CVO Pan America – Fancy Don’t Let Me Down
Reba McEntire famously sang “Here’s your once chance, Fancy, don’t let me down.” That sentiment can now be applied to this new offering, the Harley-Davidson CVO Pan America. Harley-Davidson CVO offerings are renown, as we illustrated in our feature story found in issue #363, for their impeccable and lustrous paint finishes, the addition of choice pieces of kit and an extra helping of performance. All very admirable qualities even though the sticker price can be cause for a loss of breath.
Swapping it up for 2024, this new CVO from Harley-Davidson is the first offering from Custom Vehicles Operations with any intention of going anywhere near a gravel road where an errant pebble might just take a nick out of the extremely fine paint job. The good news is the bike itself is prepared for that eventually even if the rider is not.
What do you get for a starting price of $34,599 for the CVO Pan America ( a shade under $10,000 more than the base Pan America Special)? Most obvious is the special paint scheme said to be in honour of the 20th anniversary of the original CVO offerings. It is a classic design that gets the thumbs up from us – you can’t go wrong with the good ol’ Number 1. You will note that the engine guards and subframe are painted a matching colour. Then you get some CVO badging … okay drop the some, you get a lot of CVO badging. As you’re paying the extra 10 grand, you may as well be make that obvious to yourself and others. To top it off, you also get laced wheels, a full set of luggage and nifty knee pads attached to the tank.
The power train on the CVO Pan America shows as being the same 150hp liquid-cooled Twin found in the base Pan America which is, as far as we are concern, a perfectly good choice as the bike was never lacking in power.
When push comes to shoving off for a long ride, the CVO Pan America offers a good touring package and a nice paint job. But, and this is a good point, the CVO is a pretty good deal if you start adding the pieces up. The lace wheels are going to set you back $1200 on the bast model to replace the cast rims, the mounting system and top case /saddlebag kit is going to add about $2950 (if you put them on yourself mind you). The most expensive paint on the base model (Red Rock and White Birch) adds $900 so let’s say the CVO paint is worth $2500 give or take. Just those items account for two thirds of the price premium over the base Pan America Special. And there are the extra trim, lifting, grips etc that we haven’t mentioned that add a little additional to the tab.
Overall, it seems a successful offering from Harley-Davidson that doesn’t follow the traditional CVO route. Initially the idea of a CVO Pan America seemed inherently against what the Pan America was intended to do. It is suppose to get dirty, it is suppose to risk the occasional scrape, dent or scratch. It might even fall over!But here the sum of the pieces really do add up.
Fancy, but not too fancy. And it shouldn’t let you down.
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