Year end round-up

Well this year came and went like a “shot out of a gun” as my Dad would say, speaking of which the past events this year that were fairly busy with runs, rallies and social events. The rallies were as such the Midnight Express in January with Pete Kime and his FOC “Shoo Roo”s for participants, February was a good Sitting Bull rally at Inverloch with Noel Thornby, then came July with our Rain in the Face rally at Beechworth that Gary Hogg ran superbly and we never got wet, October came and went with the Crazy Horse rally totally booked out at Dunkeld thanks to Pete Kime. The social events were well catered for as well with Christmas in July and the Christmas Party (November) both at the Old England Hotel In Heidelberg. Then of course our fearless Club Captain Owen Jones handled the first Sunday of the month rides (unless a rally was in that month) in his own unique manner. The Association meetings were on the last Tuesday of the month at the Pascoe Vale Hotel, plenty happened a new President and Secretary and treasurer, also new Own Rules were voted in and as usual a new Clubman of the Year was awarded at the AGM.
So 2020 the “Roaring Twenties” are upon us with our 10 year anniversary this year it is a virtual repeat except that in October we replace the Crazy Horse with a 10 day tour to Handorf in S.Aust (9-19 Oct) and back and that will be limited to 20 only individuals the first priority will be to old Indians then newer versions and then other red plate suitable bikes, I would suggest you get the old girl out and give her a good kicking and I don’t mean your missus.

It’s Harley Friday

Christmas comes once a year

Fun on a Indian

Keith Gibson having fun

Years ago a old mate of mine Keith Gibson (now deceased) had a 20’s Indian Scout which he was quite proud of, Keith was the type of bloke that would bend over backwards to help anybody and would give you the shirt off his back. So Christmas, Easter or any fund raising for charity or helping orphans Keith would drag out the Scout, here he is giving kids a ride in a trailer, imagine OH&S now but those were better days. Keith’s Scout is now owned by his son-in-law Pete Herne hopefully he still gets it out doing the same things

There is more riders than I thought

That year went fast

Seems only 6 months ago since Christmas was here, strange as when I was a kid it took two years to come around. Seriously though things go fast these days the year included, in this past 12 months we did the Midnight Express in January (and its up again on 11th of Jan 2020) followed by the Sitting Bull Rally at Inverloch in February, then the Rain in the face Rally in June, the Crazy Horse in October thats not counting monthly meetings (none on this month) 1st Sunday of the month rides and Christmas in July as well as the Christmas Party last week! Next years starts with a bang with all of the above except the Crazy Horse in October which is replaced with the 10 day Anniversary ride to Harndorf S.Aust. So that means plenty of fun and over the Christmas break get your Indian in tip-top riding condition as they still require maintenance.

Indian factory accessories

Another batch of brakes available

Yes after 12 months demand another limited batch on TLS Indian brakes are available, the one pictured above is girder or Tele fork type and of course the earlier leaf spring fork type is available. Either contact Mark at Crazy Horse Moto or Phil at UnionJack motorcycles 0394996428, a special discounted price is available only for current IIRA members only. There are now over 80 of these out around the world and they have proven safe and successful order now to procure yours as I’m thinking of discontinuing the early leaf variation to concentrate on only post war types

Necessary items for the next Anniversary Rally

The Challenger, but is it?

Lots of media attention to Indian’s new bike and especially the new engine due to be released near the end of this month, the new donk is supposedly a old Victory engine that never made it to production, it has similar looks to a current Scout or Victory Octane engine. So will it “cut the mustard” time will tell of course the existing chief Thunderstroke engines are reliable and trouble free and now upgraded to 116 cu, they had few problems maybe “runs very hot” being the main problem it never helped leaving off the oil cooler I expect. This new engine is oil & liquid cooled and 108 cu in capacity (1770cc) so that will help but I worry that the main problem is that the baby boomers this does appeal to are fast approaching 70 or well over it and I can tell you for a fact bikes tipping the scales at 800 lbs are not really on the shopping list, this Challenger will be Challenging more like it. So Indian please listen, your new model should the distinctly Indian, be manufactured for LAMS (under 670cc) for lots of new riders, be light and clean, not cluttered and be cheap to service $600 is to dear to service a motorcycle $200 is just tolerable, parts should be cheap not $1200 for a rear guard or $2000 for a fuel tank for example! I do admire the fact Polaris has in fact made the Thunderstroke and the Scout engine from scratch since 2014 (5 years ago) and now they are out with another engine, the Motor Co has’t really developed a radical new engine since the model U Knucklehead in 1938 just re-engineered the same old same old so in that respect Indian have a Challenger