You have just taken your Indian either new or old into a shop for repair and it’s always cheap for you to quote on other people’s work, before you rang the shop you decided what price the job was already. Of course in your job as a head sorter of corn stalks at the Kellogg’s cereal factory at $28.00 an hour every one should work for the same price or less than you unless he/she is a rocket scientist, or a brain surgeon, a mere greasy mechanic which you imagine in another life you are will be worth a lot less so to repair a crankpin you think $250 plus parts. Wrong the mechanic is getting the same as you the head corn stalk sorter, and his boss is paying $20,000 + for rent in the city and he is paying tax, workcover, maintenance costs, gas and electricity, advertising as well as paying 17.5% loading on his employees 4 weeks holiday pay,superannuation and a nine-day fortnight, sick pay and much more I have”nt mentioned so your bill is going to be heaps more and if like the cartoon above you have fixed it yourself lots and lots more just remember that.

Just how reliable is your other bike

Sometimes it’s not for a week either, many rides over a week-end sort the men from the boys. Riding a leaf spring Springfield model over 10 or 20 days can be quite wearing on man and machine, roads have improved substantially since the time these machines were made but the speed has gone up as those who ride early Indians on standard gearing will attest. Most early Indians are up a couple of teeth on the countershaft sprocket which makes the bike feel more pleasant a highway speed and cuts vibes and wear but it doesn’t help when you hit a large pothole at 100 kph and your machine can physically leave the ground!

When I was just a lad of eighteen summers my boss David Cottrell was Australian Speedway sidecar champion on a Vincent in the Allpowers and was the same on Junior Outfits (up to 650’s). Those days speedway was at Brooklyn, and later at Avalon and Saturday nights were spent in the pits with the “Herda’s” (HRD-Vincent) getting “high” on the smell of  Castrol R40, his Triumph 650 was supercharged and it went like the “clappers” out of the gate & in this class a old bloke (probably about 60 yo)called Allan Bolt rode a OHC Norton International to a victorious last every meeting. I enjoyed watching the old bugger as apparently he started racing just after the war on the same bike and in his day was a champ, as the years passed the rest of the field just got faster. Anyway I digress I asked my boss what other brands of machines raced except Vincent’s and Triumphs occasionally a WLA Harley turned up and so did a Ducati 750 they were hopeless, he told me that in the fifties and sixties at Tracy’s Speedway all number of makes were stripped down for outfits so I must assume the Indian above was one of these, it wouldn’t have stood a chance against a 1000cc JAP or a Herda but the rider are keen with a steely look of determination aren’t they?