The winter sun looms low over the desert’s craggy horizon. Stark rays rake across California’s Chuckwalla Mountains, hiding half the range’s jagged majesty in shadow. A southeasterly breeze lilts through the palm fronds. Contentment washes over me, the kind that accompanies a desert sunrise and a second cup of joe.
VROOM! The bassy burble of a V-twin engine shatters the tranquility in an instant. Air, fuel, and fire transmuted into cacophonous rapture, at 1,300 thunderclaps per minute. The raw racket issuing from Indian Motorcycle’s PowerPlus mill doesn't share the same lumpiness associated with most American V-twins. It doesn’t growl, it snarls. It’s both guttural and hoarse. And of course, it rumbles at the heart of Indian’s King of the Baggers (KotB) Challenger.
