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Harley-Davidson’s decision to end its factory participation and official team support in MotoAmerica’s King of the Baggers after the 2026 season landed hard across the V-Twin world. Racing has always been more than trophies and lap times in this industry. It sells motorcycles, pushes parts development, builds rivalries and gives people a reason to care about what comes next.
That makes the bigger question worth asking: does racing still matter to the V-Twin industry?
Four Racers, Four Different Views
For ShopTalk Episode 356, we brought together four people who see motorcycle competition from very different angles: Rob Buydos of Bagger Racing League, Mark Hendrix of Tobacco Road Harley-Davidson, Mike Beland of A1 Cycles Racing and ten-time Grand National Champion Jared Mees.
That mix matters. Buydos has helped build an independent home for bagger racing. Hendrix comes at it from the dealership and team side. Beland has spent years racing everything from dirt track to Top Fuel and high-performance baggers. Mees knows what it takes to build a career, a fan base and a championship legacy around American motorcycle racing.
Harley Is Changing Direction, Not Walking Away From Racing
The headline is easy to oversimplify. Harley-Davidson is leaving its factory King of the Baggers program after 2026, but the Motor Company says its 2027 strategy will center on two areas: expanding the FIM Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup and building more accessible grassroots racing opportunities. We broke down that shift earlier on CycleSource.com in our look at Harley-Davidson’s 2027 racing strategy.
What happens next for King of the Baggers is a different question. The series grew on the strength of Harley-Davidson versus Indian, factory development and the simple spectacle of huge touring motorcycles doing things nobody expected them to do. Take one factory out of that equation and the pressure moves to teams, promoters, dealers and privateers to decide what the next version looks like.
Why Competition Still Matters
This episode isn’t about declaring one racing series dead or pretending every form of competition is healthy. It’s about what racing gives back to the motorcycles people actually ride. Development under pressure exposes weak parts, rewards better engineering and gives manufacturers a proving ground that no dyno sheet can completely replace.
It also gives the industry characters, stories and rivalries. That matters when the goal is bringing new people into motorcycling instead of talking only to the people already here.
Along the way, we also check out an FXR from Logic Cycles and take a closer look at the BST Forged Fusion carbon-fiber fuel tank from Brock’s Performance. In other words, it’s still ShopTalk: racing, motorcycles, parts and all the two-wheel bullshit we can fit into one show.
Watch the full episode above. If you care about where V-Twin racing goes from here, this is one of those conversations where the people at the table matter as much as the headline.