Indian Motorcycle discontinue FTR roadster with fresh focus on baggers, tourers, and cruisers
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Riding the Indian FTR -
Indian FTR finished in black -
Indian FTR front wheel -
Indian FTR parked on a side street -
Indian FTR finished in red and white
Indian Motorcycle have confirmed that their flattrack-inspired FTR range will go off sale, with their focus now revolving around the tourer, bagger, and cruiser markets.
First launched for 2019 with a 19in front and 18in rear tyre, before moving to road-friendly 17in rims as of 2021, the 1203cc FTR family has seen multiple model variants come and go – with the bike bridging the gap between a retro and a muscley roadster.
“The FTR was an important step in our brand’s history, as we look to expand or footprint,” Indian Vice President, Aaron Jax told MCN. “What we’ve learned though is we really see significant opportunity in the cruiser, bagger, tourer space.”
In late January, the American firm announced an expansion of their water-cooled PowerPlus family, upping its capacity to 1834cc, and moving both the Chieftain and Roadmaster over from their air-cooled 1890cc Thunderstroke platform.
Indian have also upped their commitment to the King of the Baggers racing championship for 2025, drafting in World Superbike race winner Loris Baz to form a three-rider team.
“As we’re continuing to evaluate where we’re investing our dollars, we felt like it was better to spend our money here,” Jax continued. “Regulations continue to change and at certain points there are cliffs – things that drive significant investment – and the FTR was up against that, in particular in Europe.”
Like the rest of Europe, the UK moved to tougher Euro5+ emissions regulations at the beginning of 2025. Even without this change though, the VP believes they would’ve likely still reached the same outcome.
“I think we still would’ve had a tough trade-off – even if it wasn’t an EU5+ regulation requirement,” Jax explained. “Every platform requires investment – news and innovation is really the life blood of anything – so at some point we would’ve been faced with a tough decision on should we invest in FTR to do whatever was needed to make it competitive and we probably would’ve come to the same conclusion.
“Maybe in the short term the FTR would’ve lived on for years, but in the long term I think we would’ve been faced with many of the same tough decisions – even if it wasn’t regulations driven.”
