Looks like a Indian motor to me
Will Barthelmie’s (Mark’s son) has just done a report on the recent Great Race 2016 in Tasmania which some of us on the Gypsy Tour decided to participate in, it was a fantastic time and if you have never done one in the past I would suggest it to be on your “bucket list” click on the link below
There is no where in the world iconic as Elizabeth St in Melbourne, it has a solid strip of motorcycle shops selling all brands and real estate prices are outrageous, but back in 70’s both sides of this street were loaded with shops until the 80’s when what you see here disappeared and Japanese dept store Diamaroo bulldozed the whole block and what you see disappeared. What people never realized is the room above the Camera Supply shop was chock full of collectable Brit bike spares, and Yamaha City was the last place I saw 8 Vincents and 6 BSA Goldstars for sale all under $1600!
Burt Munro’s birthday,being born in 1899 he would have been over 116 years old now, but I reckon he would probably be laughing that even now people would still be remembering him in 2016 more or less a Indian he built in a back yard shed and took a world record on
It’s hard to be back to work after a great time away with your mates for 12 days and you start to think this time last week I was in say St Helens preparing for a sumptuous BBQ after a good evening meal in Swansea and a stay in luxurious accommodation, yes the hard fact is the best thing about work is planning your next holiday.
The combination of the International Gypsy Tour and the world famous Great Race 2016 in Tasmania has been testing on men, woman and machines, with over 2,000 Klm’s traveling of some of the bikes on the IIRA Gypsy Tour only one 1953 Blackhawk died and out of the odd moderns a Triumph T160 Trident DOA (dead on arrival) and a Kawasaki Drifter DNF (did not finish) by far the old Indians were the most reliable and although in the Great Race, Harley won this year they were the most prolific broken down of the two makes embarrassingly so. In The Great Race they had over 129 motorcycles entered all pre 1959 and that’s 65 of each brand roughly and the oldest was a 1916 Indian PowerPlus which did the 180 mile ride each day some of it un-made road to sort the “men from the boys”, eight of the Iron Indian riders including the 1916 did the “Race” and all finished in one piece including riders. Other news we were told is that the AMA has started a Australian Section so for people like myself that’s another thing that will be happening on the already full calendar, personally I loved the Tassie 2016 trip and I know all that participated feel the same and I must congratulate Chris Horner for organising it and a big thank you from us all
Indian-Polaris yesterday announced the new Springfield model, this was not a surprise as the rumoured name Springfield was registered over 12 months ago, what is surprising is how this company keeps pumping out successful model after model of virtually faultless machines. So is this Springfield just a Chief Vintage with lockable hard luggage NO it’s not, as they have revised the head angle to 25 deg and added passages footboards and a optional rear luggage trunk off the Roadmaster, heated grips, and got rid of the horrible tan seats. Now personally I see this models price somewhat dearer than the Vintage and somewhat cheaper than a Roadmaster it depends on what you prefer I think I like it better than a Vintage and I would have liked the wire wheels but with tyre monitoring that’s difficult. The biggie we are waiting for is a Four cylinder Indian-Polaris have honed to perfection the Lazarus come-back and have like Triumph made the world sit up and take notice now they need a flagship for a killer knock-out punch.
Jon Munn is all ready for the Great Race in Tasmania on 12-13 of this month on the 1916 Power Plus, so are the rest of us that are “cutting-out” of the International Gypsy Tour thats starting next Monday, I cant wait.
Recently there has been a bit of talk on rider etiquette and Peter Kime just sent me a procedure that the Williamstown Club uses and I have a old one also that came from the Williamstown Club a few years back both are good and I consider we could use a version to clear-up any confusion.