Indian announced today a new limited edition version, nice paint, saddle seat and wire wheels, the rest looks standard Scout, no price has been announced as yet but if your interested contact Scottie 03 93423888 at the Elizabeth st store
It’s easy to remember men and women that have fought in past conflicts for Australia and are well represented on various memorials around the country WWI,WWII, Korea, & Vietnam, every year some of these hero’s still living march in various parades around the country and unfortunately as time passes there are less. As a lad I could still see the WWI veterans on parade now there are none, and the WWII veterans a getting less every year as well, what is sad to remember is the fact that these warriors were silent about the atrocities that they lived through I can’t remember anyone that went to any war complaining, true hero’s. The thing to realize is that these days we still have men and women fighting in war zones and some will not return, the highlight to remember is that they are as much heroes as in any previous conflict all are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice and its more than a holiday or a football game “Lest we Forget”
When Phillip White test rode a new Indian Springfield,from Polaris-Indian he stopped at Lakes Entrance on the way through, to a rally I was on with the Classic Club and offered me a ride on it. The Chief Vintage has the reputation of feeling a bit like a wheelbarrow full of wet cement, with a half flat tyre, as Phillip White has often said we all know the developers wanted the Roadmaster”s steering head angle but the designers wanted to look traditional, which was achieved,nice model but not great. But at last the engineers got their way and we have the Springfield, the handling and steering lock are amazing compared to a Vintage and you could (although not recommended) ride it hands off! It’s amazing the electronic, lockable hard luggage are very practical and come completely off in seconds the same as the screen, the new rear foot boards and black leather instead of brown is excellent as well, and for this model newly designed crash bars with rears FOC in the deal as well. As usual the finish is superb as is the cruise control, and all the usuall trimmings as per the Vintage version, would I buy one a definite yes, but I have just got a new Scout, which suits my riding style better at this time in life. So you say surely there must be something wrong on it, well there’s not but I would have liked to see a backrest and rack fitted standard, they are listed as accessoris otherwise it’s perfect well done Indian.
The lower picture was taken straight out of bed and I wanted to ride it as I was in pyjama’s
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.