After six seasons, Harley-Davidson's factory race team is done with MotoAmerica King of the Baggers. Harley announced on October 1, 2026 that its factory team and official team support in the series end after the 2026 season. Within hours, the internet had already decided why: “Harley quit because they lost.” Honestly? I don't get it. I think a lot of people are just looking for a reason to divide riders, and it's an uneducated, knee-jerk reaction to the news. So in this article and video, I'm laying out the history, the facts, and where Harley is racing now, because it's a lot bigger than you might think. (see video below)

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What Harley-Davidson Actually Announced

Starting in 2027, Harley is splitting its racing into two programs. Premier Racing is the FIM Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup. Grassroots Racing gives everyday riders a chance to compete on a Harley at places like the local drag strip and flat track.

As part of that change, Harley's factory team and official support in King of the Baggers end after this season. Harley Road Glides aren't necessarily leaving the grid, though. Privateer teams, meaning independent teams without factory backing, can still race them, just without official support from Harley.

Kyle Wyman, who raced for Harley's factory team, said Harley “strapped me to a rocket ship, and we rode it all the way to the moon.” He finished with six seasons, two championships, and 27 wins, the most in series history. And he's not retiring.

How King of the Baggers Started

King of the Baggers started as a one-off race at Laguna Seca in October 2020. It wasn't factory teams back then. It was aftermarket companies and racers on both Harleys and Indians, and an Indian won it.

A lot of fans thought it would be a joke. Instead, it pulled over nine million views on social media. By 2021 it was a full national championship, and by the end of that year, half of all MotoAmerica's online video views were King of the Baggers. That got the factories' attention, and both Harley and Indian brought factory teams.

How the Bikes Evolved

Once the factories got involved, these bikes changed fast. A stock bagger weighs around 820 pounds, and the race bikes got down to about 620. Power climbed past 190 horsepower, and at Daytona, these bikes have been clocked at over 185 miles per hour. On a bagger.

That development didn't stay on the track. Harley's Screamin' Eagle 135 crate engine was developed using King of the Baggers race data, and race-inspired bikes like the CVO Road Glide ST and RR followed. On the Indian side, there was the Challenger RR race replica, and now there's ARO (American Racing Operations), Indian's new performance line. I actually run the ARO exhaust on my own Roadmaster.

Bigger Than Racing

King of the Baggers was never just about racing. It put a spotlight on the whole performance bagger scene at a time the industry really needed it. US motorcycle sales dropped 7.6% in 2025, and touring bikes were down 13%. Those are exactly the bikes Harley and Indian depend on. A race series that made baggers exciting was good for Harley, good for Indian, and good for the aftermarket companies that helped start it.

When I sat down with Indian CEO Mike Kennedy earlier this year, he credited the racing program as part of why the Challenger line was outperforming the rest of Indian's lineup. You can hear it straight from him in my interview: Indian Motorcycle CEO Mike Kennedy Interview.

The Championship Back-and-Forth

This is where the “Harley quit because they lost” argument falls apart. In six full seasons, Harley-Davidson won three championships and Indian won three. No manufacturer has ever won back-to-back titles. They traded the crown every single year. Nobody dominated, and that's exactly what made it so great for us fans.

Did Harley Quit Because They Lost?

I don't think so. First, Harley has lost before. Indian beat them in 2022 and again in 2024, and both times Harley came right back and won the next year.

Second, and this is the big one, Harley announced the Bagger World Cup back in 2025. That's the same year Harley won the King of the Baggers championship. This plan was in motion long before Indian's 2026 season. Indian was dominant this year, winning 10 of 14 races, but one dominant season doesn't erase six years of history.

There's also a leadership angle. Artie Starrs became Harley's CEO on October 1, 2025, and this announcement came out on his one-year anniversary to the day. It looks like his first big racing decision. Since he took over, Harley has been in a big reset. Profits dropped 26% in 2025, and the company is working to cut at least $150 million in costs. Was part of this a financial decision? Harley hasn't said, and I don't know the numbers. But Harley also said it's investing to grow the Bagger World Cup, so this looks less like cutting and more like moving its focus.

What Is the Bagger World Cup?

The official name is the FIM Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup. The FIM is the International Motorcycling Federation, the worldwide governing body for motorcycle racing, so this is an official world-level series.

It's important to know that the Bagger World Cup is not MotoGP. These aren't MotoGP riders or MotoGP bikes. But it's more than just racing on MotoGP tracks. It's a support class that races during actual MotoGP race weekends, on the same track, in front of the same crowd, right alongside the main MotoGP races. Think of it like the undercard at a big boxing match. It was developed by Harley-Davidson and MotoGP together, along with the FIM and IRTA (the International Road Racing Teams Association).

The first season was 2026, with six rounds and twelve races. It kicked off at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, then went to Italy, the Netherlands, England, Spain, and Austria.

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Why the Bigger Stage Matters

According to Harley-Davidson, MotoGP reaches a global fanbase of 632 million people, while MotoAmerica has a little over 5.6 million digital followers. Those numbers measure different things, but either way, the gap is enormous. The Bagger World Cup puts Harley's bikes in front of a worldwide audience without Harley having to compete in MotoGP itself.

What Is a Spec Series?

The Bagger World Cup is a spec series, which is a big difference from King of the Baggers. In a spec series, every rider races the same machine, built to the same specification. Teams can't build their own bikes or outspend each other on engineering, so it comes down to the rider, the team's setup, and strategy.

In the Bagger World Cup, Harley-Davidson Factory Racing builds identical Road Glides and supplies them to the teams. Bikes are even assigned to riders by lottery. They run a 131-cubic-inch Screamin' Eagle Milwaukee-Eight engine making over 200 horsepower, weigh about 617 pounds, and top out around 186 miles per hour.

The Part Everyone's Missing

My contact at Harley-Davidson pointed out something that's getting overlooked. Because it's a spec series, Harley can put all of its racing engineering into one platform. Instead of building a bike to beat Indian, they're building the best Road Glide they can, and that makes it much easier to turn what they learn on the track into Screamin' Eagle parts for the street. Harley said as much in its announcement. The development doesn't stop. It just shifts.

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Who Races in the Bagger World Cup?

It's a mix of American bagger racers and international riders from other world championships, including former MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone. The first champion was Archie McDonald from Australia, and just 10 points separated first and third.

Some King of the Baggers riders also jumped in as wildcards, meaning guest riders who race a weekend or two instead of the whole season. Bradley Smith won a race at Silverstone in England, and Kyle Wyman and James Rispoli each landed on the podium in Austria. For American fans, the only US round in 2026 was at Circuit of the Americas, and COTA is still the only US stop on the 2027 MotoGP calendar.

Where King of the Baggers Goes From Here

Indian will be the only factory team in 2027, with this year's champion Hayden Gillim and 2024 champion Troy Herfoss confirmed. From what my contact at Indian tells me, they haven't picked a third rider yet. Everyone else will be privateer teams on both Harleys and Indians.

Can privateers really compete with a factory team's money, engineers, and testing? It's tough. Indian's factory riders won 10 of 14 races this year. But privateers can still sneak onto the podium, like SDI Racing's Tyler O'Hara did at both COTA and New Jersey.

Here's what really gets me. King of the Baggers was growing. MotoAmerica's TV viewership was up 540% this year, its social media following passed 5.6 million, and attendance has gone up six years in a row. MotoAmerica announced that record growth on September 24. One week later, Harley pulled its factory team. I think King of the Baggers will go on in 2027, but I do worry about what happens after that without Harley and Indian going head to head.

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My Predictions for 2027

These are just my opinions. First, I think the Bagger World Cup grows, since Harley has already promised more teams, riders, and races. Second, based on those wildcard results, I'd be surprised if we don't see some King of the Baggers riders on the full-time Bagger World Cup grid. Third, Indian goes into 2027 as the heavy favorite in King of the Baggers. And fourth, watch for new Screamin' Eagle parts tied to the Bagger World Cup.

My Take

Selfishly, I'm sad. I look forward to every King of the Baggers race, and I'm going to miss watching Harley and Indian go head to head with factory teams. But nothing stays the same. Harley helped build King of the Baggers into what it is today, and now it's stepping onto a much bigger stage with a spec platform that's better for developing parts for our bikes.

Over the years, I've said, and others have agreed, that we wished all the riders had the same bike, so it came down to rider skill instead of horsepower or torque. That's exactly what the Bagger World Cup is. I'm looking forward to following it, and I'll still be watching King of the Baggers to see how the privateers stack up against the Indian factory team.

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Watch the Full Video

In this video, I break down everything about Harley-Davidson leaving King of the Baggers, the Bagger World Cup, and what it all means for bagger racing in 2027.