Indian Motorcycle and Workhorse Speed Shop have revealed the second of two very special Indian FTR builds. Hot on the heels of the Workhorse FTR AMA comes Black Swan, a totally different, but no less radical, take on what can be achieved with the FTR.
Black Swan was a concept that Workhorse founder, Brice Hennebert, conceived several years ago when racing at Wheels & Waves against Miracle Mike, the Indian Scout by The Young Guns. As with the Workhorse FTR AMA build, the style inspirations come from multiple directions and eras, 90s superbikes, modern Grand Prix racers, and even Rauh-Welt tuned Porsches.
After preliminary sketches, Brice took a trip to Akrapovic HQ in Solvenia to help fabricate the beautiful 2-1 exhaust system, with the underslung muffler keeping the sleek profile Brice envisioned. Back at his workshop, having narrowly avoided being delayed in Solvenia by the closed borders happening around the world at the time, Brice constructed a wire mesh around the FTR as a base on which to model the bodywork in clay.
While Formae perfected the body design, Brice turned to chassis modifications such as the fuel tank fabrication around the original air intake system. Tim from Vinco Racing Engineering helped with a lot CNC machined components from Brice’s designs such as the swingarm fitting, chassis plates, triple trees, fuel cell components and more.
When the CAD model of the one-piece body was finalised, it was 3D printed and passed to Robert Colyns from 13.8 Composites, a master in carbon fibre fabrication. 13.8 Composites worked on the print to create a perfect surface from which to produce a mould for the one-piece body.
With the body now realised, including an aluminium bellypan for better resistance to exhaust heat, Brice now had to implement one of his primary ideas, a system to dramatically reveal and hide the headlight.
The effort was definitely worth it. With the carbon body, closed ‘eyelids’ and the 3D printed elements on the body, Black Swan really lives up to its name. The use of 3D printing – a feature that Black Swan shares with the FTR AMA build – allowed Brice to accent the body shape quickly and simply in a ‘wink’ to the wide-body kits in Japan, mixing high-performance competition style and street mods.
Always looking to add as much fabrication to a build as possible, the details that set Workhorse builds apart, Brice fabricated a new swingarm from 7020 aluminium. Retaining the original suspension mounting point, Ohlins Racing provide a special piggyback shock in black to match the overall theme, complemented by special black front forks.
Finishing touches were provided by Jeroen from Silver Machine Seats who covered the seat and g the dash with Alcantara, inspired by Hypercar dashboards.
