Excess baggage: MCN rides Indian’s Challenger RR – the wildest customer race bike ever made

Published: 02 July 2023 Updated: 02 July 2023

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‘You’re joking, right?” That’s the standard answer from pretty much everyone who hears about the concept of Bagger Racing. Now in its third season, however, the MotoAmerica King of the Baggers series is as serious as British Superbikes – and so are the bikes.

Don’t know what Bagger racing is? Well, instead of production-based sportsbikes, King of the Baggers sees a grid full of American V-twin cruiser-based tourers ridden by big-name racers, lock horns and bash baggage at some of the States’ most legendary tracks.

The bikes are a mix of highly modified Harley Street Glides and Indian Challengers, which have more in common with a WSB bike than they do their road-going, laid-back donors.

It started as a one-off exhibition race at Laguna Seca back in October 2020, but the sight of 15 wonderfully inappropriate machines yawing and humping down the Corkscrew thrilled the trackside crowds and blew up online, with 10 million views in a very short space of time.

By Emma Franklin

Deputy Editor - Resident two-stroke nut and fully trained journalist, Emma’s passion for motorcycling has seen her work across many of the UK’s best-loved motorcycling titles over the past 19 years, before becoming Deputy Editor on the world’s number one biking weekly in 2020. A consumer journalist at heart, she’s dedicated to cutting through marketing waffle and putting manufacturers’ claims to the test in order to get to the truth. Passionate about all levels of road racing, and a former club racer herself, she’s still very much a paddock regular through her support of partner, Bruce Dunn’s racing exploits – so if you see her at a circuit, feel free to say hello.