The Indian Motorcycle You Buy If You Want To Ride Every Weekend
Most American V-twins are built around how a motorcycle should look standing still. Aesthetics matter, and I’ll vouch for that from years in road cycling, where the silhouette of the steed comes first, and the riding follows. Form before function, if you will, and mind you, that’s perfectly fine. The Japanese have long valued the reverse, and a whole continent wanting the opposite is just the healthy mix that gives us the much-needed variety.
That formula has sold a lot of motorcycles, cruisers in particular, on this side of the world. But prioritizing form usually means that the function bits don’t get the same attention, and the one who doesn’t want a bike to pose against, but wants it to fire up without a hiccup every weekend. They want something to ride hard at the first ray of light on a Saturday. Think sunny SoCal on a December morning, leaning into a flow of corners, then riding home with the unmistakable clarity. One American manufacturer stands out here, and one bike shows up fit for the job, a flat-tracker that’s really a street sleeper in disguise.
What A Weekend Rider Actually Wants From A V-Twin Machine
V-twins have been synonymous with cruisers, and with reason. The whole idea of American motorcycling was built on them. Trouble is, a heavy, long-wheelbase cruiser makes its mass felt every time the road turns. What the weekend rider actually wants is the opposite: a bike that barely fights back through a series of bends. You could argue that the answer is a different genre entirely: a naked middleweight. But for some riders, the V-twin sits atop the list of wants.
It has to look great, obviously, without trading the American twin away to get there. Oh, and a weekend bike has to make you want to take the long way home, which comes from the sound and character of a V-twin more than any inline alternative. It’s the way the engine builds power, the sensory inputs from the mechanical clatter that eggs you on, and the same instinct that shows off through the Indian FTR’s flat-track engineering and design rather than its badge alone.
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This flat tracker for the street is a great example of how Indian incorporate engineering excellence into their designs
The FTR Is The Weekend Bike Indian Built On A Racetrack
Indian built the FTR around its flat-track racing program, and that decision shaped a machine made to be ridden for pure thrills, an explosive naked bike you can still ride daily when Monday comes around. The ladder starts at $13,499 for the base FTR, with the $15,749 Sport buying a Ride Command TFT, an Akrapovič exhaust, and the full IMU-backed electronics suite. From there, the $17,249 R Carbon swaps the Sachs units for fully adjustable Öhlins at both ends, and wraps itself in carbon-fiber bodywork.
Two additional trims are collaborations with the famed motocross goggles manufacturer 100%, as the FTR X 100% R Carbon and a limited-run Roland Sands Design (RSD) Super Hooligan on top of that same hardware. Whichever you land on, each wears a trellis frame wrapped around the engine, 17-inch wheels shod in Metzeler Sportec rubber, and a stance that looks as fast as a mean streetfighter standing still.
The 1,203cc V-Twin Was Tuned To Rev
The liquid-cooled 1,203cc V-twin makes 120 horsepower and 87 lb-ft of torque. This is a high-revving engine by American V-twin standards, happy to be short-shifted through town, yet pulls hard the moment the throttle opens wide, to make a mundane corner exit on your favorite back road an event. Liquid cooling does the unglamorous work behind that, holding combustion temperatures in check.
So the engine stays composed through a hard weekend instead of heat-soaking when traffic slows. It’s the secret behind Indian’s cruisers’ reliability, and the same gets transferred into the FTR too. Rear-cylinder deactivation comes standard and shuts down at idle, keeping the heat off your right leg at the lights. When the road gets twisty, though, there’s more to the FTR’s handling package that makes it even more interesting as an oddball V-twin.
A Trellis Frame And Fully Adjustable Suspension Tuned For The Street
The engine sits inside an exposed steel trellis frame that handles cornering loads, keeping the chassis stiff without piling on weight. A fully adjustable 43 mm upside-down front fork pairs with a piggyback rear shock, so you can dial compression and rebound, easily setting them up to run the canyons one weekend and broken city pavement the next. One of the many reasons the FTR Sport’s lowered, adjustable setup is pretty amazing. Beefy 28 mm alloy handlebars give the leverage to flick it from side to side, and at 17 inches, front and rear wheels keep the steering quick.
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The new Indian FTR 1200 Sport is a top choice if you are looking for a great standard motorcycle
Braking And Electronics That Match The Intent
A bike that accelerates and corners this eagerly needs to stop with equal aplomb, and the FTR does not cut corners here. Brembo four-piston monobloc calipers clamp dual 320 mm rotors up front, hardware that’s usually reserved for sports bikes, and tuned for control rather than just outright bite. The 4-inch Ride Command display carries GPS navigation, Bluetooth connectivity, and ride data on a touchscreen that looks the part on a modern performance bike.
An IMU sits behind the safety net, feeding lean-angle-sensitive cornering ABS, stability control, and traction control, while wheelie and rear-lift mitigation keep the front planted when you get greedy with the throttle. There are three ride modes (Rain, Standard, Sport), reshaping the throttle response to suit the day, and a USB charge port juices your phone. Cruise control comes standard, and the 3.4-gallon tank is modest, which is honest for a bike built around quick sprints rather than long days in the saddle. All sounds great for a V-twin fan until you ask, “What’s the catch?”
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It’s Your Last Chance To Buy A New Indian FTR Before It’s Gone
The FTR is undoubtedly a great weekend bike, but as all good things come to an end, sadly, it’s a bit of a now-or-never decision with this bike in particular. Indian has discontinued the FTR, with the 2025 model year as its last, as the parent company, Polaris, has begun winding the FTR 1200 line down at the end of 2024. There is no replacement coming as yet, and just the remaining inventory on dealer floors is yours to grab, along with an attractive 30 percent off FTR accessories.
Truth be told, nothing currently on sale does the same job as the Indian FTR lineup. The Sport Scout is the closest sibling and shares the fully adjustable suspension and twin 320mm Brembo discs that help the Scout quietly outdo Harley on its own turf, but it rides like the cruiser it is. Harley’s Sportster S has the attitude yet commits to the power cruiser shape, and the European nakeds drop the American V-twin character entirely. Nothing else pairs a liter-plus American V-twin with this kind of stripped, upright street-tracker stance at the price, and if this is the bike you want under you every Saturday, the chance to buy a brand-new one has an expiry date on it.
Source: Indian Motorcycle
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