IMAGES BY NICK ‘BIG CHIEF LAME LEG’ EDARDS
Yes, it does look the business.Indian’s FTR is easily one of the most unique bikes you can ever ride. There’s nothing else like it – either in the way it looks or the way it rides. It’s utterly primal, and…well, raw, in the most pleasing way you can understand that term. I defy you to take one for a ride, a proper ride, and not get off it sparkle-eyed and grinning.
There’s something hell-sexy about a cradle frame and carbon fibre…I do have some history with the bike. I fell in dirty love with it when I first saw it back in 2019. “Good Lord!” I gushed, along with the entire Internet. “Look at this sumbitch! I must ride this thing!”
And it was all of that, and it spoke to me.
It’s not Mulholland Drive, but it will do.I first rode it in the hills behind Santa Monica. I was sandy-eyed with jet-lag and trying to process my first trip to the US, while also trying not to ride off one of the countless magical bends up past Kegel Canyon and Indian Springs.
Embracing the raw.In its wisdom, Indian had fitted the original bike with a front 120/70-19 hoop and stuck a 150/80-18 jobbie on the back. because…well, you know, flat-track aesthetics. The Dunlop tyres were strange buggers. They offered grip, but the rear hoop’s flat-track-faithful profile meant you would get to the edge of the tyre pushing hard…and, if you then pushed on, you would literally ride off the edge of the rubber. Not an optimum outcome, I would think. Sure, you had to be in the hairy-balls area of the ride, and it in no way lessened the feral joy the FTR offered the rider. It did, in fact, somewhat enhance it.
Yes, those pipes can be replaced and the collector box consigned to Hell.I loved it. It made me ride. It made me use my skills. It made me a little bit silly. Back in Australia I took it to Walcha and made my brother, Andy, ride it. He bought one three days later and he still has it, and he’s done many things to it, the most glorious of which has to be the insane Bassani exhaust system he’s fitted. And if you ain’t heard an FTR roar-howling through such a pipe, you haven’t lived.
They’re now one big happy high-performance company.The original FTR was as pure and raw a rider’s bike as anything I had ever ridden. And its latest version is still just as hairy-balled and mean-willed as the original, but it now comes with proper 17-inch wheels to which you can fit proper tyres. Sticky ones, like the Metzeler Roadtecs it comes with.
The headlight is very good, but it naturally needs bar-end mirrors.And because I scored the luscious-looking FTR Carbon iteration, it also came with fully adjustable Öhlins to assist the Brembos in the stellar work they do.
And apart from the 2024 electronic rider-assists – Lean Angle Sensitive Stability Control, Sensitive ABS, Traction Control, Wheelie Control with Rear Lift Mitigation, and Cruise Control – this version comes with a four-inch TFT touchscreen packed full of “Infotainment”, the most important of which is the navigation aspect. But yes, you can pair your phone to it and enjoy all the latest beaut electronic “today” stuff.
You may choose this display…
…or this display.Other than that, its brilliant 120hp and 120Nm 1200cc V-twin has undergone some mapping improvements, but it still revs like mean-eyed bastard and is a complete hoot to ride. Yes, it still kinda hunts a bit at low speeds in Sport mode…but, you know what? It’s not really annoying and true believers will accept this as a characteristic of its endearing mental illness. Imagine if your supermodel girlfriend carved furrows down your back with her nails when you had sex with her. It’d hurt some, but it’d still be the best sex you ever had, right?
Cruise Control and the buttons that give you access to the menus. Or you can swipe the TFT dash with your finger.Think quirky throttle-response at slow speeds rather than annoying. And only some kind of prissy she-man would pout about this. Hell, just go get the damn ECU re-flashed if it’s keeping you awake at night.
On or off. That’s all you need on this side.The FTR Carbon is a rider’s bike – first, last and forever. It’s compact but not cramped, it feels much, much lighter than its 235kg wet-weight, and it delivers its chocolates in a way that is so pleasing, it’s almost like some wondrous magic trick.
The little golden tube of wonder.That engine just honks. Start to string corners together and you’ll be astonished at how capable the FTR is. There is nothing else that feels quite like it. It’s got this unique almost Old School feel to it ergonomically, and at standstill it’s like you’re sitting on some mad-arse motard you made in your shed. But it’s not that on the move. Quite suddenly, it’s very modern, polished, and able. It’s comfortable – and yes, I have toured on it, but it’s really happiest around town and in the endless bends you’ll always search for.
The seat is very comfy, and good for an all-day affair.It’s both the coolest commuter and one of the most intensely satisfying scratchers you will ever ride. The FTR is legitimately the most unique bike on the market right now. For people who understand what riding truly is and must always be – that joyous interplay between a rider’s intent and the bikes integrity, when risk meets reward in that tiny sweet-spot you find now and again – the FTR dominates.
Carbon fibre is like frozen pornography.It is always great fun to ride, but when you get it to that sweet-spot, the FTR becomes more than the sum of its parts. And that makes it really rather special.
It’s a much better bike to ride than the original. And that was a great bike to ride.What’s not to like? Let me nit-pick a bit…
A tail-tidy is also a good call. Losing the original mudguard set-up is a must. Yes, your back will get wet. Get over it.I’m not at all fussed about the range of the 13-litre petrol tank. You’ll get 200km out of it if you’re not being too crazy. Where you’re gonna get crazy is at the petrol station when you’re filling it up. Because the actual tank is under your arse, it takes patience to fill it up. You need to just sorta ease the petrol into it. It’s OK. You will catch your mates before they get too far away.
Good for what ails ya. Everytime.
All the carbon, all the time…That’s about it, actually. Sure, there’s that snatchy throttle-hunting thing it does in Sports mode at low speeds, but that’s really not so bad you can call it a fault. It’s just a characteristic, as I said.
We all still make sex-noises at the Panigale, despite the fact the bastard turns your right leg into a burning heat-sink, right? The FTR’s low-speed hiccup is far, far less of an issue than that.
I felt it fit me in all the right ways.I’m so glad Indian persisted with the model. And it is now offered in several iterations – the base FTR, the FTR Sport, the FTR Rally (with wire wheels and dirt tyres), the FTR Carbon, the FTR X 100% Carbon, and the FTR X RSD Super Hooligan (based on the very popular Super Hooligan race series that’s an adjunct to Bagger racings in the US).
There’s nothing else like it.You can certainly check out all of these variations here
https://www.indianmotorcycle.com.au/
So, if you’re after a bike that’s utterly unique, a bike that rewards the rider if he knows what he’s doing, a bike that looks nigh-on perfect in its stance and proportions, a bike that wears a badge that’s as cool as it gets, and comes with premium shocks, brakes, and a first-class finish…yet is still somehow packed with an intense and primal rawness that speaks to the very heart of riding, the FTR is what that bike is.
Go try one. Be amazed.I’ve always loved it. And I still do.
HOW MUCH IS IT? $27995 ride away
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