Honoring the Gods of Speed

In our world, all bikers are heroes. Then some are superheroes and count life in thousandths of a second—people who live for speed, perfection and constantly pushing the boundaries.

For the 2025 racing season, Indian Motorcycle begins a partnership with the fastest of them all! The five-time EC winner in Top-Fuel Bike, Rikard Gustafsson from Falkenberg!

Although the history of speed actually begins far back in time. Småland native and pioneer Oscar Hedström immigrated to the United States in 1880 and trained as a watchmaker. In his spare time, one of Oscar’s great interests was pedal bikes, and by chance, he met competitive cyclist George Hendee. The collaboration between the two soon resulted in the Indian Motorcycle Company, and already in 1903, they set a new speed record at Ormond Beach in Florida. The top speed was recorded at a breathtaking 90 km/h!

Undoubtedly, technology and good engineering have been some of the strongest guiding principles in Indian Motorcycle development for over 120 years.

“For us who are pioneers in speed and where the feeling for our motorcycles is very tangible, it is only natural that we start a collaboration with Rikard,” says Niklas Frisk at Indian Motorcycle.

“We have followed Rikard throughout his long career and cannot stop being impressed by his many years of commitment to the sport of drag racing. The fact that he then not only drives his bike on the “strip” but also builds and screws most of it himself proves to us what a “real” biker Rikard is,” Niklas continues.

The bike that Rikard competes with he built himself already in 2015 and the following year he won the EC gold in Top Fuel. That screwing is a large part of Rikard’s life is not so strange as he runs a motorcycle workshop at home in Falkenberg. In addition to his six European Championship golds, Rikard also holds the European record for top speed. At a breathtaking 419.31 km/h, he steered his supercharged drag bike with over 1,500 horsepower across the finish line at Santa Pod’s drag strip in 2023. With that record, Rikard is the fastest on two wheels outside the United States.

“When I received a request from Indian Motorcycle about a collaboration, I didn’t hesitate for a second to say yes, that since paint legend Terje Aspmo designed the graphics on the bike, it doesn’t make matters any worse,” says Rikard.

“When I received a request from Indian Motorcycle about a collaboration, I didn’t hesitate for a second to say yes, that since paint legend Terje Aspmo designed the graphics on the bike, it doesn’t make matters any worse,” says Rikard.

“For me, Indian Motorcycle stands for the same basic values ​​that I carried with me throughout my 32 years in racing. It’s about community, feeling, drive to develop and always focusing on the end result. Quite simple and for me completely natural values ​​to be able to succeed in our world where a lot is about moving boundaries while at the same time we want to preserve the history that brought us to where we are today.”

For the 2025 racing season, Rikard and his team plan to run parts of the EC season with a premiere at Santa Pod at the end of May.

In addition to the calendar being full of competitions, Rikard will also be gliding around on one of Indian’s hottest news for the year! The all new 101 Scout! A motorcycle that oozes performance and attitude and honors its storied name with dignity. Because it was precisely on an Indian Scout that the legend Burt Monroe wrote history with his speed records at Bonneville and coined the term “The World’s Fastest Indian”.

www.indianmotorcycle.com

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