RSD’S FTR 1200 RACER
ISSUE 6
2018
HOTBIKE.COM
CONTENTS
30
ISSUE 6 - 2018
DEPARTMENTS Two Cents ..........................................................8 Candy Shop .....................................................10 Shop Crawl ...................................................... 12 Closet ................................................................20 Geeked ............................................................. 24 Roundup .......................................................... 26 Used and Abused.........................................84 Hotness ............................................................90
FEATURES RSD’s NEW SUPER HOOLIGAN Roland Sands Design’s FTR 1200 Dirt-Track Racer ............................................ 30
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A TREAT FOR THE STREETS Klock Werks’ Pumpkin Spice Flavored Vicla .................................................38
PROJECT #M8FXR The Cop Bike for the Ages .........................44
H-D 115TH Mayhem in Milwaukee ................................. 50
FIRST RIDE: HARLEY/INDIAN 2019 LINEUP Comparing Indian Motorcycle and Harley-Davidson’s 2019 Models ...............58
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TECH NESS’D-UP ROLLERS Arlen Ness Procross Wheels Installed on Our 2018 Indian Chieftain Classic .......... 78
CUSHION FOR THE PUSHIN’ Custom-Seat Maker Danny Gray Teams Up with Airhawk for a New Level of Comfort and Style ....................................... 82
78 ON THE COVER Roland Sands Design updates its Super Hooligan stable with Indian Motorcycle’s latest tracker, the FTR 1200. And Hot Bike gets the exclusive. COVER PHOTO: JEFF ALLEN
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ROLAND SANDS DESIGN’S FTR 1200 DIRT-TRACK RACER WORDS: JORDAN MASTAGNI PHOTOS: JEFF ALLEN
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ow do you transform Indian’s recently released factory street tracker, the FTR 1200, into a track-ready dirt-spewing racebike? You turn to the king of road bikes on the flat track, the super hooligan himself, Roland Sands. Inspired by the FTR750, which has dominated the American Flat Track Twins class since its release, the FTR 1200 was developed for the street, yet it evokes a certain emotional response all race enthusiasts can identify with. Finally a legitimate production street tracker is well within grasp for consumers. It hits the nail on the proverbial head in terms of styling, and the specs say it has the performance to back it up. And the $12,999 to $14,999 price point is very attainable for consumers. A proper chassis with steel trellis frame, quality suspension, stylish 19-inch front and 18-inch rear wheels, and DOT dirt-track-style tires all come equipped on the factory FTR 1200. Out of the gate, the bike has the chops
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to snatch the checkered flag come run-what-you-brung speedway weekend. But it has so much more potential. No stranger to podiums, Roland Sands Design wanted more out of the stock Indian Scouts it had previously converted into hooligan racers. RSD morphed the Indian Scout platform to unparalleled levels in creating race-ready motorcycles, but things change. Time begets improvements. And now that the FTR 1200 is out, RSD is moving forward in sync. “This bike has definitely been a long time coming. No matter what, it’s a fast street bike. So we are taking a fast street bike and turning it into a flat tracker. It’s definitely a different thought process than taking a Sportster or a Scout and turning it into a flat-track bike though,” says Roland Sands. Because the FTR 1200 is already faster than the Scout, the RSD team had to adjust its approach to make just the right tweaks to handle the added ponies (120 hp stock, to be exact), and maybe even “de-tune” the bike to perform more adequately around the oval tracks.
OPPOSITE Roland gettin’ it on the track at Blackmore Ranch, an undisclosed location only certain folks have access to. LEFT One of RSD’s carbontipped stainless mufflers was stuffed onto the factory stainless headers. BELOW RSD’s FTR 1200 Super Hooligan, which looks fast as hell standing still, was tested for the first time during this shoot.
“This is a cool bike. Seeing the transformation the last couple of weeks that we made into a Hooligan bike really kind of—yeah, it was a street tracker to begin with, but to turn it into a real dirt-track bike was a task. But I think the bike accepts it really well. I mean, it’s a ripper. It just does all the stuff you want a motorcycle to do. It’s the first American motorcycle to cross over to that performance platform in a really well-engineered bike. It’s a neat thing,” Roland says. So where do you start? How do you begin the conversion process from legal street bike to full-on dirt-track racer? “The one thing that we started out with for sure was doing the offset triple clamps, and doing the adjustable triple so we could modify it a little bit. But that just gives us a lot more steering. More lock-to-lock means that if you do get the thing out of shape, it isn’t going to hit the lock. It’d spit you over the top, which is really important with this bike,” Roland says.
Roland Sands Design project manager Cameron Brewer explains how much more involved the street-to-dirt-tracker transformation process was. “Well, it’s a whole different platform, right? Similar engine package, but at the same time, completely different. It’s got new cases; it’s got dual throttle body. It’s got a bunch of stuff they pulled from racing on the FTR750 and the Pikes Peak bike we built. We run individual throttle bodies and dual intake runners. A lot of the stuff helps deliver real smooth power off the front and back cylinders. You can adjust them individually that way too, which helps with tuning, and with real smooth power delivery, which is kind of key,” Cameron says. “The FTR 1200 is basically a completely new bike. It might have the same crankshaft, but it’s got new cylinders, new heads, new cases. They took a bunch of weight out of the motor compared to the Scout, which was good. It’s got a trellis steel frame now, which should add some more flex to it, which is good. You want ISSUE 6
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