As I think I've mentioned here before, I've been a racing fan for a long time. And as you'll know if you've ever seen racing in person, it's a totally different experience than just watching it at home.
You could have a great setup and excellent speakers, and you still won't get the full-body chills you will if you witness it in person. Because there's so much more to spectating than just seeing and hearing the bikes clearly.
And it surprises me to write this, but that might arguably be more true for MotoAmerica's Mission King of the Baggers series than it is for anything else. Because it doesn't just need to be seen to be believed; it needs to be witnessed in person.
Plenty of fans of other types of racing, particularly of superbikes and prototypes like MotoGP, might have initially laughed at the idea of baggers hitting some of America's best circuits and going fast. And it's not hard to understand why.
It's the same reason that seeing a cartoon hippo dance in a tutu in Fantasia is so mesmerizing: You simply don't expect to be seeing what you're seeing.
In the case of the KotB spectacle, it's not just seeing; it's also hearing and feeling. There's a full-body rumble every time the bikes go by where you're standing. It starts from far away, tingling your toes slightly before your ears register that the bikes are getting closer. Pretty soon, you both feel and hear it, and then the bikes also dance into view.
And they're leaning as they go through corners. A lot more than you'd expect, and a lot more than you'd probably dare if you were the one saddled up and hustling them around the track.
We're talking about dragging an elbow, and I'm not joking. It's something Kyle Wyman, current MotoAmerica King of the Baggers championship leader, told me that he's done on his number 33 H-D Factory Racing machine.
One question I thought he'd particularly have some unique insight into is how different it is to race superbikes versus one of Harley's factory KotB beasts.
The seating position is more upright on the bagger, but he says the power levels are similar. Interestingly, despite the sheer physicality of racing baggers and how the riders have to move on their bikes, he said his training regimen isn't that different from what he did when he was racing superbikes.
Wyman told me that over the course of the four years that KotB has been running, there've been a whole bunch of changes. Power and torque levels, in particular, have improved. While the Harley Factory Team doesn't publish official power numbers (Wyman instead usually offers variations on the phrase "it's A LOT and A LOT"), he told me that the torque number, in particular, is about double that of the superbikes.
"So, you know, you have that in your right wrist and no electronic aids to kind of save you if it goes wrong," Wyman added.
Stopping is also much different because the inertia and momentum are so different when the bikes are so much heavier. So they have plenty of torque, power, and have gotten speeds dialed in to the point where Wyman characterized the lap times as being within a couple to a few seconds of the Supersport class times, but braking and how the bikes behave are still a bit different.
When I asked what the biggest differences are between the Harley-Davidson Factory Racing Team baggers and what customers can go in and buy off the showroom floor, Wyman said, "The bike is super tall. I'm about 5'8". The seat height is around 36.5 inches and I have a 30-inch inseam, so you can do the math on that."
The series has specific rules about what can and can't be modified. For example, the frame and the engine cases must remain the same, but what's inside them is allowed to change significantly.
And in the case of the Harley-Davidson Factory Racing team, it most assuredly has. Hence, the current power and torque figures they can't share publicly, but which are nonetheless impressive to witness on the track.
That's why, when we got a rare sneak peek inside the Harley-Davidson Product Development Center in August, Wyman and some other H-D Factory Racing Team folks were there for a bit of show and tell about some of the new customer performance parts that Harley owners can buy and outfit their bikes with right now.
As the H-D Factory Racing Team members told us, parts development is essentially happening every KotB race weekend, out on the track. They're essentially torture-testing performance cylinder heads, cams, camshafts, and more. Screamin' Eagle pistons that you can buy right now for your hog, should you choose to do so, are being forged the same way the race pistons are.
If you're a performance-minded Harley rider, it would be hard to not be excited learning stuff like that.
Gallery: Inside the Harley-Davidson Product Development Center
I haven't been to every round of the 2024 KotB season, but I've been going up to see races at Road America for a long time. Granted, it's a track that's in Wisconsin. It's Harley's home state, so I can't say that a bit of hometown hero pride didn't have something to do with it. But the level of excitement from Harley (and a few Indian) riders as they fanned out to find the best vantage points to watch the King of the Baggers races was palpable. And massive.
It's an interesting time to be a racing fan, for sure. The 2024 KotB season isn't over yet, but there's no denying that people are way into it if you watch a race in person. If you're still skeptical, you should probably just experience it for yourself if you can.
At the time of writing, there are just two racing weekends left on the 2024 MotoAmerica calendar: Texas from September 13 through 15, and New Jersey from September 27 through 29. While KotB shows no signs of slowing down, you'll have to wait until 2025 if you can't make it to one of those two weekends later this month.
What are you waiting for?
Gallery: MotoAmerica King of the Baggers - Road America Round 2024
