Riding Hot Laps on Indian's Challenger Dark Horse Motorcycle

Ever wonder what it's like to manhandle a quarter-ton of American muscle? We took a spin on Indian's Challenger Dark Horse Motorcycle.

I’m chatting with King of the Baggers champion Tyler O’Hara just minutes before heading out to Chuckwalla Valley Raceway, where his race-spec Indian Challenger Dark Horse is waiting for me to climb aboard.

I’m here to run a few hot laps on the very same bike he rode to his 2022 championship title and, in this moment, there’s nothing I want more than to not be the guy who crashes a priceless piece of race equipment into a guard rail at 100mph. O’Hara is arguably the only man on the planet who can help me survive this ordeal, so naturally, I ask him for his best advice.

“That’s easy,” he says with a grin. “You have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Just leave your brain in the truck. That’s how you ride a bagger.”

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Right. Thanks. We say our goodbyes and I head out to the starting line.

It’s cold enough to have me shivering in my leathers and windy enough that my flight from Atlanta to Palm Springs couldn’t safely land at the local airport the night before. Unfortunately for me, that meant I was diverted to Los Angeles, where I got to rent a car and make the three-hour drive out to Chuckwalla the same night.

I arrived at the racetrack around 2a.m., got four hours of restless sleep, pounded two cups of weak coffee, then tugged on my gear. The only thing left to do was ride a 620-pound motorcycle with a top speed somewhere north of 150mph around a world-class grand prix track. What could possibly go wrong?

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I swing a leg over the Challenger (my first time, mind you) and immediately notice the seat sits a good 6 inches higher than it should. Even at 6’1”, I’m unable to flat-foot this hulking giant, which doesn’t bode well for my rapidly waning confidence.

I thumb the starter and the big twin snarls to life with a shotgun blast through its straight-piped S&S exhaust. Over the deafening roar, the bike beckons me menacingly: Go ahead, kid. Turn that throttle. See what happens.

As I swallow the lump in my throat, another piece of O’Hara’s sage advice pops into my head: “There’s no traction control and it’s making 150 ft-lb of torque. It’s raw. Ease into it.”

Well, here goes nothing.

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So, what’s it like to ride a true-blue King of the Baggers race bike? How can I put this delicately…

You know that feeling you get riding an angry buffalo down an escalator? Or the unease that comes with guiding a raging bull through a crowded airport? Perhaps you’re familiar with the struggle of stuffing a surly sumo wrestler into an Uber after a long night at the bar? Or maybe you’ve commuted to work on a ballistic missile?

Yeah, it’s kinda like that.

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The seat is tall, the bars are wide, and your feet ride high on the foot pegs, folding your legs up into your armpits like an erotic Thanksgiving turkey.

It’s in this position—the ‘ol “chimpanzee mounting a football” configuration—that I found myself entering the first turn of the racetrack. Things only get crazier from here.

"Just leave your brain in the truck. That’s how you ride a bagger.”

Tipping the KOTB Challenger into the corner, you can’t help but notice it’s shockingly nimble. Unlike your typical cruiser, the lightest input on the handlebars sends all 620 pounds of the bagger’s sound and fury swooping deftly toward the apex.

It feels twitchy. Nervous. Unruly. And yet in the spirit of proper Type 2 fun, you have no choice but to accept the angst and do it anyways.

There’s a reason why pros make the big bucks for whipping these land yachts around a racetrack like a scalded dog: It takes supernatural skill and courage to command a race-spec bagger, but luckily for me, a healthy dose of fear and respect was enough to get me through the first few turns.

Pulling out onto Chuckwalla’s first long straightaway, a quarter-mile stretch of uphill bliss leading into a banked righthand turn, I get my first chance to really twist the wick and see what’s hiding inside that hopped-up V-twin. The exhaust lets out a deafening boom, the rear tire briefly slides out to the left, then the quarter-ton of American muscle takes off like a runaway freight train toward the horizon.

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There’s barely enough time to catch my breath before I hit the braking zone and, lucky for me, the hodgepodge of race-spec components from Brembo, Hayes, Beringer, and Spiegler do an unbelievable job of scrubbing off speed. I squeeze hard on the lever, the bike shudders and wobbles angrily, then it’s time to start the leaning ritual all over again.

I enter the bend way too hot, giving me no choice but to trust the lukewarm tires beneath me and lean the bike over far beyond what I’m comfortable with. To my amazement, I find my knee is still nowhere even remotely close to the ground below, yet another stark reminder of just how far professional racers such as O’Hara are from weekend warriors like myself.

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For the next five laps, this dance with death continues. I push the bike as far as I dare, do everything within my power to keep the rear wheel under control, and remind myself to breathe whenever my face starts to tingle.

Like a 200-pound bull mastiff with a toddler tugging on its ears, the big Challenger tolerates me for the entire experience knowing damn well I’m simply not a threat. When my time aboard the bagger is finally over, I climb off the high saddle, give it a friendly pet, and we awkwardly part ways as I make a beeline to the pits.

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I’m thankful for the experience, and even more thankful to have survived it without soiling my leathers. In the 20 or so years I’ve been riding, I’ve never gotten off a bike and thought to myself, “I’ve had enough of that.” Guess there’s a first for everything.

I’m looking forward to watching O’Hara and his team battle it out in the 2023 season, but speaking purely from experience, I’ll be more than content to watch from the stands going forward.

Godspeed, fellas.

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By: Kurt Spurlock
Title: Riding Hot Laps on Indian's Challenger Dark Horse Motorcycle
Sourced From: www.mensjournal.com/gear/hot-laps-indian-challenger-dark-horse
Published Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2023 13:56:01 GMT

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