads and you won't even see it at the end of the day. And how many direct hits from stones can that thing take?
After each muddy ride I hose off whatever bike I'm on to get it basically clean. Then once or twice a season I'll take all the plastics and guards off to give it a thorough cleaning and inspection. Everything ahead of the engine on the PA looks permanent (more or less) so instead of scrubbing a timing cover on the GS, one will have to contend with the radiator and VR on the PA. Not ideal imo.
12-01-2020, 09:08 AM
