The Motor Company unveils two 2025 models that catch our eye

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Every January, motorcycle brands pull the wraps off of new, updated, or revised motorcycles for the new year. We’ve seen several unique offerings already by different companies, and two in a recent press release from Harley-Davidson caught our attention. Harley is offering a Street Glide Ultra this year, and they are debuting what some say might be the closest we’ll see to that Bronx prototype they scuttled several years ago, in a stripped-down and street-stoked Pan America 1250 ST.

2025 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Ultra. Sweet. Photo by Harley.

Street Glide Ultra

We here at Road Dirt love Harley’s venerable and popular Street Glide model, and have ridden numerous iterations of it over the years. We toured one around central Florida during last year’s Daytona Bike Week, and savored every moment with it. H-D now offers an Ultra version for 2025, giving the Street Glide longer touring chops. Claiming the new model is their “most capable regular-production Grand American Touring motorcycle”, this Ultra iteration is equipped with a “King Tour-Pak” rear top case with a wrap-around passenger backrest and luggage rack like last year’s Ultra Limited, and a redesigned one-piece comfort seat and pillion for more miles and hours in the saddle.

The Street Glide Ultra rolls with Harley’s new Milwaukee-Eight 117, which makes 105 HP and 130 ft lbs of torque. The 117 makes 6.6% more torque and 12.9% more HP than the M-8 114 mills of 2024, with the bike’s overall weight reducing by 49 lbs over last year’s Ultra Limited bike. The fairings have been refined a bit more as well, both the main fairing and the lowers for better aerodynamics, which of course can result in slight MPG too.

We like the looks and offerings on this new Street Glide Ultra. With yearly refinements to their ride and audio packages to boot, Harley has definitely positioned the Street Glide Ultra to be a hit with touring riders.

2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America ST. Yes please. Photo by Harley.

Pan America ST

Ted rode the original Pan America a few years ago, and loved it. The new Pan America 1250 ST is basically a stripped down, street-rodded version of that award-winning ADV bike. The ST loses its off-road elements like the lower front fairings, tall ADV windshield and off-road tailored suspension. The Pan Am’s ADV tires are gone on this model, swapped for street-only Michelin Scorcher Sports, and this bike now runs on 17” front and rear cast aluminum rims for quicker steering response on the pavement. A lower seat also aids in overall mounting and handling for a wider variety of riders, and H-D offers more sporty-styled lockable side cases and detachable locking top case.

Is Harley taking aim at Yamaha’s Tracer 9 GT+ with this new Pan America? With all the amazing software packaging coming on this street-only Pan Am as well as the bike’s aforementioned street mods, and the OEM farkles that can be added to make this a capable sport tourer, the Motor Company folks just might be positioning the new ST to make some waves in the sport touring segment. Did we mention the ST will come equipped with a quickshifter?

We’ll try to get a ride on both of these models sometime this year, as both bikes look quite promising in their respective categories. We like what we see so far in them.

Road Dirt Crew

For more on these and all the 2025 Harley offerings, click here:

Harley-Davidson