Cycle News In The Paddock
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Will Post-Truth Baggers Racing Light MotoGP’s Fire?
While MotoGP’s gilded heroes battled the stopwatches at Sepang on their lithe 2026 prototypes for the first preseason bragging rights, the FIM’s publicity department back in Europe was stirring a rather different pot, with an announcement that coincided. At least in terms of time.
Actually, it was more of a reminder of the original official announcement back in August last year about the latest attempt at a support class for the traditional World Championship series. The news was that another team has enlisted for the Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup.
Not sure what everyone else thinks, but I find it difficult to type those words with a straight face. Which I guess is really the point. This support class is largely, no, entirely there for amusement value.
This is not to undermine the talent and efforts of the riders, nor the teams. They’ll doubtless be giving it everything they’ve got. Then again, they’re only doing it for their own amusement.
But I’m not entirely sure about the amusement of the spectators. For most of them, I believe, Grand Prix racing is a deadly serious affair of great technical and personal subtlety, engendering tribal loyalties and desperate dedication in much the same way as top-level football. And to them, support races in general have always had the same value and level of interest as an after-school playground kick-around. Just a distraction for the main event.
Will this be as true for the Harleys as for previous attempts?
The first such, in the Dorna era, was the so-called Thunderbikes back in the 1990s. This was a one-make class on identical BMW twins, provided by the organizers, and a smattering of full-timers (including once Kevin Schwantz) mixed it with the gang. The racing was often pretty good, but it lit nobody’s fire, and the series soon ran out of steam.
More recently, the support role went to MotoE, which came to a premature end last season. This did serve the purpose of securing Dorna’s rights to electric-bike racing, rather than leaving the door open to any rival should the series take off in the public mind. But it really didn’t, and few will mourn (or even notice) its absence in 2026.
The Harleys, however, are different. Harleys always are either the apotheosis of what a real motorcycle should be, or (to sportbike riders) the complete antithesis. They don’t leave people unmoved.
And racing them?
Well, my AI research tool informs me that in the USA, the King of the Baggers series “has become immensely popular, a ‘must-see’ motorsport, which exploded in popularity since 2020.” It does have the advantage of rivalry between Harley-Davidson and Indian machines, but that’s probably not the crucial element in its appeal.
It’s the sheer unlikelihood of monstrous V-twins with (empty) hard luggage cases wobbling and roaring in super-close competition.
None of MotoGP’s finesse and nuance. And, in context, none the worse for that.
Like monster trucks, bonkers drag racing or heavily padded American footballers, that context is very American. In the rest of the world, and especially MotoGP’s European heartland, it’s pure novelty value. Not to be taken too seriously.
Well, MotoGP’s new owners, Liberty Media, are American, so this U.S. intervention should be no surprise. Liberty has also proved very adept in adding new levels of marketing skill to Formula One, massively increasing the audience of what is, by comparison to MotoGP (or to Bagger racing), a somewhat dull spectacle. Could the Baggers turn out a similar boon to MotoGP?
As a confirmed curmudgeon and old-school purist Grand Prix fan for more than five decades, I have my doubts, but I don’t expect those of younger generations to agree with me. However, the current take-up looks rather thin.
The latest addition of the Indonesia Niti Racing squad is only the fourth, joining Saddlemen Race Development from the U.S., Italy’s Cecchini Racing Garage, and Joe Rascal Racing from Australia. No riders have yet been named, and while Joe Rascal is to field three, the other teams will have two apiece. This makes a grid of just nine so far.
With the first of six races due in only a few weeks, on March 27 at the Americas GP at COTA, it’s looking like a rather low-key launch.
Well, it can only get better. Or fall off the twig unless Liberty and/or Harley (already supplying the all-identical bikes) make a significant further intervention. Money for more teams, for instance, drawing on the existing talent pool at home in America.
And as for the value of clumsy but amusing novelty racing on lumpen touring bikes, in an arena where technical excellence and split-second differences are everything, well, we’re in the post-truth era, apparently. So why shouldn’t we add in some post-truth racing? CN
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