In spite of the monstrosity that lumbered out of Spirit Lake following all the tantalising hype with the project bike, (I still think that stock the 19 FTR is a candidate for one of the ugliest motorcycles that I've ever seen and biggest disappointments to come out of a factory). In spite of being one of the worst fuelled bikes to ever splutter out of a showroom. In spite of the cold start issues and the cut outs that contrived to try and claim my life. In spite of the countless coin that I've had to throw at it to get it to run right and even vaguely resemble the flat track motorcycle that Indian purported it to be. In spite of the laughably low range and the eye watering fuel consumption. In spite of the stupid TV sized TFT display that ruins the front end. In spite of the shite customer experience offered by Indian and the exorbitant pricing for spares...
This is without doubt the most fun I've had on a motorcycle since I learnt to ride my first bike, a Yamaha DT 175 on the dirt. And this is the best bike I've owned since my RD350LC. Every day, feels like the first one - the anticipation and the thrill of riding it. The novelty never wears of. It's as though I've just collected it from the dealer. I love the fact that it's a challenging, temperamental, crotchety bitch...feed it what it demands, learn to tame all this with your wrist first, not a laptop or an ECU. I adore the fact that its such a head turner, that it's so unique, inimitable and frankly...such a badass beast. As I said before, turns out, the bike that I brought home to my garage was possessed. Short of bringing in a Priest, swinging the incense burner and sprinkling it with holy water whilst reciting the Athanasian Creed and performing a three hour exorcism ritual, I opted instead for the Lloydz V6. Granted, she was replete with more issues and attitude problems than a bi-polar ex, to an extent, I genuinely like elements of unpredictability. The subsequent bench flash may have lobotomised its deranged electronic brain and sanitised this animal like shock therapy and in the process erased some of that 'character' i speak of, but its tetchiness and irritability occasionally rears its head and reminds me of the bikes I grew up riding. I absolutely love this bike.
Would I purchase another Indian? I wanted a street tracker - and I so wanted the bike that they teased and dangled in front of us in the marketing. That was the only reason I bought into the brand. We didn't get that - but as ugly as it seemed, beneath it all Indian nonetheless had created a gnarly flat track-inspired street hooligan that’s not for the faint-hearted or the inexperienced. It oozes character all of its own and the ill-mannered demeanour engineered and extracted from its flat track DNA was immediately obvious the first time I rode it. Seeing as they seem intent upon distancing themselves from that pedigree and increasingly compromise and pander to market appeal (which is understandable), the answer is no. I really don't like the post '19 incarnations of this machine and for now, I'm very happy with what I have,
