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.
At last decent rear shocks for your Scout, expensive yes but the very best and available from an old mate Le Frog, Bertrand Cadart with no “Topping -out” would be worth the expense alone, that Harley Rider obviously has no problem with “rough riding”. Meanwhile the International Gypsy Tour of Tasmania is only 9 days away and I’m looking forward to it, later in the week I will list spares you should carry in case your bike stops, starting with tubes
From Peter Kime this advert shows the four speed gearbox was stock on this model, shame they never continued
When you compare side by side photos, the similarities are clearly evident. Basically, an Octane is a low priced Scout, achieved by eliminating all the chrome. I doubt there’s any performance difference although rear suspension has no doubt been improved. Indian used a similar technique to market the Scout 60 for $17,999 Aussie $. Will be interesting to see the local price of Victory Octane as the Scout Sixty it should be at least $1,000 dearer
The Scout is one of Indians best-selling products even in Australia, I have one but the beauty of the modified versions above make me wish mine was like the “Fusion” version above, it pretty well nails the original styling and I”m sure would sell in reasonable numbers if mass-produced
