Indian's muscled-up, flat-track-inspired streetbike will have a chance to prove its mettle on the dirt ovals at the Wheels & Waves Festival in France next month, so S&S Cycle has prepared two race bikes that take the FTR1200 back to its stripped-back, high-piped roots.
The first difference you'll notice is the high twin 2-into-2 exhaust system and absent front brakes – they're not needed for this kind of racing. Suspension has been stiffened up with adjustable inverted cartridge forks and a Fox racing monoshock, and the wheels have been replaced with 19-inch Roland Sands Design units.
To help it turn in quicker despite those bigger gyroscopes, the team has replaced the FTR's triple clamps with billet S&S units that can accept neck cups to steepen the angle of the forks by some two degrees. That, in conjunction with a shorter swingarm, reduces the wheelbase by nearly 10 cm (4 in), as well as quickening the steering.
The shorter swingarm and larger wheel would bang into the underseat fuel tank, so S&S has replaced the tank with a smaller racing version. Likewise, the steeper swingarm and bigger front wheel leave no room for the oil cooler, battery, starter solenoid and voltage regulator, which have been relocated away from their positions behind the front wheel.
The handlebars no longer need to fit through gaps in traffic, so S&S has fitted big wide ones that also come in closer to the rider, changing the riding position to something more elbows up and out. The footpegs are repositioned for better clearance at lean, and there's a new subframe with a lightweight lithium battery and carbon tail. The headlight's gone too, replaced by a nice flat race plate.
Mind you, it still looks a fair bit like the production – a bit of a cross between the FTR1200 and its FTR750 flat track racing brother. The two FTR Hooligans will hit the dirt with Lee Kirkpatrick and Leah Tokelove at Wheels & Waves in Biarritz, close to the Spanish border in the south of France on June 15.
Source: Indian Motorcycle