BATTLE OF THE BAGGERS
They are tearing up race tracks in America but how do these two performance baggers fare on a trip to the British seaside?
£27,195
(£700 extra for paint options) Indian Challenger Dark Horse
● 1768cc liquid-cooled SOHC 8v V-twin
● 120bhp @ 5500rpm
● 381kg (kerb)
£27,295
(£500 extra for paint options) Harley-Davidson Road Glide
● 1923cc dual-cooled 8v V-twin
● 105.5bhp @ 5020rpm
● 380kg (kerb)
Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d be writing - today we are testing two race reps from Harley-Davidson and Indian. No, seriously we are. Believe it or not, the Indian Challenger and Harley Road Glide form the base (in a very loose sense of the word) for each firm’s King of the Baggers race bike for a rip-snorting series in America.
For the uninitiated, King of the Baggers is basically two-wheeled racing insanity. Initially conceived as an invitational one-off race in 2020, the series has grown into a hotly-contested championship that sees heavily modified factory-supported baggers from Harley and Indian go head-to-head on track.
Absurd as the thought of a racing bagger sounds, a quick look on YouTube and you will soon be hooked as the spectacle of a grid full of 280kg bikes, complete with panniers and huge front fairings, ridden by top-level racers is utterly captivating. But the race bikes are so heavily modified that these bikes can barely be labelled as ‘race reps’. Then again, how close do you think a World Superbike machine really is to your road bike? The whole point of King of the Baggers is to capture riders’ attention and get them to at least consider trying a bagger. So what’s the appeal? We grabbed the fobs (they are both keyless) to the updated Road Glide and Challenger, set the satnavs for the British riviera (Hunstanton), cranked up the sound systems and hit the highway. Well, the A47, which is like Route 66 but lined with more cabbage fields.
Riding a bagger, or any big-capacity cruiser for that matter, is a very different experience to a ‘normal’ bike. For a start you are dealing with a hefty old beast and loaded up with a rider and pillion, both of these bikes are topping half-a-ton. And that’s before you add in the effect of a mountain of fish and chips. All of which brings its own issues at low speed.
Anything below walking pace on a bagger is very tricky. While low seat heights allow you to get both feet securely on the ground, which is recommended at every stop, slow speed manoeuvres are perilous not only due to sheer weight but also th
