Indian Motorcycle last year launched their fixed-fairing, liquid-cooled Challenger bagger aimed squarely at the Harley-Davidson Road Glide.
Now, patent drawings show the new 1770cc Powerplus engine will also be fitted to more models in the range targeting Harley’s Street Glide and Ultra.
The new drawings show the “ugly” blunt nose with double headlights has been replaced with a more traditional or Harleyesque single headlight and “batwing” fairing with a large touring screen.
They also show a shorter rear fender, but no bags. However, it would be expected the bike would come in a variety of tourers and cruisers with and without panniers.
The current Challenger range consists of the Limited at $A39,995 ride away and the matte black Dark Horse at $39,995.
Features include LED headlight, 19-inch cast front wheel and 16-inch rear 7-inch touchscreen, Bluetooth, cruise control and keyless ignition.
The Limited has Smart Lean Technology with 6-axis Bosch IMU, Dynamic traction control, ABS with cornering control, and Drag Torque Control.
We expect these new Challenger models will have similar features and model designations.
Liquid cooled
They will be fitted with the same liquid-cooled 1770cc Powerplus motor which is smaller than the current 111-cube (1811cc) Thunderstroke V-twin that powers the Chief and Roadmaster models.
However, with 91kW of power (122hp) and 178Nm of torque it is more powerful than the Thunderstroke with 58kW/161Nm.
It also meets coming stringent Euro5 emissions regulations thanks to the liquid cooling.
And with lower fairings, the liquid motor’s radiator will be a little less obvious!
Even though the patent drawings were filed in 2017, they are only now publicly available.
So the production bike shouldn’t be far away!