741’s the Indian that won the war in the Pacific

Years ago I used to own a Velocette Thruxton with the Avon Avonaire full fairing, the bike was a knockout, looked horny & rode extremely well, although not very comfortable, my 6ft frame didn’t agree with the Velo’s sleek, svelte looks, so what’s all this to do with Indian’s you ask, lots of parallels actually. The most annoying thing about this Silver & Blue beauty was the old Farts that would come up to me and say” I used to own one of those” then these O.F’s would tell me it was a 350 MAC model, this was very frustrating, the difference is like comparing a Chev Truck to a Corvette, I notice most 741 owners have the same problem, when people say “Is that there Indian a Chief sonny”? The difficulty here is do you say yes, or “No it’s only a Scout”, well I have just bought a 741 today & am practicing saying ” This is the bike that held back the dreaded Yellow peril”, & if it wasn’t for 741 Scouts we would all be speaking Japanese today, fellow 741 owners its time to come out of the closet & be proud, no more excuses or apologising, Scouts have a prouder heritage than Chiefs anyway. My 741 is in parts, ar’nt they all, & Im getting it delivered to the Crazy Horse Rally in 3.1/2 weeks thats when I will have the Vindian out for it’s first run hopefully, Garry Hogg sent me the Maps today of the planned runs & they are great riding nothing like a local to find the best in a area, we might have to change the name to the International Crazy Horse Rally as we have guests attending from overseas. Chris Knoop rang me tonight about his Cannonball attempt he will be home in 3 weeks, with plenty to tell about his adventurer, Wille G Davidson reckons it was one of the coolest bike on the Rally apparently, pretty high praise I think.Your favourite editor Guido Allan has returned from riding motorcycles around Indo-China (Vietnam) he will be writing this up in the next Smoke Signals, which will be a bumper issue as Phillip White has finished a article on “Topping your Chief” & a article on the Gypsie Tour 2012, I aim trying to finish the Vindian this week & that article as well, hopefully will appear. Just in case you think the 741 pictured above is my recent purchase, sadly no it’s a fairway of going, anyone got a speedo & a generator for a start?