New member of the FTR family: the Carbon

Since the FTR’s launch, the FTR1200S with its limited edition race replica paint has been the flagship model, but as of the 1st May 2020 that changed.

And not only because Indian is running out of the limited edition models.

Following-on from their successful bid to make the basic FTR1200 more attractive by fitting most of the ‘Rally’ parts collection to it to make the FTR1200 Rally, they’ve raided the ‘Sport’ collection to make the only model that could out-spec the race-rep 1200S.

Called the Carbon, it will come as no surprise to learn that the Sport collection heavily relies on carbon fibre parts. And we are talking about proper carbon fibre here: this isn’t a dipped version of the base body work. Moreover, while the Sport’s bodywork was purely carbon, the FTR1200 Carbon only shows its lightweight material through a race replica paint scheme in those areas that were previously painted black. The best of both worlds and a genuine improvement over the previous top model, and for just £600 more than the old race-rep FTR1200S.

Counter-intuitively, it looks as though it has actually gained 3kg over the FTR1200S, but I’m going to hold out hope that’s a typo in the specifications: it does have the Akrapovič brushed stainless exhaust in a black finish – often seen on the FRT1200S race-rep but it was only ever an option – but I can’t see that countering all of the weight saving and adding a few kilos. It can’t be the central “FTR Carbon” console, and everything else is basically the same as the already highly spec’d.

Maybe it is the weight of expectation: it is, after all, the road-going manifestation of the all-conquering FTR750 flat track racer that took the rebranded AFT class by storm from the beginning, and that’s a big pair of boots to fill.

They have stopped short of calling it the FTR1200R or RR which makes you – well it makes me – wonder if there’s still room for one more.

www.indianmotorcycle.co.uk