Trackday ego slayer
The Indian Challenger race bike can post lap times only a few seconds down on a factory superbike
Most extreme race replica ever? The new Indian Challenger RR is surely up there. In fact, calling it a replica is doing it a disservice as it isn’t just a Challenger with an exhaust can and a few stickers to make it look like Tyler O’hara’s 2022 King of the Baggers championship-winning bike. It is exactly the same. That means you could do some serious damage to egos in a trackday fast group – O’hara’s lap times on the be-panniered behemoth were generally only a second more than those of the leading Supersport 600 bikes and not much further from full-on superbikes. For a machine weighing 300kg, that is ridiculous. Unfortunately the special edition bikes – 29 will be built, in honour of O’hara’s race number – are not road legal, otherwise you could have stuffed a tent into the carbon panniers and set off for a lovely trackday weekend at Cadwell. There’s also the price issue: each costs $92,000 (£75,000), with only one expected to come to the UK. You do get a hatful of racing trinkets for your cash though – it’s essentially a factory race bike that happens to look like a tourer. The engine, for example, has a 112ci big bore kit (1835cc) with a 78mm S&S throttle body, hot cams and CNC ported cylinder heads. Indian won’t let on how much power it makes, but Harley mechanics have hinted their bikes are making almost 200bhp and 160 lb.ft of torque (ie, twice as much as a superbike). And before you call ‘horseshit’, remember those Supersport-rivalling lap times. These are helped by factory Öhlins FGR250 forks and TTX shock, Brembo M4 brake calipers and cunning weight distribution – teams are banned from lopping off too much by a 288kg minimum. ‘Watching the racing on Youtube is one thing, but seeing what these bikes can do live is staggering,’ Indian’s Ian Austin tells Bike. ‘I went to see the 2023 Indians testing and they’re leaning to 60 degrees and their corner speed is higher than the AMA Superbikes because they can put more load through the tyres. And they’re faster to 100mph than the Superbikes too. They’re just insane.’ Indian’s Vice President Gary Gray accepts some race fans still think the idea is daft though: ‘Originally, the thought of road racing baggers was perplexing to many. But in just three years, King of the Baggers has emerged as the hottest thing in motorcycle racing as these bikes have rapidly evolved. We thought it would be awesome to give people the opportunity to own the bike that holds the crown.’