MotoGP and Harley Davidson Announce Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup: A New Motorcycle World Championship

Harley-Davidson and MotoGP declare Harley-Davidson Baggers World Cup, a new global world championship series.

Harley Davidson and MotoGP have announced a new global world championship series - Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup - which will launch in 2026 and the racing will occur on six racetracks across the USA and Europe.

The six races will be held in:

USA - Circuit of the Americas - March 27-29

Italy - Mugello - May 29-31

Netherlands - Assen - June 26-28

UK - Silverstone - August 7-9

Spain - Aragon - August 28-30

Austria - Red Bull Ring - September 18-20

The final round at Austria’s Red Bull Ring racetrack will be the championship decider. The schedule is designed to mimic MotoGP's three-day race weekends.

The Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup will race highly modified motorcycles based on the company’s Grand American Touring platform. This platform consists of the Road King, the Street Glide lineup, and the Road Glide lineup of motorcycles. The race bikes will be the extremely modified versions dedicated for on-track action.

Previously, Harley-Davidson and MotoGP first announced the conception of this series a few months back in May, details of which were revealed recently that are being shared here.

Why this series? What can we expect?

Any company that participates in a professional racing series especially at world championship levels does it primarily for development and marketing, and of course, because they like racing.

MotoAmerica's Mission King of the Baggers racing series - an exorbitantly modified Harley Davidson bagger racing down a racetrack.

Harley Davidson is not new to racing, the company has been racing since its early days in various local and national-level championships around the USA. Presently, Harley Davidson, along with Indian Motorcycle, is a part of MotoAmerica’s Mission King of the Baggers racing series which has consistently gained massive popularity throughout the US and even outside of it. King of the Baggers run highly modified bagger motorcycles from Harley Davidson and Indian Motorcycle; they’re modified for speed, high ground clearance with complete race suspension and other modifications to the chassis, such as purpose-built swing-arms, as well as complete carbon fibre bodywork for the fairing and the side-hard cases.

The motorcycles in the newly-announced Harley Davidson Bagger World Cup will likely be similar to those in the King of the Baggers championship.

It will be interesting nonetheless and will do quite a lot of good to Harley Davidson’s marketing especially for its “Grand American Touring” category of bagger motorcycles, just like what the King of the Baggers is doing as well. I am sure watching such motorcycles belting down a racetrack will be a unique and thoroughly engaging sight; however, I'm not sure that people in this part of the world will have it broadcasted to them. If it does, I would surely like to watch it!