2 019 I N D I A N F T R 12 0 0 / F T R 12 0 0 S
F I R S T R E V I E W
P84
FTR1200 DESIGNER RICH CHRISTOPH SPEAKS
You can hustle the
FTR along with
serious pace on the
street despite thedirt-
track-derived tires.
The Indian FTR1200 is the work of
former Harley-Davidson and Buell
designer Rich Christoph, a man who
grew up on a diet of Italian sport
bikes but has now found a home with
Indian. He's a man intensely passion-
ate about mechanical design, and
here he guides you through some
of the through processes that came
about with the FTR.
"You're trying to capture the mo-
tion in the highlights and the energy
of the race bike," Christoph says.
"You're up and over the handlebars,
keeping your weight forward. You
work on continuing the seamless
line up into the tank with the riding
position. The 1200 is a little bit wider,
so it kind of pushes the frame out and
subsequently you have to work the
surfaces in so you can get that com-
manding riding position and be able
to slide forward. Then obviously, you
need a passenger, but that helps you
visually shorten up that rider cockpit
and make it a much more appropriate
proportion for the street.
"What we wanted was a ma-
chine that was fun. It was spirited.
It looked aggressive. It looked
beautiful. It looked purpose-built.
It was reminiscent of the 750, and
it captured the essence of that
motorcycle, but it allows you to ride
it all day and have a lot of fun. We
focused a lot on fun, a lot on kind of
losing yourself in the moment and
forgetting about being critical and
just enjoying the ride.
"I got a chance to work with Eric
Buell briefly in one of my previous
lives, and his mantra was always
"design the air out of the bike." That
means tight. Every part inside for
packaging is tight, tight, tight, sitting
on top of the next part. That was the
focus here, too. You want to keep this
bike a tight, small, compact and ef-
