3/12/23
Most of us have heard this one: “When was the first motorcycle race?”
“When the second motorcycle was made.”
You can bet it was between a Harley-Davidson and an Indian motorcycle. The two American brands have been duking it out for over a century: beaches, boardtrack, flat track, hill climbing, roadracing, and even off-road. When Polaris Inc. acquired Indian Motorcycle in 2011, the writing was on the wall that it would meet Harley-Davidson in the arena of competition again. And in 2017, Indian’s FTR750 lined up against Harley’s new XG750 racer (and a bunch of legendary XR-750s).
But what about racing production models? In 2020, MotoAmerica added King of the Baggers as an exhibition for V-twin production-based racing. Big, burly machines meant for slaying long miles on America’s highways and byways were pushed beyond the limits on the track. It was an immediate hit with race fans. The series expanded into a three-race program in 2021, seven in 2022, and now seven rounds with two races per weekend in 2023.
Just before Round 1 of the Mission Foods King of the Baggers, Cycle World got access to Harley-Davidson’s and Indian’s factory racing machines to take a closer look at the massive efforts each manufacturer is putting into racing its big V-twin. In-market editor Bradley Adams even turned laps on the 2022 championship-winning Indian Challenger. Meanwhile our technical editor Kevin Cameron paid a visit to a Harley-Davidson test session of its race-ready Road Glide.
Bagger racing began as a spectacle that couldn’t be denied, and now the biggest rivalry in American motorcycling has both sides investing heavily in factory programs with ultra-trick parts. There are more American touring bikes on the road in the US than any other single type of machine, so race on Sunday, sell on Monday gets a new meaning with bagger racing, and the stakes for both Indian and Harley have never been higher.
As always, there’s more than we can fit into this email. Check out cycleworld.com for additional tests, reviews, and news.
Ride on,
Justin Dawes
Executive Editor
