2019 Indian FTR 1200 S Review First Ride

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Cycle World takes the 2019 Indian FTR 1200 S street tracker for a rip and captures all the important information such as horsepower, torque, acceleration, quarter-mile time, and braking distances. • Indian's FTR 1200 S is the first standard-styled motorcycle from the manufacturer, and it makes sense that it is a street tracker. • Purity and honesty are what make flat-track motorcycles so appealing. They are beautiful, but not decorative. Purpose drives design, and to strive for perfection in this, only the necessary parts remain. Flat-track bikes are also just damned American. • So it is no surprise that 1) Indian built a street tracker as its first standard-style performance motorcycle and 2) did everything it could to maintain an exceptionally strong link to the company's dominant flat-track race bike, the FTR750. • There has been a sense of anticipation around an Indian street tracker since the 750 debuted—these shimmering notions stoked by the FTR1200 Custom we put on our cover last year. • There is sometimes an uneasy tension between the “custom” concept bike and the street product that follows, simply because legal, regulatory, and practical concessions must be made. But I have to say, standing next to the 2019 FTR1200S and taking it in, the profile, stance, contour, and detail please the eye looking for purity and honesty. • The feelings are similar while in motion. The FTR1200 is a physically larger bike than we might have hoped for, with a 60-inch wheelbase and 495-pound weight without fuel, but it hits a dynamic sweet spot for this 6-foot-2 inch primate—thanks to its great riding position, wide ProTaper handlebars, and nicely tuned suspension. • Our testbike is the $16,999 Race Replica in red, white, and black, with lighter looking Akrapovic exhaust, along with the same fully-adjustable suspension found on the $15,499 S model, versus the nonadjustable fork and preload/rebound-adjustable-only shock on the $13,499 standard model. After using the excellent owner’s manual to find clear, easy instructions for adjusting the threaded rear spring preload collars for my weight—with the provided wrench—steering was delightfully neutral. I never would have guessed the steering geometry’s 26.3-degree rake and 5.1 inches of trail, given how easy it is to initiate a turn and how good the bike is at finishing a tight corner. Midcorner stability is also a strong point. • In fact, our first outing on our testbike came at the Chuckwalla Valley Raceway, which we had rented for a magazine event. I also had my wife’s 2011 Harley-Davidson XR1200X there for reference. • The FTR1200 was a revelation, with very good cornering clearance, nice braking feel, and a whole lotta motor. The XR1200X was fun to ride on a track again and I love riding it on the street, but as much as we thought these two tracker-inspired bikes might be related in riding experience, the new FTR takes performance up many notches with quite a bit more horsepower, lighter weight, and much more composure. • It’s in kicking around on the street day to day that the personality of this bike really shines. It is billed as a street tracker, but Indian has also trotted out “scrambler,” and in a way is an ultracool two-wheel version of a crossover SUV-meets-muscle car. Bear with me...The 111 hp and 80 pound-feet of torque are very American in their immediacy, though if you are shopping for horsepower there are plenty of naked 1200s that will crank out more ponies. What you get instead is right-now engine response at any rpm in a sort of “lifted” streetbike chassis that has big, chunky dirt-track-inspired Dunlop tires (19-inch-diameter front, 18-inch rear) and 5.9 inches of suspension travel. Maybe “crossover” is too lame. Perhaps a rally-car analogy is better? • Bottom line is that the FTR1200 is really fun on the road and in the dirt, transitioning seamlessly from short-shift commuter (standard cruise control is a nice touch) to back-road ripper to dirt road scrambler. • The slipper clutch and rider aids help you conquer all this in style. A note about those tires: The dirt-track pattern works very well on the street with perhaps a little more movement from those big-tread blocks than a normal sporting tire, but they followed rain-grooves in a very “vintage” way, giving the chassis a little wiggle. We have also noted this groove-following behavior with the retro-style Dunlop K300GPs fitted standard to the Kawasaki W800 Cafe. • Read the full article here: https://www.cycleworld.com/2019-india... • Subscribe to Cycle World Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/cycleworld?s... • Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/ • Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld

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