‘Can I afford one?’
INDIAN FTR S 9912 MILES Ben reflects on a fun-filled year of American muscle
The biggest compliment I can pay the Indian FTR S is that it has had me shopping around for loans. It’s certainly not perfect and some of its foibles are incredibly frustrating, but I feel more bonded with it than any bike I’ve ridden in years.
In order to work out why, my mind is cast back to my very first bike on the MCN fleet, a 2019 Honda CBR650R. It was a brilliant thing (so good I put almost 20,000 miles on it) and I look back on it fondly – but it was missing a certain something. As I said back then, “Flaws and imperfections are the interesting parts of people and that’s true of bikes, too. And if all I wanted was ease, comfort and reliability I’d do the unthinkable and buy a car.”
It’s my firm belief that the niggles and annoyances I’ve had with the FTR are precisely the reasons that I love it so much. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want to go back to the days of my early twenties; running my own bikes on a shoestring and playing starter button roulette before work every morning. But a compromise here and a design flaw there can give a machine added character.
Wrestling a big, long and heavy bike through a fast sweeper on a tricky, undulating B-road is far more satisfying than carving through it smoothly on a superbike. And finishing a 500-mile day on a bike with no weather protection, carrying just what you can fit in a big rucksack, makes the beer taste better than doing the same on a full-dress tourer with more luggage space than a Volvo estate.
I’m not saying ‘I love the FTR because it’s rubbish’ because it’s certainly not. Its imperfections are just small compromises in an overwhelmingly pleasurable ownership experience. The FTR looks the business, goes like a train, stops well enough and handles far better than it looks like it ought to. It’s also comfy over distance but has a sporty enough riding position to scratch your B-road itch when the mood takes you.
If Indian sorted the infuriating fuel filler pipe, put an extra few litres in the tank, finessed the cruise control and added a satnav to the TFT dash, the FTR would be a better bike… on paper. But would I like it any more? I doubt it. Apart from that fuel filler neck thing, they should definitely fix that.
‘It’s not perfect and that’s why I love it so much’
LIKES
Character, foibles, nuance
DISLIKES
Giving it back, fuel filler