Riding a motorcycle is dangerous. The understatement of the century, right? Riders trade traditional safety features like seatbelts, vehicle-mounted airbags, and even walls for a sense of freedom and exposure. However, the 2025 Indian Motorcycles lineup thinks motorcycle safety can learn a thing or two from today’s cars, trucks, and SUVs with features like Blind Spot Warning and Rear Collision Warning. 

I got up close and personal with the new Indian Motorcycles safety suite, and things just got safer for everyone

It happens every day. A motorist, whether distracted or otherwise, bumps into a motorcycle rider at an intersection. The impact is often more than enough to knock the bike and its rider to the ground. Or worse. However, Indian Motorcycles’ new safety functions might have a remedy. 

For 2025, the Indian Chieftain and Challenger family get more than a new PowerPlus 112 engine. The touring bikes get a safety suite, including a Blind Spot Warning, Tailgate Warning, and Rear Collision Warning. It sounds like the list of safety features you might expect to find on a new car, but not necessarily on a bike. After all, most new cars come with some semblance of Blind Spot Monitoring (BSM).

I went to Las Vegas, Nevada, to experience the new auto industry-inspired safety tech firsthand. The motorcycle safety suite is accessible via the Chieftain and Challenger’s 7-inch touchscreen RIDE COMMAND system. That means you could turn off the Blind Spot Warning system with the push of a button.

But I wouldn’t. I found the system helpful, letting me know when a fellow rider or car was in the danger zone, also known as the ever-elusive blind spot. While a typical BSM system uses a small amber, orange, or yellow indicator to notify a motorist, the mirror-mounted system on the motorcycles was more of a half-parenthesis, covering the entire inside edge of the teardrop mirrors. Any time my riding buddy closed the gap a bit too much, the golden indicator let me know. Better yet, the warning does so without being too intrusive.

A little black box

The source of the Indian Motorcycle’s new rear-facing safety chops resides in a little black box. The Bosch-sourced unit sits just above the factory license plate mount right between the taillamps. If a tailgating vehicle gets too close, the little sensor array sends a signal to the RIDE COMMAND system. From the saddle, the rider can see a two-stage indicator at the bottom of the infotainment screen warning them of a tailgater.

As my two-wheeled companion rode a bit too close to the rear of my Indian Challenger, a small yellow Tailgate Warning bar popped up at the bottom of my screen. Further, as they closed the gap even more, the little bar widened to let me know that I had a tailgater. Of course, in this case, it was just another motorcycle pilot. However, it could have easily been an aggravated Audi driver on my tail.

The little tail-mounted Bosch unit also facilitates the Chieftain and Challenger family’s Rear Collision Alert System. As a distracted driver closes in with the rear of the motorcycle, the system flashes the saddlebag-mounted brake lights to alert the approaching driver.

However, even with an arsenal of PowerBand speakers, I didn’t get any audible alert in any setting of a rapidly approaching danger. What’s more, the rear-collision facility doesn’t alert the rider via the RIDE COMMAND system like the Blind Spot Warning and Tailgate Warning features.

As for future applications, a spokesperson at Indian mentioned that the brand is open to offering the safety feature on other models down the line. It brings to mind the new Indian Sport Chief RT, a Harley-Davidson Low Rider ST competitor with Club Style DNA and space for a set of blind-spot-monitoring mirrors.

Don’t roll back now, you hear?

It’s a common concern among new bagger-buyers. Taking off on a steep hill with an 842-lb 2025 Indian Challenger can be tricky, especially with a car’s front bumper shaving the rear fender. To combat the daunting task, the new Chieftain and Challenger bikes feature Bike Hold Control.

Like Ford’s Hill Start Assist facility (HSA), Bike Hold Control applies brake pressure after a rider stops on a steep hill. Then it’s a matter of taking off without rolling back into suspiciously close tailgaters. Of course, the rider will have to remember to activate the hill-holding feature, unlike some of the bike’s other functions.