Indian PowerPlus engine breaks from U.S. bagger tradition

If you’ve avoided the “leak,” (what I suspect is a carefully curated marketing move to build interest in the brand’s products), it’s a simple concept: The Challenger is a bagger with a frame-mounted fairing. Indian has finally decided to reveal some details on the new engine powering the new motorcycle. From my desk chair, this looks to be a very, very different animal than the powerplants motivating domestic dressers at present.

Challenger, as a fixed-fairing tourer, is obviously poised to square off with Harley-Davidson’s Road Glide. The new engine is called the PowerPlus, not to be confused with the Powerplus, a flathead-powered complete motorcycle that was offered from 1916 to 1924 by Indian Motocycle, not to be confused with Indian Motorcycle, the company offering this new engine. Get it?

All joking aside, Indian has differentiated itself from Harley in what I would call a pretty meaningful way with this new bike. The PowerPlus displaces 108 cubic inches, pumping out a very healthy 122 horsepower and 128 foot-pounds of torque. Now we’re talking. (After that debacle with the hard-to-crank-up faux-flathead thing I never cared for, Indian now offers something that I am certain leaves some room for modification.)

Indian’s press release touts overhead cams, which I presume are not DOHC, but the cylinder heads are four-valve. I like this. At 108 mm bore compared with 96.5 mm of stroke, this should not be your traditional bagger engine. That’s no doubt to take full advantage of all those poppet valves.

The numbers tell an interesting story. Max power, 122 birthday-party ponies, comes on at 5,500 rpm. Redline is 6,500 rpm. Compression ratio is a very, very healthy 11:1. Liquid cooling allows that type of compression ratio without detonation. (Knock sensors help, too!) Is a liquid-cooled engine in a bagger heresy? I’m not so sure. I mean, the Scout was probably the item in Indian’s lineup that was most different from Harley’s counterpart, the Sportster, and, well… everyone pretty much loves the Scout. Just sayin’.

The biggest change, to me, is the V angle. Sixty degrees. That’s certainly unconventional for an American touring mo’cycle. I bet it sounds… well, it will certainly sound different from its peers. I’m looking forward to tossing one of these bikes around. I’ll say this much: The chassis for the Thunderstroke bikes was not as good as I would have liked when I tested one of those (though it was certainly not bad). With all the power this new motor should generate? I suspect Indian’s gonna have to up their game on the rest of the bike, too. And that’s a good thing.

Ultimately, this is a very, very nontraditional engine set to power a class of bike that’s normally reserved for ultra-conservative riders. Have times changed enough to support this in the 2020 model year?

We’ll see. Even if the PowerPlus doesn’t fly with buyers, it seems highly likely that the Challenger sure will on the pavement.