Bagger Motorcycles

A Bagger is a motorcycle that is equipped with panniers but is much leaner and lighter than a full-dress touring bike: it’s the best of both worlds - practicality alongside style and great riding dynamics helped by less weight. Here’s our list of the best baggers available in 2022.

Harley-Davidsons are commonly used as canvases by custom bikemakers all around the world, but there’s just something special about an all-American custom Harley-Davidson. One such custom Hog has been prepped by Southern Country Customs (hereon called SCC), a custom shop founded by ex-NASCAR driver Rusty Wallace, and as you’d expect from a man of such caliber, the build is quite insane, including the equally insane price tag.

Harley-Davidson cultivates the “performance bagger” build within its Grand American Touring ranks with its new-for-2022 Road Glide ST. This is the fixed-fairing sibling of the Street Glide ST, and it rocks much of the same yummygoodness with the powerful Milwaukee-Eight 117 to push it all down the road. Infotainment and luggage come stock, but the factory holds its cornering-sensitive rider aids in reserve as part of the optional gear package.

Harley-Davidson adds some much-needed vim, vigor, and vitality to its Grand American Touring lineup with the new-for-2022 Street Glide ST model. This is a bagger based on the large tourbike frame with the classic Batwing fairing up front and lots of long distance-comfort items on board. Best of all, it comes with a performance bent due to the Milwaukee-Eight 117 powerplant and optional electronic engine-management goodies.

Indian Motorcycle rolled into MY2020 with an all-new model family – the Challenger – that comes complete with a new look, powerful 122-horsepower PowerPlus engine and improved safety equipment to keep America’s oldest bike builder competitive against challengers domestic and abroad. The inaugural year sees a trio of packages ready for public consumption, but it’s the sinister, boulevard-bruiser blackout Dark Horse version we’re going to look at today. Like the rest of the Dark Horse category, it makes a visceral connection to the custom-life underbelly of American motorcycling and brings a showroom-custom vibe to the new Challenger line.

Indian Motorcycle carried over its popular Chieftain Dark Horse into MY2020 with much the same custom panache, but repowered it with the Thunder Stroke 116 engine. Classic historical touches abound on this ride for a healthy dose of nostalgia, but of course, it rocks all of the factory’s electronic fandanglery to make it a thoroughly modern machine. Whether you want to do some light touring or just do some boulevard cruising, the Chieftain Dark Horse brings something to the table for you.

Harley-Davidson’s CVO Road Glide is a bona fide showroom showstopper with lots of chrome and a trio of new paint packages. Powered by a top-shelf Milwaukee-Eight 117 engine – the largest production engine from the MoCo to date – this machine rolls with stock ride safety-control features that keep all that power under control. Stock bags and fairings complete the bagger ensemble to make this a viable bike for performance-minded riders looking to tour, cruise, or just boulevard bruise.

Indian Motorcycle is proving to be quick to capitalize on popular products, and the Springfield Dark Horse is yet another example that drives the point home. The Springfield Dark Horse seeks to ride on the success of the Jack Daniel’s Limited Edition model that made such a splash at Daytona. Bad-boy blackout is a constant throughout the paint packages up for grabs this year, as are the factory-custom touches that set this model apart from the crowd. Best of all, Indian powers it with the Thunder Stroke 116 that boosts power and performance even further with over 120 pound-feet of torque on tap.

Indian Motorcycle cashes in on its deep design roots with the Springfield model that hit the market in ’16 and has been carried over into the 2022 model year with nary but a few adjustments to the color palette. Power comes from what was Indian’s largest production engine prior to 2020, along with ABS and keyless ignition on board, but it’s the classic, old-school bagger looks that drive sales of this particular unit. Best of all, it’s among the least expensive of the available baggers, and that positions it well within the boulevard-bruiser/light-tour categories.

After a revamp for the 2018 model year, Softail underpinnings are all radically different than the originals, but the overall classic look of the Heritage Classic remains largely unchanged for the requisite historical tie-in. Harley-Davidson put a new emphasis on the Softail lineup with plenty of performance-driven custom designs for the fiery-eyed pegdraggers out there, but for someone looking for an old-school cruiser and tour bike, the Heritage Classic is your Huckleberry.

Harley-Davidson updated its sharknosed Road Glide in 2017 and replaced the little-loved Twin Cam engine with its new Milwaukee-Eight powerplant, a combination that persists into model-year 2022. There were a handful of aesthetic adjustments made over that span, but the model remains pretty much as it was when it hit the showroom floors in MY17. On the current-year model, top-shelf infotainment capabilities join with a plush suspension system and premium paint packages to deliver the comfort and style H-D riders expect, and the Mil-8 107 engine turns out the torque that we demand.

BMW’s K 1600 GT bridges the gap between the straight-up bagger K 1600 B and the K 1600 GTL tour bike that all saw a host of improvements ahead of MY2022. A revised powerplant brings more torque than before along with new electronics to help it meet its EU-5 emissions rating. Adaptive lighting moves from the options list over to the standard equipment package along with a new multi-function TFT instrument interface and new optional gear from which to choose.

To some, cannibalising a 1929 Indian Four to turn it into an electric powered bike might seem like sacrilege but, to this guy from Detroit, it’s just another cog in the wheel of history.

Harley-Davidsons might be hefty and slow steering, but they make epic drag bikes, thanks to their sky-high torque numbers and long wheelbase. But is this enough to beat a liter-class bike in a quarter-mile run?

Well, that’s exactly what this unique drag race is going to answer.

Indian Motorcycle rolled into MY2020 with a net-new bagger family powered by an all-new powerplant with some serious ride-quality and safety features as the icing on the cake. The “Challenger” range marks a new era for America’s oldest motorcycle manufacturer with impressive power numbers and a look that’s borrows from the past even while it reaches for new territory and, I’m sure the factory hopes, an expanded buyer base. Fixed fairings, new electronics, and a powerful engine are the hallmarks of this machine, and it’ll be interesting to see how it performs in the market against its longtime domestic foe, Harley-Davidson.

Indian gets the 2022 racing season off to a perfect start, taking the top step of the podium at both rounds of Daytona’s King of the Baggers races and taking the win at the Volusia flat track round on the same weekend.

Royal Enfields are popular with custom bikemakers and from scramblers to cafe racers, we’ve seen them all. But TNT Motorcycles, based out of India has taken the road less traveled and has come up with a one-off custom bagger motorcycle based on a Royal Enfield Interceptor 650

Dubbed the Neelkantha, which translates to blue neck (this explains the color), the project was sponsored by Royal Enfield themselves. The whole project costs north of $26,000 and comprises loads of custom parts made by TNT Motorcycles.

Let’s take a closer look at this chopper.

The biggest sport-tourer in Yamaha’s lineup is better than ever. In 2016, the FJR1300A and its stablemate the FJR1300ES saw some evolutionary changes that brought just enough tweaks to make them smoother, more comfortable rides. Probably the biggest change in that update was in the transmission with the addition of a sixth gear and adding a slipper clutch to reduce hand fatigue at the clutch lever. Both of these tourers run a 1,298 cc liquid-cooled four-banger and come on a sportbike frame for a bit more thrill than just a tourbike.

BMW beat its K 1600 tourbike platform mercilessly with the buffhammer for the ’22 model year, and the result is a marked improvement over the previous generation for its bagger-tastic “B” variant. Updated electronics and out-of-this-world graphics join a souped-up engine and specialized LED lighting to make this a significant upgrade worthy of the “new” tag. This model is clearly aimed at the U.S. market, or at least at riders interested in a proper Boulevard Bruiser with strong, American-style touring capabilities.

For 2022, Harley Davidson is going all out for performance with a 117cu.in. engine, coupled with custom-scene inspired paint jobs on the CVO models.

Honda greeted the new decade with a buffed-up, base-model Gold Wing range that’s best described as a BNG-Plus treatment with a few extra goodies thrown in. Updated damping values tune up the suspension system along with improved electronics to complete the package. Of course, this is all accompanied by the performance and handling that has always held the Gold Wing in good stead and keep the line in an excellent competitive position within the U.S. Market.