Source: Bike Bound
Black Cycles Australia scrambles Harley’s adventure bike…
In 2020, the Harley-Davidson Pan America arrived as the first all-American adventure bike, packing a 1250cc 150-hp “Revolution Max” V-twin and electronically-adjustable Showa suspension. The motorcycling world was understandably skeptical of whether the Milwaukee motor company could produce a competitive ADV bike, but this long-legged iron horse soon proved itself quite capable.
“Its sporty feel, excellent suspension, and raucous engine put its on-road performance in the middle of the performance spectrum. It’s faster than a BMW R 1250 GS or Honda Africa Twin 1100… The Pan America’s calling card is its balance, with a stable and smooth chassis, excellent ergonomics and wind protection, and killer-app Adaptive Ride Height.” –Ultimate Motorcycling
Yes, it suddenly seemed the established adventure tourers had some real competition. While we’ve begun to see Pan Americas rolling down our roads and cascading through our social feeds, we’ve never seen a radical, truly custom Pan America build…until now.
It takes a bold builder and willing customer to cut up a high-dollar modern adventure rig, but the stars crossed for Noel Muller of Black Cycles Australia and his new client, Josh — and we’re damn happy they did.
Josh bought his 2022 Pan America without being much of an “adventure bike person” (they can be their own breed), and so asked whether Noel would be interested in transforming the big ADV bike according to his own vision.
“I suggested a modern scrambler style as if Harley Davidson had made a prototype…and Josh loved the idea!” -Noel
Like all of Noel’s builds, the work here is strikingly creative and executed with ferocious precision. For instance, you’ll notice the massive OEM tank is nowhere to be seen. That’s because Noel fabricated an 8.5-liter (2.25-gallon) tank that runs from the neck to the rear wheel, nearly a meter long and almost fully concealed beneath the seat and bodywork. Then, to extend the range yet farther, there’s an auxiliary 2.4-liter (1 gallon) tank housed where the catalytic converter used to be. This is the high level of fabrication involved to slim such an enormous bike.
Another challenge was cleaning up the cockpit. Noel embedded the big multifunction dashboard into the custom aluminum radiator panels and bodywork. Then there’s the custom aluminum bashplate, mid-level exhaust, front number plate with Highsider Satellite LED headlights…the list of fabrication work goes on and on.
The result is the Pan America “Super Scrambler” you see here, and it looks like one hell of a ride. Below, Noel gives us the full story on this massive American dirt digger. Enjoy!
Pan America Scrambler: In the Builder’s Words…
Around six months ago Josh contacted me about a custom build on his 2022 Harley Davidson Pan America. He had bought it on the spur of the moment and wasn’t actually an adventure bike person and asked if I could do anything cool with it? I said of course let’s do it!
He didn’t have any specific direction except he wanted it different, trimmed down, and matte black… So once we received the bike a week later we stripped it of its plastic and bash guards, etc., to see what we were dealing with. I could then see that the base is actually very compact. I suggested a modern scrambler style as if Harley Davidson had made a prototype for real motocross racing and Josh loved the idea!
So straight away the biggest hurdle was the fuel tank; it’s massive and just would not work with the plan, so I built an almost fully concealed 8.5-litre tank from the neck to the rear wheel in length (approx. 1 metre). That meant rebuilding the subframe shorter to suit the new tank.
Next was to build all new aluminum panels, which I had the shapes already in mind, but making them blend into the large multifunction screen (moved down from above the handlebars) was very challenging.
The custom seat was next with an aluminum base and minimal foam. It was trimmed beautifully by Adam at Carmans Auto Trimmer’s.
The risers and handlebars were changed to lower items and billet mirrors mounted below the bars.
The exhaust was the next issue. The first attempt was to run a pipe upwards from the original low-down headers, but that looked ridiculous! So I chopped up the headers and built a mid set to flow better visually into the Vance & Hines muffler.
So then the 2.4-litre auxiliary tank was built to fit where the original (huge) cat-converter lived. The auxiliary tank can be removed easily without tools to top up the fuel if necessary.
The regulator that originally is mounted down in front of the bash plate was relocated up inside the left side wing, and a completely new more compact bash plate was made from two pieces of aluminum, dimple-died for aesthetics and cooling.
The headlights used are Highsider Satellites and Kellerman Micro for tail and indicators front and rear.
This is all the major fabrication done, but there are a lot of small parts and pieces that were also made or modified to make this all work.
The paint was done beautifully once again by Justin at Popbang Classics in matte black with some bar n’ shield logos, oversized Harley-Davidson font, the new name of Super-Scrambler, and the number 25, which is just the 25 from the 1250 motor size.
Luckily this model already had the tubeless spoked wheels on it and I’ve left the original tyres for comfort on road, and also this bike only has 500 kilometres on it so they’re brand new.
The test ride went great, my first time on one of these and I have to say it absolutely HAMMERS!
Very hard to keep the front wheel down, these are rated at 150 HP and the exhaust gives another 6 HP and it 100% feels like it, too!
More Photos
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Black Cycles Australia: Facebook | @blackcyclesaustralia
Upholstery: Carman’s Auto Trimmers
Paint: Popbang Classics
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