A national roadshow of pre-production Indian FTR 1200 models has been deemed a success with “a number of $1000 deposits” being taken.

The pre-production models have been on show at various Indian dealers over the past month.

Indian Motorcycle marketing boss Christopher Gale says the roadshow was a success with “showrooms full of people at each event”.

The FTR 1200 will come to Australia in a basic black model for $20,995 ride away and the FTR 1200 S in red and grey or titanium and black for $22,995.

It will also be available in a Race-Replica paint scheme with red frame matching the FTR750 race bike starting at $23,995 ride away in Australia.

“We have received deposits for all models but the Race Replica has been the most popular as it most closely represents the FTR750 (race bike),” Christopher says.

There will also be several factory accessory packs available to turn the bike into a tourer, tracker, sports bike or an off-roader rally bike as shown in this video.

Refundable deposits

The FTR 1200 was deemed Motorbike Writer readers’ most anticipated 2019 model, according to last year’s readership figures.

We spoke with one enthusiastic Brisbane rider who has paid his $1000 deposit and has been told to expect to pick up his bike somewhere between July and September, “subject to a test ride”.

Christopher says all deposits are fully refundable.

Despite a recent fire in the factory’s paint department, there have been no holdups with production, he says.

More FTR models could also be on the way with a leaked brochure showing a Tracker, Street, Adventure under the name Apollo which is apparently an internal name given to the FTR family.

According to the leaked brochure, the Tracker will be released this year, followed by the Street in 2020 and the Adventure in 2021.

Indian sales

Meanwhile, Polaris has released its first quarter results showing a 10% decrease in motorcycle sales, although that also includes the three-wheeler Slingshot.

They say Indian sales held firm and gained some market share.

The company claimed results were affected by “challenging weather, continued weak market trends, and increased competitive promotional spending”.

International sales were down 4% on, but up about 3% excluding the impact of currency exchange.

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com

Indian Motorcycle looks set to surprise with several new Apollo variants of its popular FTR 1200 (pictured above), as well as a new Raptor tourer and dark versions of its Scout range.

Two images have been sent to Motorbike Writer that seem to come from brochures that show the FTR 1200 Apollo Tracker, Street and Adventure models, the Raptor tourer and a MiniBall version of the Scout.

We can’t reveal who sent the images to us.

Indian Apollo

The big surprise is the Apollo model line-up which appears to be more variants of the FTR 1200 with its 90kW (120hp) 1203cc liquid-cooled V-twin.

The Apollo range includes a Tracker to be released this year, followed by the Street in 2020 and the Adventure in 2021.

Currently the FTR 1200 range consists of the basic model in black for $20,995 ride away and the FTR 1200 S in red and grey or titanium and black for $22,995 in June. A Race-Replica paint scheme with red frame will follow at $23,995.

Indian has also released a variety of accessories packs called Tracker, Rally, Sport, and Tour.

Now it seems the Tracker pack will become the Tracker model this year, the Rally will become the Adventure and probably the Sport will be the Street.

What we can’t work out is why the new FTR 1200 models are called Apollo.

Indian Raptor

Last week we posted the above spy photo of the front half of a fixed-fairing Indian tourer which seems to suggest they would challenge the Harley-Davidson Road Glide.

Indian Motorcycle asked many websites to remove the spy photos of the then-unnamed tourer which only gave more credence to the rumour.

Now a full-length photo of the bike has been supplied.

We thought the tourer could be named after one of the trademarks Indian’s recently for: “Indian Renegade”, “Indian Raven” and “Indian Challenger”.

However, the new brochure images seems to show that it will be called Raptor and will be powered by a 90kW (120hp) liquid-cooled 1770cc engine.

It is believed the quad-valve engine was originally developed as the Victory Freedom V2 before Polaris axed the brand in 2017.

According to the images, the bike will be released in August this year.

Scout MiniBall

The brochure image is cut off and doesn’t provide full info on the Scout MiniBall, so we can only surmise.

We can see the word “Ball” which appears to be part of a bigger name, plus “MiniBall”.

Victory used to have 8-Ball models which were black versions, like a black eight ball in pool.

So we may assume these are blacked-out versions of the Scout.

We suspect there is an 8Ball version of the 1133cc Scout and the MiniBall is the blacked-out version of the 999cc Scout Sixty which we don’t get in Australia anymore.

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com