As stated in a post yesterday, Dexter was traded in for a new motorcycle on Friday October 17th, 2025 for a new (23 miles at time of purchase) 2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special. Today, October 18th, 2025 DeAndra named the new motorcycle Bruce. She had me fire it up as she walked around the bike and then stated “You can turn Bruce off now”. So, there we we have it, the sacred motorcycle naming ceremony has been completed LOL.
Bruce is the new bike’s name.

Planned use of Bruce

There is allot that needs to be added onto Bruce with many items on order. Side paniers, top case, muffler protector, skid plate, aux – fog lights , and a bunch of other stuff. Obviously this motorcycle is drastically different than Dexter, a 2005 HD Ultra Classic. But, that is point of the new motorcycle. While I rode Dexter on unpaved roads, rutted prairie “roads” in Texas, rocky washed out fire roads in California, shallow water crossings in Kansas, California and many many roads that a bike like Dexter had no business being on, this motorcycle (Bruce) is much more capable of off pavement / and some off road riding. Granted, it is still a very big bike for offroad technical riding (It can do single track and the rest but a smaller bike would be better for the truly technical off road riding). However, I foresee myself still riding at least 80% pavement (likely 90%) on my trips with some off pavement riding but that will most likely be unpaved roads, forest service roads, and some fire roads. Key word there being roads, I do not foresee myself doing allot of off road riding, but the option for some off road riding is available.

First Things First

Firstly, I need to get comfortable with Bruce as is. Thus far, I have only ridden Bruce from Atlanta Harley Davidson to home, about 20 miles or so. Getting my right leg over the seat was not very graceful. My right hip gets very tight and at times have some issues with it as a lingering issue from my crash on Jolene (Honda VTX 1300C) back in August 2017 where I broke my leg, and basically messed up my entire lower right side. Not great but thankful that some lingering hip issues is the only long term affect of that crash.

Once I got my old man leg over the bike and then figuring out where to put my feet, and where to position my left foot for shifting I rode out. My left hip muscle was also complaining a little bit on the first part of the ride (been sitting on my tush all day at work (I work in IT) and it took a few hours at the Dealership to get everything done, so everything was stiff. But after a few miles and rearranging myself a bit, my body quit complaining.

I will need to spend some time in the saddle to get a feel of everything, make or plan adjustments as and if needed. and just become familiar with this motorcycle. Miles in the saddle is the only way that is going to happen. I will most likely get some highway pegs to bolt on at some point because I am guessing I will need that for those long planned rides in the years to come to stretch out my legs and hip relief. At slower speeds, this bike being an adventure does allow one to stand on the pegs. While I didn’t stand on the ride home, I did raise myself up on the pegs to reposition myself. Even on Dexter, my hips and legs would get pretty stiff and cramp at times, so I am not too concerned right now and if it proves to be an issue, there are things that can be done to mitigate the issues (higher seat, highway pegs, raise the bars, etc).

Ride Home – First Impressions

WOW! that pretty much sums it up. I had to keep my speed (RPM’s) down as I need to complete the 100 mile break in process and then the 500 mile break in process. Essentially, Harley stated that for the first 100 miles I need to keep the RPM’s at about 3500 or less and 4500 RPMS from 100 to 500 miles. I never realized how hard that can be lol. I did get the bike up to 50 in a few spots in 6 gear thus keeping my RPM’s low.

The Handling of this bike is fantastic. Yes, I know I coming off a 1000 pound old school dinosaur brick of a motorcycle, and I always felt that Dexter actually handled pretty good, much better than my two former Honda VTX 1300C motorcycles. But the handling, cornering, and ease of control, center of balance, etc etc etc was insane compared to my last three motorcycles. Now granted, I have nothing on Bruce, no luggage, bags, gear, my camping crap etc which will likely change some of that feel. But yeah, I was blown away at how easy it was to ride this bike.

As stated, I need a ton of more time and miles in the saddle of Bruce to learn all the settings, ride performance and just get to know and get comfortable with this bike. Then after that start finding some gravel roads to get familiar with this bike in non-pavement condtiions.

The Adventures are just beginning. 🙂