Indian Motorcycle to go hill-climbing with John Koester

Michelle Liew

August 28, 2020

Ready for the fruits of Indian Motorcycle and John Koester’s partnership?

Indian Motorcycle enters new AMA hill climb twin class with John Koester | Photo credits: Cycle World

Just recently, Indian Motorcycle made an announcement that it will be supporting hill climb racer on a modified FTR750 in an all-new AMA twins class. This would be the first time the company is making its official entrance to the sport since 1939.

The twins class of the American Flat Track has mainly been dominated by Harley-Davidson for decades. Much likely a predictable race, Indian is here to spice things up to provide some challenge to Harley. In 2016, fans showed up to watch some real competition with Indian’s inclusion. The larger crowds have paved way to the new locations for the flat track races and the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is eager to do the same for hill climbing.

Photo credits: Cycle World

AMA’s representatives have reached out to Indian’s racing department and made the offer. At first, the company was a little weary but the deal was sealed when AMA paired Indian up with five-time national champion John”Flying” Koester. Currently 26 years old, Koester has been a professional hill climber with spectacular results within a decade.

According to the new rules in the twin class, the bikes are to run a knobby tire. This is as opposed to a paddle-stye tire often seen in hill climbing. “They were pushing us toward the FTR 1200. But with having only a knobby tire, it’s similar to flat track. At some point you just overpower the tire,” says Gary Gray, Indian Motorcycle’s vice president of Racing, Technology, and Service, as quoted from Cycle World.

Indian made the decision to go with the light-weight FTR750 but it would need lots of modification in both chassis and engine to go hill-climbing.

Photo credits: Cycle World

“We made some mods to the heads, pistons, and cylinders just to make some more horsepower than we do in flat track. We worked with Rekluse on locking up the clutch. This is because there definitely will be more traction with that knobby tire and long swingarm. And then S&S on the exhaust and tuning.”

The chassis was up to Koester and his dad, Gordy. The two worked on the suspension setup and tuned it into a motocross bike. The Koesters then installed a new motocross seat, a custom rear subframe and dirt bike plastic. John fabricated the swingarm and adapted it to work on the FTR750. The bike weights 310 pounds and the estimated output of the bike is at 94hp. “It has a really broad power range, which was proven in flat track. It comes out of corners hard, it goes down the straightaway fast—which is really what you need in hill climb,” says Koester.

Photo credits: Cycle World