If you’re going to go big, you might as well go for broke – so if you’re going to get a tourer, you need to get the best one possible. This isn’t just a question of garnering attention, to be perfectly honest. Touring motorcycles are large, intimidating machines that promise days of riding fun with experiences like you’ve never had before, so them being head-turners is almost a given, even before you factor in that they invariably manage to look good.
But looking good is only half the equation. Reputations of touring motorcycles are built and squandered on their reliability. You cannot afford to break down in the middle of nowhere if you’re on a solo ride with a 900-pound motorcycle. It would be nice if we could get the best of both worlds: get as much attention as the most attention-grabbing brand, and mate it with the reliability of the one two-wheeler brand that is known for churning out unbreakable models time after time.
American Tourers: The ‘Other’ Brand
Indian has been part of the fabric of American two-wheeled culture for a long time. Indian will even argue that it has been around for longer than its rival brand. While it did start off that way, it was absent for a fair few years, and it bounced around from owner to owner until some stability was provided by the Polaris group recently. With this stability, the brand has put out some very impressive products, from affordable cruisers to performance cruisers to full-dress tourers that can duke it out with the best in the world. It is one of these latter products that combines Honda reliability and Harley-level presence.
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The Indian Roadmaster Limited Is The Touring Bike With Honda Reliability And Harley-Level Presence
The Roadmaster is one of the flagship products for Indian Motorcycle. It has a fork-mounted fairing and has a throne for the pillion, as befits a full-dress tourer. When fitted with the Thunderstroke engine, it is a torque-driven powerhouse with just the right mix of old and new that balances everything so well, you feel like you’re riding an old tourer but with none of the drawbacks. With its proven chassis and driveline, it has Honda reliability – and with the kind of colorways and chromed, air-cooled V-twin design it sports, it definitely has Harley-level presence.
It Also Has Honda And Harley-Level Pricing
Sure, it is an American full-dress tourer, which usually means it is priced at a premium over other competition. However, it is priced right among its peers, which means it delivers quite decent value for what it is. The base price is $33,749, but the ‘Limited’ trim means that it has all the options fitted by default – there is no need to go through the options list as such. You can upgrade a few things, like the audio system, but you don’t need to; everything is available for the advertised price.
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Torque That Will Leave You Thunderstruck
The Thunderstroke 116 is Indian’s largest-displacement engine. This is a 49-degree V-twin with air cooling and fuel injection. It displaces 1,890cc and has a compression ratio of 11.0:1 with a long-stroke design. It sports an old-school two valves per cylinder, but has three camshafts – one for the intake and two for the exhaust. It operates overhead valves via its pushrods, so it has the look of a traditional engine as well. The figures are 92 horsepower and 126 pound-feet of torque, and the peak torque is generated at a low 2,600 RPM.
All of these facts might make it sound very last-generation, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It has features like a by-wire throttle, the rear cylinder deactivates when at idle, and it is mated to a six-speed gearbox and final belt drive. Indian even offers accessories like a high-flow air intake and an oil cooler for better or more consistent performance from this engine.
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The Traditional Chassis Has A Surprise Up Its Sleeve
The Roadmaster has a traditional dual cradle frame, but here’s the surprise: it is a cast aluminum unit rather than the usual steel used in this class. This saves weight, and aluminum is a lot more resistant to corrosion than steel is, so it is a win-win. The front suspension is a 46mm telescopic fork, while the rear has a single shock with air adjustment. There is 4.7 inches of travel at the front, and 4.5 inches at the rear. The brakes mean business, with dual 300mm floating discs at the front paired with four-piston fixed calipers, while the rear gets a single 300mm floating disc with a two-piston floating caliper. Contrast-cut alloy wheels with a 19-inch front and a 16-inch rear are shod with tubeless tires.
It’s Large, But Not As Heavy As It Looks
The Roadmaster is a big bike – it is over 102 inches long and more than 40 inches wide, with a wheelbase of 65.7 inches. The ground clearance is 5.5 inches, and the seat height is a low 27.5 inches, which should make it easy for a wide range of people to ride. The fuel tank can hold 5.5 gallons of gas. It weighs 893 pounds in running order, which is decent for its size and features – that aluminum frame helps cut this figure.
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Great Feature Set, But Needs Options For Maximum Effect
First, we’re going to compliment Indian on offering their products in the colors mentioned in the marketing material at the price mentioned. So the chrome-and-red Roadmaster you see in the marketing images costs what it says on the images; you don’t have to pay extra. It’s the same if you opt for the blacked-out Dark Horse version.
The standard features list is incredibly long – it starts with a seven-inch TFT screen that not only has Bluetooth, navigation, and Apple CarPlay, but also connected features like a bike locator and bike health. However, the connected features are free only for the first year of ownership, and need an annual subscription after that. Other standard features include heated and cooled seats for both rider and pillion, different heating settings for the rider and pillion seats, heated grips, adjustable passenger floorboards, an electrically adjustable windshield, TPMS, remote locking luggage, keyless ignition, a USB port, and a 12V charging socket.
You can spec a better audio system with the Limited, and this Powerband audio system will cost an extra $1,750. However, you do get an upgrade from 200 Watts to 600 Watts. Features that will interest the rider include cruise control, cornering traction control, cornering ABS, and linked brakes.
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Harley And Honda Have Great Competitors
Let’s get the Harley-Davidson out of the way first, shall we? The Street Glide Limited is the model that matches up with the Roadmaster Limited. It has a base price of $32,999, which is a little less than the Indian’s price. However, if you add a two-tone paint job to it like the Indian does, it leapfrogs the Indian’s price, as that is a $2,000 option. But you do get what you pay for – the Harley is lighter, makes more power and torque, and is arguably the better bike both in terms of resale value as well as upgrades.
The Honda Gold Wing Tour is quite like the Indian, in that it offers everything at the stated price of $29,500. The only real options are the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, which is a very reasonable $1,000 extra, and a rider airbag, which needs you to put in a full $4,300 over the base version, because you can only have it with the automatic gearbox. The Gold Wing is unique in many ways, not just the gearbox and airbag – it has the only flat-six engine in the two-wheeled world, it has a navigation system that will keep working even in a tunnel, and it sets the standard for reliability in its segment.
Source: Indian Motorcycle, Honda, Harley-Davidson