Convenience store owner Wade Bohn has lived in Las Vegas all his life. He’s been there through the city’s Ultimate Fighting Championships, New Year’s Eve celebrations, and the city’s first Super Bowl. But the extended impact of the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November 2023 was something Bohn had never experienced before: He says that his store, Jay’s Market on Flamingo Road near the Vegas Strip, saw a $3 million drop in revenue over the past year that forced him to lay off many of his employees.
I wrote an article this past May explaining why I felt the renewed rivalry between Harley-Davidson and Indian Motorcycle in American Flat Track hasn’t lived up to the hype. The irony is that I am now one of only a handful of riders who has raced a Harley-Davidson XG750R and an Indian FTR750. What are the similarities and differences between those two competition-only V-twins? I could write a book detailing everything, but based on my experiences, the bikes are closer in performance than you might think.
Shortly after that story was published, I was asked to compete in my fourth consecutive X Games. I was an AFT Singles racer at the time, so I was pleasantly surprised and even humbled to receive an invitation. That being said, I wasn’t exactly prepared for the task at hand. I had my Kawasaki Ninja 750, nicknamed the “Black Hammer,” with which I had scored two AFT Twins main-event podium finishes in 2016, but I wasn’t sure if it would be competitive. I grew up in a family-owned Harley-Davidson dealership, so when Terry Vance phoned asking if I wanted to ride a Vance & Hines-built XG750R, my decision was easy.
I was a little nervous but not because I felt the pressure of being a factory rider for a weekend. I have always believed that, with the right team behind me, I could shine. I was more concerned about getting up to speed quickly enough to contend for a medal. After all, I hadn’t tested the bike and I had only ridden a twin one other time this season. But it’s just a circle, right? I would figure it out.
I rode the very first prototype XG750R for an X Games TV commercial in 2014, but the current racebike is very different from that machine so I can’t compare one with the other. In fact, the XG750R has undergone several major changes during the past 12 months. Last year, the engine was based on the Harley’s Street 750. This season, new competition-only DOHC cylinder heads provide more performance and greater reliability. In addition, the radiators have evolved to better cool the engine. Almost everything else about the engine, including the cases, remains production-based.
2018 Summer X Games
Texter completes one of his first laps on the Vance & Hines-built Harley-Davidson XG750R at the 2018 Summer X Games.Courtesy of Cory Texter
Racers can tell a lot about how fast they are going to go on a bike by just sitting on it. Call it the comfort factor. I felt at home right away on the XG750R. I’ve always said that I would rather be comfortable on a motorcycle with a slightly off-the-mark setup then uncomfortable on one with an ideal setup.
Before I get into the comparisons between the XG and the FTR, I want to note that I had a full team of experienced mechanics helping me set up the XG to my liking, and I basically set up the FTR by myself from the back of van with limited knowledge and resources. I raced the XG750R on a tiny short track inside US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the FTR750 at the Williams Grove Half-Mile in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Neither track provided excellent racing conditions.
The XG750R was initially set up for factory Harley-Davidson rider Sammy Halbert, who, like me, is small, so the bike had pullback handlebars that suited my stature. Racing the XG750R on a short, bumpy track made it difficult to get a good overall feel for the bike, but I was very impressed by the way it handled. In our first practice session, when the track was wet and tacky, the bike felt really good. It turned very well through the apex of the corner and accelerated quickly. I finished between eighth and 12th during practice, so I was pleased with my performance.
During my heat race, the track became very dry and slick, the type of surface this motorcycle has visibly struggled with most of the year. It’s kind of funny because the drier the track became, the better I started to feel. The bike didn’t like a lot of throttle leaned over. To compensate for that, I avoided scrubbing too much speed on corner entry so I could stand the bike up as soon as possible through the apex and roll open the throttle all the way down the straightaway. I really liked how smoothly the throttle turned, which made it easier for me to be smooth as the track got slicker. After some early-lap chaos, I was able to pass one Indian FTR750 and catch another FTR750 and a Kawasaki battling for the final semi transfer position. I came up short, but I felt better on the motorcycle than my results showed. I had a lot of fun riding the bike and would like to see what I could do on it at a half-mile or mile.
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