Harley-Davidson Pulls Its Factory Team Out of King of the Baggers

Well, that one stings. On October 1, Harley-Davidson announced it's pulling its factory team out of MotoAmerica's Mission King of the Baggers championship. The 2026 season that just wrapped up was the last one for the Harley-Davidson Factory Racing bagger team.

King of the Baggers started as a one-off stunt race at Laguna Seca in 2020 and turned into one of the best shows in American road racing: full-size touring bikes dragging fairings through corners at triple-digit speeds. For six seasons it came down to Harley vs. Indian. Now one half of that fight is walking away.

What Harley Actually Announced

Harley isn't quitting racing. It's moving its money and engineers to the FIM Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup, the one-make Road Glide series that ran its first season in 2026 as a support class at MotoGP weekends. Harley says the World Cup will grow in 2027 with more teams, more riders and more races, with the full schedule still to come.

The company also says it will keep backing grassroots racing, and that what the factory team learned will go into future bikes and Screamin' Eagle performance parts. CEO Artie Starrs framed it as putting "the fastest Harley-Davidson motorcycles on the biggest stage."

Six Years of Bagger Wars

The championship traded back and forth between the two American brands every single year:

• 2021 – Kyle Wyman, Harley-Davidson
• 2022 – Tyler O'Hara, Indian
• 2023 – Hayden Gillim, Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson
• 2024 – Troy Herfoss, Indian
• 2025 – Kyle Wyman, Harley-Davidson
• 2026 – Hayden Gillim, Vance & Hines Indian

Harley went out swinging. In the rain from a nor'easter at the New Jersey Motorsports Park finale, Kyle Wyman won the very last race for the factory team. That was win number 27 for Wyman, the most in the series' history. His teammate Bradley Smith finished second in the 2026 championship behind Gillim.

Why Now?

Harley's statement is all about strategy, but anyone who followed the series knows the rulebook was a constant headache. Harley's air-cooled, pushrod 2,152cc Milwaukee-Eight racing Indian's liquid-cooled, overhead-cam 1,835cc PowerPlus isn't an easy matchup to balance. MotoAmerica kept adjusting rev limits and other rules to keep it even, and nobody was ever totally happy.

Indian rolled in 2026, winning 10 of 14 races with the Vance & Hines team. Indian has already said it's coming back in 2027 with Gillim and Herfoss on a multi-year deal. MotoAmerica says the late timing creates challenges, and it's looking at every option to keep the class going.

What It Means for the Rest of Us

For the guys in the stands it's a bummer. The Harley vs. Indian rivalry is what made King of the Baggers special. Privateer Harley teams will probably still show up, but it's hard to replace a factory budget and a factory engineering crew.

For the guys in the garage, the performance bagger scene isn't going anywhere. If anything, racing proved what these bikes can do with the right parts: bigger brakes, real suspension, less weight and more power. That stuff is on the street now, and it'll keep showing up whether Harley's on the MotoAmerica grid or not.

Build Your Own Race-Inspired Bagger

You don't need a factory contract to get your bagger handling and stopping like it means it. Here's where to start:

• Brake Rotors – bigger, lighter rotors are the first thing every bagger racer upgrades
• Suspension – shocks and fork upgrades so your bagger holds a line in a corner
• Hofmann Designs Carbon Fiber – dashes, side covers, lids and fenders that drop weight and look the part
• Exhaust – 2-into-1 systems that free up power
• Air Cleaners – let it breathe
• Handlebars – moto-style bars for real control

Talk Baggers With Us

Building a performance bagger this winter? Call us at (978) 710-4913 or email sales@deadbeatcustoms.com and we'll help you put together the right parts for your bike. Want more? Check out the rest of the Deadbeat blog.