OLD NAME, NEW EVERYTHING ELSE
Methinks Harley-Davidson is fibbing a little. Not a lot. Just enough to make those paying $20,999 for its new Pan America adventure tourer think they are getting more of the Revolution Max magic than those paying just $17,999 for the even newer Sportster S.
According to Milwaukee, you see, the Pan Am’s version of the Revolution 1250 pumps out 150 horsepower while the Sportster S’s tuned-for-torque version boasts but 121 Shetlands. That is, before you reach for a calculator, a deficit of 29 horses.
On the Brooklin Cycle dyno, however, the Pan America’s high-revving 1,252-cc V-twin pumps out 131 rearwheel horsepower while pretty much every published dyno run I’ve seen of the new Max-motored Sportster pegs its maximum output at 111 or 112 horsepower. That — again, saving you the flicking of a keyboard — is a deficit of 19 or 20 horses. In other words, someone is dissembling. For my two cents, I
