Indian Motorcycles unveils the 2020 Challenger     

Indian Motorcycles has unveiled the 2020 Challenger, which will be officially showcased at the 2020 EICMA show in Milan. The Challenger, as the brand has stated, has been conceived to do battle against the Harley Davidson Road Glide. And to that end, it now sports an all-new liquid-cooled ‘Powerplus’ engine which Indian states is aimed more at performance than towards simply endless cruising.

So what’s the deal with the ‘Powerplus’?

The new engine is a 60-degree V-twin that displaces 1769cc and makes 120bhp at 5500rpm and 173.5Nm of torque at 3800rpm. The engine is mated to a six-speed ’box with a slipper clutch. Additionally, to add to the daily usability aspect of the Challenger, it gets three riding modes: Sport, Standard and Rain, which is a point of similarity with its sibling, the FTR1200 which we rode recently. Also on offer is the usual complement of keyless ignition, electronic cruise control, six-axis Bosch IMU enabling Dynamic Traction Control and Drag torque control, which also endows the radially-mounted Brembo brakes with Cornering ABS.

Now, this being a bagger the saddle is a generously-padded ‘long haul’ unit, which, riders getting onto, can sample the music from the pair of 6.5-inch, 100-watt speakers which is Bluetooth enabled. Nestled below the handlebars and the classic twin-pod instrument cluster is a 7-inch navigation screen.

The Indian Challenger will be available in three variants: the Challenger, Challenger Dark Horse and Challenger Limited. Though it is unclear when it will come to our shores, once here, it will compete with the Harley Davidson Road Glide and Honda Goldwing. Prices for the Challenger in the US start at $27,499 or about Rs 19.5 lakh, before taxes.