On the way to the MotoGP weekend in Austin, Texas, I really didn’t know what to expect. Even though I got my first motorcycle when I was 19, it was still the first time I took part in a race. It was hot and very loud, which wasn’t a big surprise. As it turns out, MotoGP still has Grid Girls, which was more of a surprise since I assumed that was over Back when Formula 1 largely abolished them. The biggest surprise, however, was how quickly I became obsessed with King of the Baggers. I don’t care if you like motorcycles or racing – if you don’t watch, you’re missing out.
Full disclosure: Brembo wanted to get me hooked on motorcycle racing so badly that it paid for me to stay in a fancy hotel where you get a beer when you check in. The last time I stayed there I got a Shiner Bock, but this time there was only one local craft beer in the area. It was good. Plus, no one knew who Townes Van Zandt was. That was disappointing, but not Brembo’s fault. Brembo also got me tickets and VIP passes so I could watch most things from an air-conditioned box while a nice young lady named Caroline kept trying to give me free prosecco. It worked. Brembo also paid for my flight home.
Even the people on the Harley-Davidson racing team seemed to understand that racing motorcycles that were definitely not built for racing were inherently ridiculous. And to be clear, while these aren’t stock bikes, they’re a lot more than you might think. The chassis and engine are essentially left alone, although you’re allowed to do more to the engine than the chassis, so even with lighter, modified bodywork, different handlebars, fancier suspension, upgraded brakes (hey, did you know Brembo makes). High performance brakes?) and all the other changes that turn a road bike into something track ready, they are still heavy bikes. In fact, it’s 620 pounds minimum that they can weigh.
In the end, the result is a paddock full of bikes that look more or less like the giant cruisers you see on road trips, except they’ll be going full throttle at the Circuit of the Americas. It looks wrong. It feels wrong. Maybe even Is incorrect. And yet they do it anyway. Because it is absolutely gorgeous.
If you think that bigger and heavier road bikes mean bigger and stronger riders, you are completely wrong. We had a chance to chat briefly with Harley’s racing team, and while its riders may be a little stockier than some of the racers you’ve met in the past, they’re still pretty small. One look at their arms is enough to see that they’re clearly in incredible shape, but if you’ve had visions of big, bearded men rocking beer bellies and tossing those bikes around the track, I’m sorry yours Bubble bursts. As silly as the concept is, they take King of the Baggers seriously.
Seriously, much to my disappointment, no one wanted to take me around the track in the back seat. On the one hand, I understood that, but on the other hand, I really wanted the chance to have a taste of the madness for myself. Well, I couldn’t ride in the Garage 56 Camaro either, partly because it apparently “doesn’t have a passenger seat.” As if that was a legitimate reason. Just put me in the driver’s seat, dude. You can trust a Jalopnik writer not to crash a Camaro.
As you can imagine, the added weight of a road bike is bad news for tires and brakes. I won’t go so far as to say that King of the Baggers racers need more skill than their MotoGP counterparts, but when your sport defies both the laws of God and nature, let’s just say you need a special group of talent to keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up. They talked about different strategies to keep all the weight under control, such as using the thumb brake to stabilize the rear before properly hitting the front brake.
And while it’s not a NASCAR race by any means, it’s definitely hard not to think of a NASCAR comparison when you hear how much the bikes are moving. They take bikes that aren’t designed for racing, race them anyway, and learn to deal with the bike’s “shortcomings” rather than working them out completely. I absolutely love it.
As incredibly awful as the idea of excavator racing is, the actual racing is even better than you can even imagine. Everything I had learned about corner strategy and brakes and tires disappeared the second the bikes started rolling on Saturday, and I immediately turned back into a little kid and had a blast watching loud, heavy ones Things moved quickly. Very fast. And when they lean into the curves, believe me, they Really lean into the curves.
The number I heard was around 60 degrees of lean angle, which is already a lot for a road bike. But even when you talk about Indians and Harley-Davidsons, it’s hard to believe what you’re seeing, even when you look at it with your own eyes. It was chaos. It was beauty. It was wrong. That was right. Most importantly, I was there and was able to experience it live. You can’t tell me that I imagined something that thousands of other people can confirm happened, even if it felt more like something I saw in a dream where I was wearing my Budweiser tank top I never got rid of it. If it had been a dream, they would have let me ride one of the bikes.
I know the real race should be MotoGP. That’s why Brembo spent so much money to bring me Austin. And I really enjoyed the final race on Sunday, especially because I got to meet an old friend I hadn’t seen in years and catch up with him as we watched some of the craziest racers in the world do their COTA lap. Even as someone who doesn’t have much of a sense of self-preservation (I’ve been cycling for over 15 years, after all), I can tell he’s doing something that I know full well I’m too scared to even try.
And yet, after watching “King of the Baggers,” it felt almost too serious. A little too buttoned up. After witnessing the utter ridiculousness of a Baggers race, I felt like something was missing. This is not a dig at anyone involved with MotoGP. My heart was just captured by King of the Baggers and I don’t know if there is any way for MotoGP to ever win it back. It’s so much fun watching Harleys compete against Indians in ways they definitely shouldn’t.
