Six months ago, Indian Motorcycle revealed one of the most exciting custom motorcycles ever built to celebrate their return to flat track racing and winning the championship. In those six months over thirty thousand comments made on social media have confirmed the FTR1200 Custom’s popularity, so Indian has decided to bring it to Europe to compete in the Sultans of Sprint races and ask our EU fans the all-important question: “Should Indian build this bike?”. With #speedisoureligion as its hashtag, the Sultans of Sprint series bring together the best bike builders from the new custom bike scene in Europe in to race and to party at key festivals in Italy, Belgium, Germany and France. The series has a number of categories of sprint racing, with the Scout FTR1200 Custom able to enter the newly created Factory Class. In this Factory Class, motorcycles must be four-stroke (air or water cooled) and there is no limit regarding the engine capacity providing that the tuned bike does not exceed a specific power-to-weight ratio. Bikes in the Factory Class can either be customised by private workshops or can be entered by a manufacturer as an ‘in house’ custom built racer. Grant Bester, VP and General Manager for Indian in EMEA says he is thrilled to be able to bring the FTR1200 Custom back over in to Europe. “We’ve been overwhelmed by the response to this bike, so to finally be able to let people see and hear it race in the Sultans of Sprint really excites everyone working at Indian,” he says. “We’ll be racing it in four key countries, Italy, Belgium, Germany and France, and we cannot wait to see people’s reactions when they see this sprint race.” You’ll be able to see the FTR1200 Custom in action at The Reunion event in Italy in May, followed by Biker’s Classics in Spa in July, then Glemseck in early September and finally the Dandy Riders festival in France in late September. Indian also plans to have the bike on static display in the UK at The Bike Shed and during Wheels & Waves in France. Sultans of Sprint founder, Sébastian Lorentz says: “I am very excited to welcome Indian Motorcycle in the Sultans of Sprint challenge within the new FACTORY CLASS that we have just launched this season. I think that the combination of sprint racing and creativity is a perfect match between Indian Motorcycle and Sultans of Sprint. We are super happy to have the Indian Motorcycle team with the race number #12 which will be added on the Indian FTR1200 to compete for this season. This custom bike is really a show stopper and I am sure it will be exciting to watch on our 1/8-mile races all over Europe this summer.” Race 1 at The Reunion, Monza, Italy, 19th to 20th May Race 2 at Bikers Classic, Spa, Belgium, 30th June to 1st July Race 3 at Glemseck, Germany, 30th August to 2nd September Race 4 at Dandy Rider’s Festival, 22nd to 24th September The FTR1200 Custom will also make an appearance at the Bike Shed and the Wheel & Waves festival.
This is fantastic news and will be great for international exposure. The FTR1200 and any smaller engine variants that eventually stem from it are exactly what the European motorcycle industry wants to see from an American manufacturer, show them that it's a performer! I wonder who the pilot will be.
Surely there's a production bike in the wings here,.....be it 750 or 1200 cc's ,......or both!,.......I feel all this is a buildup to a big release at some point,.....can't wait!
This is terrific! I can't help but feel there is an FTR1200 model in the wings for perhaps a summer release?
If it isn't announced at Sturgis I will be blown away, it would be a huge missed opportunity for critical mass media coverage. With the media boost that the FTR1200 will be getting from this Sultans of Spring event, on top of the current Heroes of the FTR video series, AND the peak of the 2018 AFT season, the hype will be at an all-time high this summer.
Found some info on the Sultans of Sprint website regarding the competitors. Looks like Indian will be competing against BMW (nineT or R1200R), Triumph (Thruxton or Bobber), and Yamaha (XSR700 or MT-07). So stoked.
Okay, allow me to get WAY ahead of myself, it's time for a bit of bench racing. Just finished doing the math for each bike in the competition, assuming each manufacturer is going to choose the faster of their two models: 2019 (please) Indian FTR1200 Wet Weight: 427 lbs Horsepower (wheel): 98.4 hp @ 7,640 RPM lbs/hp: 4.4:1 Torque (wheel): 76.6 ft/lbs @ 5,720 RPM Final Drive: Chain Note: The FTR1200 prototype is already fitted intake and pipe mods as it is not a production model. 2018 BMW R1200R Wet Weight: 508 lbs Horsepower (crank): 125 hp @ 7,750 RPM Horsepower (wheel @ 15% drive loss): 106.25 hp @ 7,750 RPM lbs/hp: 4.78:1 Torque (crank): 92 ft/lbs @ 6,500 RPM Torque (wheel estimate @ 15% drive loss): 78.2 ft/lbs @ 6,500 RPM Final Drive: Shaft Note: 15% drive loss is generous for shaft drive, most people seem to suggest 20%. 2018 Triumph Thruxton 1200 R Wet Weight: 454 lbs Horsepower (crank): 97 hp @ 6,750 RPM Horsepower (wheel @ 15% drive loss): 82.45 hp @ 6,750 RPM lbs/hp: 5.5:1 Torque (crank): 82.6 ft/lbs @ 4,950 RPM Torque (wheel estimate @ 15% drive loss): 70.21 ft/lbs @ 4,950 RPM Final Drive: Chain 2018 Yamaha MT-07 Wet Weight: 403 lbs Horsepower (wheel): 73.7 hp @ 9,000 RPM lbs/hp: 5.46:1 Torque (wheel): 50 ft/lbs @ 6,500 RPM Final Drive: Chain It's no surprise that the FTR1200 comes out on top as it is not a production model and isn't weighed down (literally) by EPA standards. We can assume that every one of these manufacturers will do as much weight shaving as possible to improve their performance. The R1200R, even in its production form, is already quite close to the FTR1200 in terms of power to weight ratio, so modified we can bet that it'll be a tough competitor, the Triumph and Yamaha (why the hell aren't they using the MT-09?) are far enough behind that there's not much to worry about. Hopefully the FTR1200's slightly lower power band relative to the R1200R will give it an edge in a drag race, though it can also be assumed each manufacturer will be tuning specifically for the race. My uneducated and premature prediction is that it'll come down to Indian vs. BMW and will ultimately be won by the skill of the chosen rider rather than the bike. Wouldn't it be grand if Indian whoops BMW in a drag race right after stealing their lead motorcycle designer? Talk about insult to injury. If BMW walks away with the win I might have to re-position my HP4 poster above my Indian Motorcycle Racing flag.
I wouldn't place the BMW in second place with the shaft-drive and 500lb plus weight. How much weight can they take off it without violating the hp/wt limit? I'd think it would absolutely lose time on the turns.
I haven't found any data on the actual power to weight ratio limit but based on the specs above I'm assuming it's 4:1 which would explain the absence of the S1000R, MT-09, and Street Triple. As for turns, are there any? I was under the assumption that Sultans of Sprint is only 1/8th mile drag racing, though I'm still reading into it.
I'm stoked that it's drag racing rather than flat track, even though it's a tracker at heart. Most young naked/sport riders that I've met are equally as eager to bench race as I am. When the FTR1200 does hit the market Indian is going to need these wins to wave in the face of MT-07, GSX-750, CB650F, Duke 690, and R1200R etc fans. Style will sell it to the Scrambler crowd, but it's fighting an uphill battle against the naked crowd who find its cruiser-style v-twin borderline insulting to their class.
Relax gentlemen, all Indian has to do is successfully defeat an already well established decade old motorcycle with their brand new uninitiated motorcycle in BMW's home turf, no sweat. Until then, all is well in Epoch's entryway.