nationwide. The racebikes may look like those you see on showroom floors, but they’ re highly modified, achieving speeds up to 185 mph and lean angles up to 55 degrees( compared to 32 degrees for a stock bagger).
KOTB has been wildly popular, and the Harley / Indian rivalry over the past five seasons has been titfor- tat. The championship winner has alternated every year, with Harley earning three titles( 2021, 2023, and 2025) and Indian earning two( 2022 and 2024). In classic“ win on Sunday, sell on Monday” fashion, Harley and Indian invest heavily in KOTB because they hope to sell more motorcycles to people like us.
In 2023, we compared the Harley- Davidson Road Glide and the Indian Challenger during a ride to Laguna Seca to watch the KOTB races( Sept. 2023 issue and on AmericanRider. com). The Challenger won by decision due to its superior engine performance, ride quality, comfort, wind protection, and standard features.
For KOTB racing, Harley and Indian run baggers with frame- mounted fairings, but in terms of retail sales, their baggers with handlebar- mounted fairings – Harley’ s Street Glide and Indian’ s Chieftain – are more popular. For 2025, Indian introduced the Chieftain PowerPlus, a
Left: Both the Harley and Indian have comfortable seating positions with floorboards, but the Indian is longer and has a more spacious cockpit. Below: For bikes that weigh more than 800 lb, both comport themselves well on curvy backroads and cornering clearance is rarely an issue.
12 | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2025 | AMERICANRIDER. COM