Today, 10/25/2025, is my first mini ride of Bruce, 2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special, since I brought him home from Atlanta Harley-Davidson on October 17^th, 2025.  Only 66.1 miles (we will just call it 66 miles). 

Bruce is still within the first 500-mile break-in, so I’m keeping engine RPMs below 3500.   Still, I went over 3500 RPM a few times.   Man, it is hard not to rev higher than that.  It felt like the bike (and myself) consistently wanted to accelerate harder and go a bit faster than I was lol.  I’m working to break in Bruce properly.    My plan is to have this bike for several years.  Bruce now has 106 miles on the odometer, so there is 394 miles remaining in the 500 mile break-in.   

I felt a little clumsy at the beginning of the ride trying to position my left foot properly for the gear shifter.  Also, I fumbled around bit going through some of the menus and other controls (mainly just playing around a bit with them to figure out what they do while riding,). 

Today I was wearing my Daytona Road Star GTX boots (I have had these for a few years and love them).  I was finding it difficult to shift and had to use a corner of my boot tip to work the gear shifter.  Later at home, I put on my Alpinestars Toucan GTX Boots (these will be the boots I wear for off pavement riding and will be the boots going to Alaska with me in 2028.  I was practicing different techniques for mounting and dismounting the Pan America (thinking about the bike being loaded down with a bunch of bags, gear, etc).  With my Toucan GTX boots, I could hardly work the gear shifter at all.  The toe box on the Toucan boots is much larger than my Daytona boots.

My first solution is to attempt to adjust the OEM gear shifter and see if that improves things.  If this doesn’t work out for me, then I will be on the hunt for a aftermarket gear shifter that will work with my boots better.

I have a bunch of stuff to install onto Bruce that is now sitting in the garage.  More will be posted on that later here on www.wanderlustlyfe.com 😊

Today was a fantastic fall day to ride here in Georgia.  There was one road in particular that was absolutely angelic with fall colors, the sun peaking through the trees, large boulders and sweeping curves, and even some deer lazily crossing the road at a safe distance in front of me.  But, of course my GoPro battery died just before this and for now, this angelic scene only lives in my memory.  Tomorrow, 10/26/2025 it supposed to rain here most of the day….but of course it is lol.  I will try and capture this road and setting again but I may be out luck until next fall.  😊