Motorcycles Are Finally Catching Up To Cars With Safety Technology And It’s Getting Weird

Motorcycle technology has often lagged far behind cars, especially when it comes to the heavy cruisers that Americans love buying. Indian Motorcycle thinks it’s time for a change. Its new PowerPlus 112 platform finally brings motorcycles a lot closer to cars in terms of technology and safety. How close? These new motorcycles have blind spot monitoring, collision warnings, tailgating alerts, and so much more. Some of this is getting properly weird.

The difference between the development paths of cars versus motorcycles has been fascinating to watch. Today, the biggest news in the car world is often about the development of driver-assist technologies and batteries. I mean, we live in a reality where Teslas can poorly drive themselves into poles and emergency vehicles. Hey, at least they’re trying! Things are far different for bikes.

Sure, every year there’s a least one motorcycle manufacturer in the bike show circuit displaying a machine that can balance or ride itself. But these are always concepts that never get near production. The bikes you and I can buy are nothing like the cars that are on the market. It wasn’t too long ago when Royal Enfield was bragging about adding fuel injection, a feature cars have had for decades prior. Meanwhile, we’re only just now seeing a production hybrid motorcycle decades after hybrid cars have been available.

The cruiser space has been especially slow to adapt. In 2023, I tested an Indian Challenger Dark Horse. It was a thrilling ride, but the most technologically advanced part about it was traction control, a feature cars have had for several decades. Now, with the new PowerPlus 112 platform, Indian’s tech is being thrust well into the 21st century and it’s bringing a whole lot of power and tricks with it. Now, Indian’s going to have some gear that the competition doesn’t.

(Full Disclosure: Indian Motorcycle invited me out to Las Vegas, Nevada, to take the new PowerPlus 112 platform on a road trip. Indian paid for my travel, a swanky resort, and all of the food I could scarf down.)

It’s Not As Easy As Stealing Parts From Cars

So then, why have bikes lagged so far behind cars? I started asking this question back in 2021 and the answers have been illuminating. At the time, BMW was rolling out its new R 18 B and R 18 Transcontinental, big burly boxer cruisers that were BMW’s take on Harley-Davidson’s bread and butter.

Those motorcycles had a feature I didn’t expect to see on two wheels. With the flick of a switch, those motorcycles had fantastic radar cruise control. The shocking thing about BMW’s radar cruise was how well it worked. It accelerated and braked the bike even in heavy traffic. If you have big brass jugs like I do, you can just sit there shifting gears and let the cruise control do most of the work. It was something bizarre because it was perhaps the last feature you’d ever expect on a motorcycle. One of the selling points of motorcycling is that it’s far more engaging than a car.

BMW explained to me that part of the reason it took so long to get radar cruise into production motorcycles is that it isn’t as easy as just dropping in a car’s radar cruise into a motorcycle. The bike’s radar cruise has to be tuned to work for the differences between riding a motorcycle versus driving a car. Further, the equipment also has to be smaller and lighter since your average motorcycle is a fraction of the size of a car. All of this takes tons of time and money.

Oh yeah, you also have to hit a price point that a rider is going to want to buy. Remember, you can already spend over $30,000 on motorcycles with technology no more advanced than what you got in a Chevy Impala back in the 2000s. Would riders be willing to plunk down even more cash for the latest in tech?

Something else engineers have pointed me to was the racing circuit. Motorcycle racing is a place where you can find some of the latest tech before it trickles down into production vehicles. Today’s high-tech road motorcycles are known for using an Internal Measurement Unit (IMU) from companies like Continental or Bosch. A six-axis IMU uses gyroscopes and accelerometers to measure pitch, roll, and yaw. The bike’s systems can use that data to effectively apply traction control and ABS.

This technology made its official debut in 2007 with the Ducati 1098 R. Sure, some high-end motorcycles had traction control and ABS before then, but it was comparatively rudimentary. The IMU brought motorcycle rider assists into the modern era. Motorcycle history is full of examples like this. Aircraft and cars have had control by wire systems for decades, but we didn’t really start seeing it on production motorcycles until the 2006 Yamaha YZF-R6. Production bikes didn’t even get electronically adjustable suspension until the late 2000s, and electronic ride modes are also a product of this era. A lot of this tech simply took years to adapt to the motorcycle world. After all, a motorcycle leans and pitches far more than a car does.

The folks of ADV Rider make another good point. There have been engineering challenges in getting car-like tech to bikes, but the motorcycle industry used to have different priorities. For most people, a motorcycle is a toy and a lot of folks love to feel one with their machine. For decades, riders and manufacturers were obsessed with ever more power and speed, but not necessarily cutting-edge car-like electronics.

We’ve entered a new era where riders want both power and technology. Today, you can buy motorcycles with radar cruise, seats that will electronically lower themselves at a stop, bikes with an airbag, bikes with wheelie control, bikes with impressive stereos, and now even bikes with huge infotainment screens plus all of your favorite apps.

Technology in the heavy bagger and touring cruiser segment has been heating up. Over at Harley-Davidson, the big cruiser establishment, you can get your motorcycle with electronically linked braking, a system to prevent the rear wheel from slipping too much under acceleration and deceleration, a system to hold the motorcycle on a hill, TPMS, and ABS. The active safety systems then have a cornering enhancement, which allows them to work well even when you’re halfway through a canyon corner.

But these systems aren’t exactly state-of-the-art. If you’ve read my motorcycle content for long enough, you’ll know that most new bikes seem to have this kind of tech. If you ride BMW’s interpretation of a heavy cruiser, you lose out on the cornering traction control and the cornering ABS, but keep features like the linked brakes and gain the aforementioned radar cruise.

Over at Honda, the legendary Gold Wing hits many of the same notes with linked brakes, a hill start hold function, and an anti-wheel slip program, but doesn’t have the lean-sensitive characteristics of the big Harleys.

Indian Looks Behind To Get Ahead

The engineers at Indian Motorcycle saw an opportunity to innovate where other manufacturers in the American tourer segment have not, and that’s by bringing a taste of cars to its newest motorcycle platform.

The PowerPlus 112 platform was announced back in late January and it brings a lot of good news to the Indian Motorcycle lineup. It started with the PowerPlus 108 engine, the same brute I commanded behind the bars of the 2023 Indian Challenger Dark Horse. This engine was enlarged to 112 cubic inches and taken racing with the Indian Motorcycle Racing team. That tuned powerplant helped Troy Herfoss receive his crown in the 2024 King of the Baggers Championship.

In a modern-day equivalent of winning on Sunday and selling on Monday, Indian took what it learned from the racing engine and trickled it down into a larger, more powerful engine bolted into the frames of Indian’s large cruisers. The results have shown pretty mild improvements across the board.

Here’s what you need to know: The new PowerPlus 112 features a liquid-cooled design, plus overhead cams and four valves per cylinder. Indian’s engineers say that going for a total liquid-cooling setup allows them to shoot for higher tolerances and more performance. They say that the PowerPlus can make more power now because it no longer has to be concerned with running hotter.

As a result, you’re looking at 126 horsepower and 133 lb-ft of torque, up four horses and five pounds of twist from the PowerPlus 108. The biggest change, according to Indian’s engineers, is in power availability. The PowerPlus 112 hits a high level of output early and keeps the power up through the majority of the rev range. The engine has a relatively flat torque curve that’s still said to deliver higher blows than the “typical” American V-twin engine. By that, I’m sure Indian is taking shots at Harley in the slow lane over there.

You’ll get to read my full thoughts on the platform soon enough, but in my opinion, the improvement in the feeling you get behind the bars and the feedback from your butt-dyno is about as mild as the spec sheet implies – it feels slightly faster than the PowerPlus 108. But hey, that’s not a bad thing, since the PowerPlus 108 was already like wielding Thor’s hammer in motorcycle form. The PowerPlus 108 already had more power than the typical cruiser rider would even know what to do with, so adding a little more juice to it makes it just a bit more fun. The PowerPlus 108 is also sticking around as well in case you’re not looking for that little extra dose of thoroughbreds under the tank.

This engine is getting bolted into the frames of the Chieftain PowerPlus, the Indian Challenger, the Roadmaster PowerPlus, and the Indian Pursuit. Of those, I recently had my first ride of the Chieftain and the Challenger. You’ll get to read about what it was like taking those motorcycles on a Nevada road trip soon. For now, I want to talk about another advancement that’s coming with the PowerPlus 112 platform.

A couple of the advancements coming to the PowerPlus 112 platform (and optional on PowerPlus 108 bikes) aren’t anything unheard of. Those features include Bike Hold Control. When activated with a hard press of the brakes, the motorcycle will hold itself in whatever position you have it in for three minutes. That’s pretty neat and more useful than Honda’s system, which works only on hills for a brief moment. However, hold-control isn’t anything new. The 2023 Zero DSR/X tester I had for a year and a half held the bike for however long I wanted.

Also new to the platform is a linked braking system that uses an IMU to help keep the shiny side up when you’re ripping through corners. That one’s not that new either, but it is nice to have. What Indian says is new to this segment are the next three features.

The first was pretty surprising: blind spot monitoring. While this feature has appeared with other motorcycles like the Ducati Multistrada V4 S, it’s fresh in the American cruiser space. Indian’s Blind Spot Warning works just like it does in a car. A rear-facing radar is constantly scanning the road behind your motorcycle. When it detects a vehicle coming up in your blind spot, it gives you a visual warning on the bike’s display and also in your mirrors.

The next new feature is Rear Collision Warning. This one is pretty neat. If a vehicle behind you is on a collision course, the motorcycle will pulse its brake lights at the vehicle coming up on your rear end. The pulsing isn’t really any different than one of those aftermarket third brake light flasher devices, but in this case, all of the lights on the rear-end pulse.

Finally, the last one is a Tailgate Warning system. This one works by alerting you on the bike’s display if a vehicle behind you is a little too close. The idea is that if you aren’t checking your mirrors as you should be, you might glance at the infotainment display and see that someone’s on your rear end.

I got to try all of these features out over a 200-mile ride through Nevada’s breathtaking vistas. In practice, this equipment works just as seamlessly as it does in a nice car.

I immediately got to test the Rear Collision Warning when leaving the venue for the press ride. I was coming up hot and heavy on the motorcycle in front of me. In response, the brake lights of that motorcycle flashed at me to say “Hey, you might want to slow your roll.” The Rear Collision Warning was reliable throughout the ride. If the radar system of the bike in front of me figured I was approaching at a normal rate, I didn’t get flashed. But if I was coming in fast, it gave me the familiar light pulse.

The Rear Collision Warning gives no indication to the rider that it’s flashing the brake lights at the vehicle behind them. What you will get a notification for is the Tailgate Warning system. This one works simply enough. If the radar sees another vehicle riding close to you, a yellow notification on the display will show the vehicle there. If that vehicle begins to get closer, the notification will grow larger, indicating the higher urgency.

This system also worked reliably on the press ride. Whenever another journalist got within a normally unsafe following distance, I got a warning that someone was tailgating me. If that person then moved to the side of me, that warning became a blind spot warning. I especially liked how the blind spot warnings were in the mirrors. Even if you weren’t checking the infotainment system — which you shouldn’t be doing, anyway – the LEDs in the mirrors are bright enough to get your attention.

The systems are also cognizant of when you pass other vehicles. If you blow past another motorcycle you’re not going to get a blind spot warning or tailgate warning. As I said, these systems work the same on the bikes as they would in your car. While it was easy getting used to these systems, they still felt pretty weird. I’ve spent my entire riding career thus far trusting my senses to keep me alive. Now, I’m using my senses but the bike is also trying to alert me of every little danger like the last rental car I drove. It’s a strange feeling like it’s a real-life version of an artificial aid in a video game.

At the same time, it should be noted that Indian’s new safety systems have the same limitations as the ones you get in a car. Indian’s Rear Collision Warning is just flashing your brake lights at a speeding car or motorcycle behind you. If that person fails to stop or dodge you, they will still slam into your Indian even as it flashes the lights in a vain attempt to halt the oncoming vehicle. Likewise, if you ignore the blind spot warning you might find yourself at the business end of a cager.

So, much like with today’s car tech, you have to be realistic here. You still have to ride the motorcycle and you still have to be defensive. At the very least, I do see some real improvement here. The Rear Collision Warning is so bright and so attention-grabbing that I bet it’ll even catch a driver with their head stuck on their phone screen. That’s always good in my book.

Indian’s engineers also had some other good notes. The radar should work in all weather conditions. However, just like the radars on cars, you don’t want to get the radar caked up with dirt and grime. That’ll eventually hamper its performance.

Tech And Power Come At A Price

The other good news is that while this equipment comes standard on PowerPlus 112 bikes, all of the features are easily disabled with a tap of the infotainment screen. However, at least for my 200-mile ride I didn’t feel that any of the features were intrusive enough to turn them off.

The perhaps not-so-good news is what you’re probably already expecting. The starting price for an Indian bagger — that’s the Chieftain or the Challenger — with a standard PowerPlus starts at $26,499 and you’ll be paying over $30,000 after piling on options. You can buy a real car for that price. Though, I suppose if you were a hardcore rider, one of these beastly bikes could actually replace your car. They certainly have the thrill, comfort, and tech of a real car. But that’s going to be a story for a little later from now.

For now, I just want to appreciate just how far motorcycle technology has come. There was a time when fuel injection was a big deal, now we’re getting into bikes with radars and intelligent software. What’s coming up next?