By Dave Carr
As the clubs unofficial “Guzzi Guy” I have deviated in the past with Triumphs, Indians and Hondas. Since there are no Guzzi-related events this month, I was encouraged to write an article on all things “motorcycle related”.
With that in mind I will describe my time with the 2019 Indian FTR1200S. This bike sports a 1203 cc, liquid-cooled, 60° V-twin, DOHC, 4 valves per cylinder, 123 horsepower, 87 ft-lb peak torque.
The Pros:
It’s a very fun bike to ride, looks great w/excellent fit and finish, fast off the line and very smooth. It handles great, and is easy to work on. Indian actually has a website you sign onto, enter the VIN# and it can tell you info on the bike. You can also do limited updates by downloading information to a flash drive, insert the drive in the bike and see it cycle through for updates. It also lists any fault codes that may be present.
Some Cons:
The tank is only 3.4 gallons and when you ride a lot (I work in CT and ride every weekend) I was re-fueling 3-4 times a week. If you’re somewhat conservative with your right hand, you can do 150 miles on a tank but throw in city driving, curvy back roads and its 125. As a comparison, my Moto Guzzi V85TT can average 300-330 miles on a tank. Also, the foot pegs are set somewhat high and rear set so if you suffer from long legs (34″ or so) some adjustments need to be made. I did add lowered pegs but that threw off the foot position to the shift and brake lever so I had to add a lengthy lag bolt to make up the difference to shift and brake comfortably. I also added a gel seat pad which also helped. If money were no object, I’d add one of these as my 3rd bike for Sunday AM rides on back roads, and to the Bean. Lastly, Indian sells lots of accessories but they include how to videos with an Indian tech showing you how to do them, tools required, etc.
For those still riding, be safe and watch out for wet leaves!
