Indian built upside-down Fours in the thirties and this picture is of the era hopefully the rider survived, those days it would be repaired easily these days it would take a bit longer. The girl hillclimbing on the shoulders of an intense rider is something that boggles the mind, it obviously never caught on
The ongoing costs on delivery of hardcopy newsletters is getting worse, I have reproduced with their permission the efficiency of the post and thats pretty slow
Dear BHMCC Member, As you are aware, Australia Post has altered our postal service to our detriment. It now costs $1 per letter, but even worse, it does not guarantee a delivery date sooner than six working days. This might appear ok to a modern CEO on 4.7 million a year but it doesn’t work for us. It took in excess of six days for one member to receive his Good Oil when he lived about 1/2 kilometre from the post office where it was posted, and he was not alone. A quick bit of arithmetic (which our 4.7million dollar CEO appears not able to do) reveals that the newsletter travelled to his letterbox at the frightening velocity of 0.00347 km/hour. That works out to be about 3.47 m/hour.So the club has tried to relieve this imposition by moving as many recipients of the Good Oil as possible onto email. Unfortunately this will no doubt inconvenience some members but on the brighter side it has some benefits to the Club. The Club currently has a total membership including associated organizations of 261. Of this number 197 are to receive the newsletter by email and at $1.00 each if these were posted this would add up to about $2,364 per year.Another advantage of the email system is the rapid notification of any changes within the Club at no cost.Because of the slow delivery of letters the Club cannot guarantee that the posted newsletter can be received before the General Meetings. This is because there is only two weeks between the Committee Meetings and General Meetings which leaves little time for the compilation and delivery of the newsletter, especially if there are holidays etc in between.
Thanks to Mark @ Zorro’s for this, you can see why Kings Mountain models will become very collectable and he has one up for sale 0433 106669
Gilroy Production Numbers
Special Models
Millennium Chief 252
Silver Cloud Chief 227
Centennial Chief 364
Centennial Scout 215
Neiman Marcus Chief 40
911 Spirit – w/Flag 70
T-3 52
Vintage Chief 655
Total Gilroy Production
1999 1109
2000 3616
2001 3856
2002 3278
2003 3900-4000 Estimated
Kings Mountain Production
2009 460
2010 340
2011 109
2012 * 140
2013 * 85 Total
LE Chiefs 35
FE Chiefs 25
Other 25
* Kings Mountain Designed and Polaris Built
So what does this mean to an Indian enthusiast, plenty if a Scout is $10,000 or less in America and $20,000 here in Aussie its $14,101.00 (converted exchange) and may even be less as it has to be a demo and have done 500 klm so without local US taxes lets say its $8,500-$9,000 so $12,000 Aussie and about $600 for freight and say another $1,000 GST etc $13,600 all up around $6,400 saving on a Scout! It gets even better for the dearer models, although you can only do it once every two years and there wont be a warranty, you can see why dealers are complaining already as in theory your missus, kids and cousins can bring them in for you as well, could be around 20-30 machines a year in one family! Then as you read below it also changes now to a rolling date for collectible vehicles so things are gong to get cheaper and there will be tears on both sides
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The Federal Government has announced plans to introduce changes to the Motor Vehicle Standards Act 1989. One of the key changes that will positively affect motoring enthusiasts will be to improve the existing arrangements for importing exotic, rare, classic, collectible and special purpose vehicles. Currently, individuals can only import a car or motorcycle under concessional arrangements if it is manufactured before January 1 1989. Keeping this fixed date would have steadily reduced the scope for importing genuine classic cars, threatening what is an ever important industry in Australia, especially given the impending departure of local vehicle production. The new rule will allow a vehicle which is at least 25 years old to be imported under the revised arrangements. Shannons Marketing Manager – Mark Behr said ”Shannons has been heavily involved in working with the Government over some time, to replace the January 1989 scheme with a rolling 25 year scheme. We have put the case forward, on behalf of the motoring enthusiast community, to allow them access to the modern classics of the future. The government‘s decision should be applauded by all motoring enthusiasts. This new legislation will ensure continued prosperity for the motoring enthusiast industry, preserve important vehicle history and allow ongoing generations of enthusiasts to enjoy the hobby. This decision will also enable the continued health of the car club movement, who often make important contributions to charity groups throughout Australia so there is a real social benefit as well as an economic one. As many people know, the associated motoring enthusiast industries – restoration services, mechanical repairs and so on make an enormous contribution to Australia’s economic wellbeing”. Legislation to implement the changes will be introduced into Parliament later this year and the new rules are planned to be in place effective 2018. For further information visit www.infrastructure.gov.au/vehicles/mv_standards_act |
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Hate the headlight cowl and the wheels and seat is”nt comfy but the rest is not bad
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.
Thats a average of 166,666 a year or 456 a day or 19 a hour, years ago I suggested a website for another club I was a member of and even went to the trouble of setting it up, they were at that time uninterested and it was never put into place. Some three years later they decided it wasn’t a “fly by night” thing and have now got a site set up, this was the basis of their website I had set up and is what you are enjoying now. You may think there are much larger websites like the Kardashians, or about Beyoncé boobs and your right this is a “small potatoes” website in the big wide world of the web but for a hobby group specialising in a ex-defunct motorcycle brand made over sixty years ago and only in the last 17 years making a comeback I’m happy there is any interest at all. So what happened on the website on 03/08/2010 not much we had only started the Association 4 months before and had just started organising our first and very successful main event the Crazy Horse Rally, so the first blogs were from the middle of winter and so articles on ring gaps and riders machines were in order, also the big push was for the Gypsy Tour to Perth in 2012, funny the International Gypsy Tour around Tasmania is on in 5 weeks from now. Anyway what will the next million hits be and how long to achieve it, at this point I know 171 countries have viewed our site and 50% are Aussies, followed by 21% Americans and 6% from India, UK has a mere 3% and so on. Meanwhile the picture above shows a Polaris Chief in a terrible state but it’s not smashed and the front end appears to be unbolted why?
