Why did you buy this bike?

R. Warshawsky

Active member
I put a deposit “sight unseen” on a black base model FTR in the fall of 2018. When I saw the Akrapovic cans and red frame on the Race Replica compared to the ugly base model exhaust - I upgraded my order. Owners change exhaust systems on their FTRs for many reasons. In my opinion the original low mount Akrapovic cans look better than most of the aftermarket products I’ve seen on FTRs.
TOCE is the undisputed performance exhaust upgrade, but not everyone likes the way it looks.
Or sounds...loud...
 

northwind

New member
I'd ridden nothing but Kawasaki cruisers for 10 years, wanted something quicker and more tossable but not a full on sport bike. Options were the Honda CB1000R, Harley Sportster S, or the FTR. I got on the FTR first and didn't bother with the others.
 

Stuck86

New member
I chose the FTR because of the test ride, simple as that.
I had a cb400/four at the time and just handed back a long term loaner Hayabusa that I had repaired. I could only have one bike so needed a tick all boxes type of a bike. The Honda was cramped and didn't give the same thrill it used to after the Busa (which would have killed me or sent me to jail). I had test rode a few bikes: MT10, 959, desert sled, africa twin yada yada and nothing really caught my attention. I test rode the FTR on a wet and miserable Scottish day and had the best fun on a bike that I can remember with the tail sliding out all over the place and the noise, ah the noise. After that my mind was made up and I was selling the Honda.

I have found the "foibles" of the FTR part of its charm and like reading the forums and tinkering with it to get it to how I like it in the moment. I have tall screens and pannier and top box for when I want to travel and I have the tools to remove them when I'm not going anywhere far and want to blast around the twisties. Its not perfect at any particular genre of biking, but it is perfect for having a good time, which is what I think biking is all about really.
 

MacBayne

Active member
I went to the dealer to inquire about the KTM Super Duke GT. Sales said KTM weren't importing them to Canada. I saw the FTR on the way out and fell in love. I've ridden nothing but SS on the street and wanted a more "grown-up" bike, but no too much. It was perfect. The only things that I have added are luggage racks and a windshield. The only component I will change is the springs for my weight, this winter. I'm not even changing a lever. THis bike was made for me.
 

Indian Jim

New member
After having all types of bikes the Honda CBX was my first street bike at 20 years old. I got rid of BMW K1600 GTL for my Indian. Bottom line is I went to a BMW rally and at the hotel everyone was grabbing their gear of the bikes and hauling it to the room. For me I had to get a bell cart to hold all the stuff from the BMW and the same when I loaded it to leave. I just thought how much fun I could have not worrying about all that stuff. Mission accomplished. When I rode my FTR I found there was no place to put anything. I did buy a small bag and it works fine. Out of all my bikes the Hayabusa, Interceptor, CBX and BMW GS / K1600 were my favs but the FTR keeps me from running at hyper speed and gives me that 0 to 100 pull that equals the fastest of my other bikes. Love the 2nd gear power wheelies and I am a MX guy that loves to slide which this bike does perfectly. Also it makes me feel good when I see it, that feeling is worth the price of admission. I do want to delete the cat and keep the slipons to get a little more sound from the exhaust and that will be it. I too have had fastners fail and agree the quality is bad. Hope someone puts together a bolt kit soon. So V Twin quirkiness, the fact you need to use Loctite on everything, I love this bike and hope to do many point and shoot rides while always looking for dirt to get into. thumbnail.jpeg
 

broncoguy27

Active member
Hi all, please don't flame me for this, and I understand that I may be labouring the point now - but why did some of you choose this motorcycle? I'm utterly bemused. I genuinely don't understand.

We have threads on windshields, luggage, fenders, comfortable seats, phone holders and USB connections, raised handlebars, back pain, posture, ergonomics, practical tyres...and yes apple car play, but very little about flat track racing. It's an Indian FTR 1200 - supposedly a road going flat track racer. The clue lies in the 'FTR' moniker. I'm increasingly perplexed by some of the threads on this forum. Why did many of you people purchase this motorcycle? Last year, I started a thread about the things I don't like about the FTR -yeah,, I hate the stupid TV screen, the gold forks and the ridiculous grandad handlebars - but largely the fact that it didn't even vaguely resemble the deceptive factory pre-launch hype and what lumbered out of Spirit Lake was an utter monstrosity. I was amazed to be greeted by responses like "a single rotor wouldn't have sold" (yeah, thanks for that) or "sounds as though you bought the wrong bike" - coming from someone that was discussing backrests. :LOL: I can reference the post if you wish.

I've spent in the region of three grand, removing, revising and stripping the abortion that was the 2019 FTR...solely because I love motorcycle racing, and I have always held that the best and most entertaining GP racers came from the grit. I wanted a FLAT TRACK RACER - (excuse the caps), is that unreasonable? I think it's about there, but I've only just begun. No one one this forum has actually questioned why Indian sells a 'tracker conversion/accessory kit' on what is supposed to be a flat track motorcycle! 😆🤣

The beauty of this bike is that it's timeless, ageless and enduring. Couldn't give two shits about the '22..a '24...a 26 a '28 or a '30. I bought the original and it had a 19" on the front...so bollocks!

I want a spartan, pristine raw unforgiving motorbike because,correct me if I'm wrong - top box aside, that's what an FTR should be. In all honesty, no disrespect to anyone that disagrees, but if you want to tour, you want comfort, you want luggage, you want range, you want entertainment, you want practicality? fair play...then as emasculated and compromised as Indian's final offer was, why the fuck did you choose this motorcycle??? This forum increasingly reads like a Honda Goldwing site, yet the owner is clearly a very knowledgeable but affable laddo/petrolhead completely into the hooligan pedigree of this beast.

Again, please, no indignant replies. I understand, this bike is "whatever you want it to be", you've explained that to me.- providing you ignore the 'FTR' bit. I am actually at the point of questioning whether some folk that buy this actually understand what that means? The most savage and uncompromising motorcycle I have ever owned was the RG500 Gamma. A 2T racer for the street. Imagine if the internet existed in the 80s and forum members were discussing fuel consumption, comfort, saddlebags, seats, backrests and practical screens?

Please - no negative comments. The advice and technical support on Mike's forum is a Godsend and I'm honestly a massive beneficiary of that and the first to concede when I'm wrong. Am I mistaken here? Please don't begrudge me posting this because I'm genuinely bewildered by some of the threads I'm reading. The question has to be asked - and surely, that's what a forum is all about - debate. Motorcycles are irrational, irresponsible, dysfunctional, uncomfortable, uncompromising, antisocial...so why the fuck did some of you buy this bike? (No offence - and if any is taken, I'll gladly leave this forum - which will probably be a relief to many)

This...

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🤨

God bless @Charliemurphay for choosing form over function. Good lad.
I just bought an almost new 2019, I am never going to race it, I am going to get on it and ride it. I travel for a living and have little kids so my touring days are probably behind me. I want a phone holder on the bike because that way I can see my gps. Shockingly enough, some of us like to know where we are going without having to memorize a map. I'm going to have some sort of bag on the bike so I can take it to the store and get a gallon of milk or butter or whatever. If I don't have that, I just cut my riding down by 75%. In the off chance I get to take off for a day of riding, the Bluetooth Link with my phone allows me to listen to music and keeps me available if my wife has an emergency with the kids, and we are back to the gps.
I was attracted to the bike initially because it's a basic, down to Earth (just a F*cking motorcycle) in appearance, but has things like cruise control that make it a bit easier to do long days on. I am not going to race on a flat track or otherwise, and having a beautiful bike that looks pretty unique and has some modern touches to make it more rideable is a lot more important to me and then buying something that would enable me to pretend I was a racer.
 

DJ121

Member
Sir, I have a few thoughts on this: 1. I don't like a lot of frills on my bikes either, I've never had a bike with a windshield before or bags etc, and I may never have one. I fell in love with the 2019 FTR Race edition or S model or whatever it was called, it was stunning to me, who love MotoGP/MotoAmerica road racing and track days and knows and cares anything about flat track, no offense to anyone. The 2022 FTR Carbon was an even better manifestation of what I was looking for, so I sold my more powerful, faster SuperDuke 1290R for this Amazing FTR. 2. What you must understand is that Indian is in the business of selling as many motorcycles as they can against a behemoth named HD, and so they've created various FTRs for various customers, there isn't "One FTR for All", so in order to sell more, they have some models that are more "Flat Track Like" that you can customize or de-customize yours the rest of the way to your liking just as every HD owner has done throughout time. 3. As I've said on this forum before, even though I see plenty of paint schemes, mods, add-ons on this forum that I would never do to my bike, but that doesn't mean it's not cool. I use the Example of an "Indian FTR Bike Night" at the local Sonic, how not awesome would it be to show up there and see 50 to 75 FTR's that look EXACTLY like mine? not cool, showing up and seeing a diversity of FTRs and the personalities of their owners, that's cool, that's humanity, we're all different, and isn't that grand :)
 

DJ121

Member
After having all types of bikes the Honda CBX was my first street bike at 20 years old. I got rid of BMW K1600 GTL for my Indian. Bottom line is I went to a BMW rally and at the hotel everyone was grabbing their gear of the bikes and hauling it to the room. For me I had to get a bell cart to hold all the stuff from the BMW and the same when I loaded it to leave. I just thought how much fun I could have not worrying about all that stuff. Mission accomplished. When I rode my FTR I found there was no place to put anything. I did buy a small bag and it works fine. Out of all my bikes the Hayabusa, Interceptor, CBX and BMW GS / K1600 were my favs but the FTR keeps me from running at hyper speed and gives me that 0 to 100 pull that equals the fastest of my other bikes. Love the 2nd gear power wheelies and I am a MX guy that loves to slide which this bike does perfectly. Also it makes me feel good when I see it, that feeling is worth the price of admission. I do want to delete the cat and keep the slipons to get a little more sound from the exhaust and that will be it. I too have had fastners fail and agree the quality is bad. Hope someone puts together a bolt kit soon. So V Twin quirkiness, the fact you need to use Loctite on everything, I love this bike and hope to do many point and shoot rides while always looking for dirt to get into. View attachment 7032
Awesome!
 

broncoguy27

Active member
Sir, I have a few thoughts on this: 1. I don't like a lot of frills on my bikes either, I've never had a bike with a windshield before or bags etc, and I may never have one. I fell in love with the 2019 FTR Race edition or S model or whatever it was called, it was stunning to me, who love MotoGP/MotoAmerica road racing and track days and knows and cares anything about flat track, no offense to anyone. The 2022 FTR Carbon was an even better manifestation of what I was looking for, so I sold my more powerful, faster SuperDuke 1290R for this Amazing FTR. 2. What you must understand is that Indian is in the business of selling as many motorcycles as they can against a behemoth named HD, and so they've created various FTRs for various customers, there isn't "One FTR for All", so in order to sell more, they have some models that are more "Flat Track Like" that you can customize or de-customize yours the rest of the way to your liking just as every HD owner has done throughout time. 3. As I've said on this forum before, even though I see plenty of paint schemes, mods, add-ons on this forum that I would never do to my bike, but that doesn't mean it's not cool. I use the Example of an "Indian FTR Bike Night" at the local Sonic, how not awesome would it be to show up there and see 50 to 75 FTR's that look EXACTLY like mine? not cool, showing up and seeing a diversity of FTRs and the personalities of their owners, that's cool, that's humanity, we're all different, and isn't that grand :)
What's really funny about this whole discussion is the person saying everybody is nuts to modify their bike and why would they own it if they had to modify it has admitted that he has spent over three grand on modifications.
The featuring the bike because it's not close enough to being a strictly dirt track racer doesn't make a ton of sense to me.
Just because you're modifying something in a way that makes no sense to me doesn't mean it's wrong. My niece and her husband modified Honda rebel 250s into full long range touring bikes and toures the western third of the US on them. In my wildest nightmares, that would not have been my choice. Great little bike but not a 600 mile a day machine
 

DJ121

Member
I started off racing flattrack in the Super Hooligan national series on a Harley. Did that for a few years and even managed to make my way to competing in the X-Games. The Harleys were a close match to the Scouts that Roland was putting out at the time, as long as you had a 1250 kit, cams, and some head work. Once the FTR's and the KTM 890's started competing, the Harley was not a competitive bike anymore. I wanted an FTR but couldn't bring myself to racing and crashing a bike that expensive. Once the series moved to asphalt, I was no longer interested in competing. I still wanted an FTR, but now my focus shifted to a bike that was still "hooligan" but street legal. With my racing days behind me, I wanted something that I could legally ride on the road, but still somewhat looked the part and was fun. The FTR fills that niche for me.
Total badass!
 

DJ121

Member
Phaedra's was super helpful to me when I had my XR, still miss it :)
Phaedrus? He was king of the xr1200 page for a long time.

And I bought mine because it looked good in the garage next to my xr1200. But they had me with the frame. Takes me back to the 5 Ducatis I have owned.Phae
 

nailbeater

Member
I bought mine because I thought it was the most beautiful bike I had ever seen. 2019 Race Replica. I am completely in love with this bike. It seems angry. I have changed some things to accommodate what I like. And personally I will never sell this.
 

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nailbeater

Member
Sir, I have a few thoughts on this: 1. I don't like a lot of frills on my bikes either, I've never had a bike with a windshield before or bags etc, and I may never have one. I fell in love with the 2019 FTR Race edition or S model or whatever it was called, it was stunning to me, who love MotoGP/MotoAmerica road racing and track days and knows and cares anything about flat track, no offense to anyone. The 2022 FTR Carbon was an even better manifestation of what I was looking for, so I sold my more powerful, faster SuperDuke 1290R for this Amazing FTR. 2. What you must understand is that Indian is in the business of selling as many motorcycles as they can against a behemoth named HD, and so they've created various FTRs for various customers, there isn't "One FTR for All", so in order to sell more, they have some models that are more "Flat Track Like" that you can customize or de-customize yours the rest of the way to your liking just as every HD owner has done throughout time. 3. As I've said on this forum before, even though I see plenty of paint schemes, mods, add-ons on this forum that I would never do to my bike, but that doesn't mean it's not cool. I use the Example of an "Indian FTR Bike Night" at the local Sonic, how not awesome would it be to show up there and see 50 to 75 FTR's that look EXACTLY like mine? not cool, showing up and seeing a diversity of FTRs and the personalities of their owners, that's cool, that's humanity, we're all different, and isn't that grand :)
I have not seen another FTR In the wild at all. Except when I met fellow riders of the FTR For the Springfield mile flat track race In Illinois. We had A-blast and I love the fact that there is not another one anywhere near me. Except if I'm speeding excessively and the police get behind me it'll be pretty easy to find me. Just kidding. Love the FTR. Love my fellow FTR owners.
 

broncoguy27

Active member
I have not seen another FTR In the wild at all. Except when I met fellow riders of the FTR For the Springfield mile flat track race In Illinois. We had A-blast and I love the fact that there is not another one anywhere near me. Except if I'm speeding excessively and the police get behind me it'll be pretty easy to find me. Just kidding. Love the FTR. Love my fellow FTR owners.
I owned a bunch of naked bikes, I had an s1000xr, which because of where it makes power, was the least favorite bike Ive owned recently. My least favorite ever was a concours 1000.
II owned a bunch of sport tours, from an ST1100 to a k 1600. Unless I get a flat, concrete place to turn a bike around, I'm done with big heavy bikes.
I'm also done with needing 180 horse I believe. The thing with the FTR is it seems like it's enough, it's enough power, it's enough comfort, and visually it's stunning.
 

nailbeater

Member
I owned a bunch of naked bikes, I had an s1000xr, which because of where it makes power, was the least favorite bike Ive owned recently. My least favorite ever was a concours 1000.
II owned a bunch of sport tours, from an ST1100 to a k 1600. Unless I get a flat, concrete place to turn a bike around, I'm done with big heavy bikes.
I'm also done with needing 180 horse I believe. The thing with the FTR is it seems like it's enough, it's enough power, it's enough comfort, and visually it's stunning.
Absolutely
 
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