Indian Motorcycle Unveils 2020 Challenger

The 2020 Indian Challenger is finally here! Following last week's PowerPlus engine unveil, this is the bike that will house it—the Challenger. This looks to be a familiar style of American touring motorcycle, but done in a more aggressive and high-performance manner. The showstopper is the new PowerPlus engine, which you can read about here in our First Look At Indian's New PowerPlus V-twin story last week, but there is a whole new chassis and bodywork to look at here as well. From the first look, it seems that there's quite a bit of Victory DNA bred into this Indian, and we're all about it.

The new cast aluminum chassis uses the engine as a load-bearing component, unlike that of the Chieftain but more similar to the Scout. The gas tank has flatter sides and slopes downward as it gets closer to the seat, again looking similar to the gas tank on the Scout models. The saddlebag shape is the same as that on the Chieftain line, but with an added black plastic or rubber piece on the bottom, most likely just added for aesthetics. The bike’s front fender is cut back, like the Chieftain Dark Horse line, and the headdress mounted on the front fender continues to get even smaller, as we’ve seen happening over the last few years.

The all-new front fairing is mounted to the chassis, similar to a Harley-Davidson Road Glide, as are the two storage areas on the inside of the fairing. We see a power adjustable windscreen like we have loved so much on the Chieftain line, as well as the same screen and Ride Command system, which was updated across the rest of the line earlier this year with a faster processor, and weather and traffic overlay info. The headlight configuration is interesting, with one central round light and LEDs on either side, and vent intakes outside of those—again like a Road Glide. In my 2019 Indian review, I called out the redesigned Chieftain fairing for looking like a Street Glide, and it seems we now have the Road Glide counterpart in Indian’s lineup as well.

With the new high-output engine, we're expecting some great things from this bike and should have a First Ride out to you shortly, but if you just can't wait, head over to Cycle World to get the scoop now.