- Home
- Events
- Event Dates
- Harley & Kustom Events
- Bagger Party Race (GER)
Bagger Party Race Series 2023
It sounds like a crazy idea: To race massive and super-heavy touring bikes in a competition race around race circuits, usually the home of highly specialized state-of-the-art racing motorcycles. Yet, no idea is crazy enough not to be tried in the USA – and quite consequently, the “King of the Bagger” has become one of THE most popular racing series in the USA.
European offsprings are in planning, but Germany leads the pack by announcing a shedule of events for the 2023 season. Last years “Bagger Party Race” was an “invitation only” event to “test” the idea in a controlled environment, executed on Friday, July 15th 2022 at the ADAC Test & Training facility in Schlüsselfeld/Franconia/Bavaria/Germany. Now the Race & Party concept goes viral as a multi-race series.
What started as a talk over a glass of wine between Christoph “Chicken” Repp of Harley-Davidson Würzburg and Thomas Voigt, BMW District Manager in spring 2022 soon spread like wildfire to, at least, try something similar in Germany. The following event – by then already supported by BMW, Harley-Davidson and Indian – was such a rousing success that it not only asked for an “encore” but the creation of a complete series.
This series will now start with two confirmed “Bagger Party Race” events, communicated through the official website www.BaggerPartyRace.com. Simultanuously, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube will have BaggerPartyRace related adresses.
The countdown is on, as the first “Showdown” and Partytime is already sheduled for Saturday, May 13th at the Kartbahn Ampfing/Bavaria/Germany. Ampfing is situated in the far south of Bavaria, next to Muehldorf am Inn and roughly 1/3rd of the route between Munich and Passau.
Now second Race date on July 22nd will take place at the MSC Harsewinkel racetrack – Kartbahn Harsewinkel – near Guetersloh in the triangle Bielefeld-Münster-Osnabrück not far from Autobahn/Motorway A2 and A33. The race date has been confirmed which will set the August-date near Berlin as number 3 of the “Bagger Trio-Infernale” race series:
Third and final „Race & Party“-date of the 2023 series is Saturday, August 12th at the Spreewaldring, south of Berlin in the beautiful setting of Spreewald and Maerkische Heide, just off Autobahn A13. Essential informationen such as route, times, ticket pre-sales and other details for visitors and riders are available on the now active wensite of the series: baggerpartyrace.de
Race & Party Dates
Saturday May 13 2023
Kartbahn Ampfing/Bayern/Süddeutschland
Kartshop Ampfing, Notzen 11, 84539 Ampfing, Germany
Ampfing is located in the far south of Bavaria, near Mühldorf am Inn, which is about 1/3 of the way between Munich and Passau.
Saturday/Sunday August 12-13
STC Spreewaldring-Training-Center
Waldhaus 2, 15910 Schönwald OT Waldow, Germany
South of Berlin in the beautiful landscape of the Spreewald and Märkischer Heide, almost directly on the A13 freeway.
Saturday July 22nd 2023
Kartbahn Harsewinkel/Nordrhein-Westfalen/Germany
Boomberge 28, 33428 Harsewinkel
Harsewinkel is situated near Guetersloh in the triangle Bielefeld-Münster-Osnabrück not far from Autobahn/Motorway A2 and A33. The Kartbahn racetrack is next to the Emstalstadion / Stadium, south of Harsewinkel.
Thunderbike Bagger
Extreme Baggers are not only found in the USA – but also in Germany
As a rule, Baggers are characterized by their design-shaping extensions of the cases. In addition, there are usually modified fairings. With our conversions, we take care to maintain the travel suitability of the touring models, despite some extreme changes.
A special eye catcher is the large front wheel, which comes from our own production for conversions “made by Thunderbike”. Starting with 3-piece wheels, forged aluminum Forged Wheels, to our, milled from the solid, Monoblock wheels.
Our custom wheels are available in numerous dimensions up to 30″. Finishes can be polished, powder coated or anodized, matte, gloss and additionally contour milled (bicolor cut).
For a brutal look, our 26″ front wheels, like here the forged Unbreakable front wheel 3.75×26. In combination with our Bolt-On Bagger Rake kit and front fender “Daytona” it is easy to install. For better deceleration our floating 340mm brake disc provides.
SIDENOTE: WTF is a Bagger?
Just for clarification and explanation of the term “Bagger” which in German language stands for the “excavator” type construction machine, and is not necessarily widespread even in motorcyclist circles: It does men the “real thing”, no matter how big and heavy as well as the sandbox toy, as long as it has a shovel. Of course, in this series no shovel-equipped construction machines with chains or generously dimensioned off-road tires are racing against each other! Even if that would be certainly worth considering…
“Bagger” is the Harley and custom bike insider term for customized heavyweight touring bikes like the Harley-Davidson “Electra Glide”, “Tour Glide” or “Road Glide”, Indian’s “Challenger” and the R-18 B or R-18 Transcontinental. In the literal sense, of course, “Bagger” comes from bag, equal to plastic/GRP or carbon made sidecases in the motorcycle world.
In the U.S., the “Bagger Racing League” (BRL) and “King of the Bagger Series” racers are highly modified and tuned racing machines that now are part of the official AMA racing series since 2021, including prestigious events like the Daytona 200. Since a topcase has a very “detrimental” effect (to put it mildly…) on handling from and aerodynamic and stabilisation point of view, the race Baggers – now also a up-and-coming customizing style in its own right – are limited to (empty) bags or even only “fake” panniers at the rear.
While “real” Baggers shine with extreme modifications in terms of wheel sizes – big at the front, wide at the rear – fairing, stretchtanks and stereo equipment, only slightly modified production tourers compete in the German “Bagger Race Party” series.
The actual “origin” of the really fast “Bagger” lies a few years back and can be placed to the Salt Flats of Bonneville: In 2006, the Klock Werks team competed in the Discovery Channel “Biker Build-Off”: with a Bagger.
Not any Bagger, but a sophisticated “one off” handcrafted Touring-Supersport bike that was not only supposed to look good and have some “punch” in the engine, but was also supposed to set records in the “BUB Speed Trials”. Consequently, the unofficial title of “World Fastest Bagger” was born and Laura Klock catapulted the monsterbike to astonishing 161 mph (259.104 km/h) in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The challenge was taken up.
Chris Rivas raised the record bar in 2012 to over 200 mph (321 km/h) and meanwhile there is Drag Racing and (you wouldn’t believe it if you didn’t see it) Dirt Track with Baggers. And anybody who saw at the Sturgis Rally 2015 at the Buffalo Chip Hillclimb the private (…) (stock!) Electra-Glide (with street tires !!) stomp up a good third of the Hillclimb track can guess how much potential there is in the theme…
Drill Teams
“Drill teams” with rehearsed formation rides are mainly found in the USA. Rainer Schwarz, the long-time official Harley stuntman in Europe, showed what else you can do with the big tourers. Garage 65 already had “Power Bagger” in the 0’s, and baggers of the extra class also had a chance at the AMD World Championship series.