I hate to admit it, but I was wrong!

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Everyone by now knows my feels about the “Boat Anchor Brigade” (Harley) and although I have always admired Victory”s engineering I’ve hated the Arlen Ness styling, seriously though like most I have never ridden a Victory and have kept my thoughts secret on Indian’s cousin. As some will know I recently bought a new 2015 Scout which is unbelievably good and last week the Indian needed its first 800 klm service they offered me a bike to take for the day while my Scout was off the road and to my dismay at the time it was a Victory Vegas, anyway to tell the truth after riding it from the Elizabeth st premises I was impressed, it had a exhaust system on it and was loud but a great power delivery, handled well & was extremely comfortable I don’t like the big wheel but they make a “normal” wire wheel version called a “Gunner” $19995 this months special on both types the odd headlight was another part on the Vegas I personally don’t “warm” to either. Getting back to the Scout I had short reach bars fitted which are 2″ longer and suit my riding style, my compliments to Scottie, Roberto & Dillon for all their help and service organizing everything effortlessly except the traffic getting into the place. It’s worth buying a Indian or Victory just for the old-fashioned service you receive from this Elizabeth st store alone

Daryl hides his light under a bushell

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Daryl Colt beside being our President and owning the Indian Price has recently started covering a few seat pans initially I believe because his Prince had a bare seat pan, he is doing the “raw edge” versions at the moment in natural or bees-wax finish, if you need your seat pan recovering contact him or approach him at the next meeting. I reckon they have come up as good as new.

Can you believe this?

Puncture Proof Motorcycle Tires (WHOA!)
You may be thinking “that’s impossible!”, but these guys came up with some incredible technology that seals punctures automatically.
BLOG.BIKERORNOT.COM|BY BIKERORNOT.COM

New prices for late brakes 1947/53

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People often remarked when our dollar was going up against the pound that I was putting down my Triumph prices around 20% in most cases, this obviously has changed recently with the pound at 43p to $1.00 but my loyal customers were pleased and they don’t complain now prices are rising. So whats that got to do with Indian parts, not much with some greedy retailers who just say “more profit to me” but I’m different after paying all tooling costs off on the first batch of brake plates 1946/53 version as I said they will get cheaper and I have dropped the price $300 the added advantage is the drums are now all Australian machined from billett and unlike the original German versions I previously supplied & more accurate and they don’t need modifying to suit my brake plate as they are machined to suit. The patterns and the CNC costs have now been absorbed so the costs have dropped which enables me to pass this on. The beauty of this brake assembly is support through the plate which gives rigidity unlike some dearer copy-cat versions starting to hit the market, with now over 30 sold they stand on their reputation!

Pictured above the new brake assembly for both the 1939/45 twin leading shoe front brake now available, and of course the later 1946/53 version which I have had in production now over 2 years.  late version is $1,800. The new billet CNC 1939/45 early version is $2,200 to members or $2495 retail, both versions come with a new cast-iron drum and yes you use your existing wheel no real permanent modifications to your machine which can be returned to stock if necessary in under 1/2 hour. These brake plates and drums are all Aussie now guaranteeing excellent quality. Available to order direct from Phil Pilgrim or Mark at Zorro’s 0433 106669

Wire Wheels, Why not?

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So 800 klm”s up on the 2015 Scout whats it like, well plenty changed Mustang seat, Aermach footboards, rear Rack, National Cycle screen, it came with Stage One genuine pipes, and I”ve fitted Ikon fork springs and rear shocks, also fitted Metzler 888’s and at the time of buying I ordered wire wheels. Whats great and whats not, the footboards & screen are excellent, the seats comfortable the Ikon shocks well the jury’s still out on them as I”m onto the third set so fingers crossed, the front progressive fork springs are assembled the wrong way around by the factory, I wish I would have known this to test it before buying the Ikon version. Fuel seems about 180 klms before the light comes on and you get about 25-30klm after that, the engine operates at 89-94C and at 110 kph it is doing 3500 rpm, its low and all the weights down low as well, it goes like “a cut snake” and handles incredibly well, the only negatives are no cruise control, no key fob start as the Chief’s, no fuel gauge, average mirrors, and to small a fuel tank, otherwise for the ridaway price its fine, would I buy it again yes straight away so I guess I”m happy

Seems to be a trend

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I just received the Bendigo Clubs Newsletter  “The Good oil”and the editorial makes interesting reading which I have reproduced it below, notice any similarities? I have to agree with Pam & Rex Jones here as it seems to be a trend in our Association as well, the problem with this is it’s a slippery slide to being a social club only that talks bench racing about motorcycling, the rallies and rides are seriously neglected as in the end nobody will organise any rides because they are disappointed with the numbers that turn up. The shame is that soon the real riders in the club leave for obvious reasons and numbers decline. We have produced a 16 month calendar for all current financial members listing all of our major events, rides and meetings so you reckon we could get a number of people planning at least a year in advance, and you know what a large majority will attend other clubs events and not their own Association events why? In a fortnight we have the 2nd Tee-Pee Rally good rides & a camping week-end with all meals & rides catered for by our friends at the Bendigo Club for a small expense, it would be nice to have a healthy number of 20 or more turn up but I bet that wont happen! If you are attending please contact Peter Kime 0409 798641 and give him your details as it helps with the food and catering etc that’s needed

NOTICES & EDITORIAL

Recent discussion with Rex Jones over a cup of tea revealed an interesting trend in our club over the last couple of years. This is the apparent lack of interest in members participating in club runs. This seems to have coincided with the introduction of the new Permit Scheme and was a prediction at the time the scheme was being considered. Even after the revelation that there are “mutterings around the traps” that the Club never has any runs anymore only the usual few turn up at any organised event and yet our meetings are always very well attended. The most logical reason for the lack of enthusiasm for going on runs is of course that permit holders are no longer reliant on club events to be able to ride their bikes. This leads on to a statement by Rex that unless he gets more show of interest in what should be a very popular event, that is the TTT Rally, he would have to abandon it. His reasons are that in spite of the wasteful publishing of application forms in the newsletter only two members have entered the rally. Furthermore members do not consider the organisation that has to be done in catering for what might be a flop which costs your Club lots of money and waste of effort by the same volunteers again. So what’s it to be— sit on your bum and grumble or take part and have some simple fun?

S/hand Indians for sale, nows the time to buy

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There has been quite a few demo Indian Scouts for sale at your local Indian dealer recently, they are priced from $1699-$1799 ride away, with stage 1 exhaust and the first chargeable service chucked in and full warranty and all have done under 1,200 klms so you get around $2,000 worth of goodies for nothing. Naturally the new 2016 Scouts have arrived so all 2015 stock is being cleared the new 2016 model is $800 dearer so you can save a fair bit off a demo. Some members find it odd that these are the only models depreciating as there old ones go up in price, well I suppose in the forties if you had a 1945 model and the 1946 came out with the new girder fork front end the earlier version would have dropped in price, so have the last K.M models that Polaris made before the new Thunderstroke engine versions, these magnificent machines were $38,000 + dearer than the current “fully loaded” Roadmaster, they seem to be selling for $25,000- $28,000 with negligible mileage, and the older Gilroy S&S Indians can be had for under $12,000 definitely the time to buy

Do you like reading ride reports?

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I often wonder about other pages on the website, do people read anything except Stop Press or look at the Events Calendar, recently I eliminated two title pages off the site and nobody said they were missed which makes one think what else is not needed. Do people look at say, Period Adverts, YouTube links, Members Area, or the Links Page for that matter & all have to be updated, the Victoria Section Area reviewing the Monthly Rides are probably good to inspire people to go on rides but again who reads them beside me or the poor bugger who writes them. Peter Kime one of the editors of last weekends ride agrees with me the reports are needed to show an active membership the ride reported on this month is rather unique as it was one of the first aimed at the post Springfield models being a reasonably long ride a highway speeds although Phillip White rode “Chips” to prove a Springfield model will “cut the mustard” and stay with the late models. In future we may end up with two monthly rides one for late models and another for Springfield versions that way we can cater for more of our members needs, what are your thoughts chaps?

IIRA Ride 4 Oct 15 GF edit (2)

Two wars and scrap what it really meant

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Two World Wars and lots of equipment is needed but after it’s all over who wants a Bomber, or a Spitfire come to think of it service motorcycles as they are only a temporary means of transport, civilian versions are soon being turned out by various factories, lots get scraped so do trucks, tanks, ships and subs some of the alloy was used to make Vincents as it was plentiful after the war and cheaper than steel, lots of Harley’s served a better more reliable purpose as a kitchen utensil such as a saucepan or frying pan, hopefully a better fate happened to Indian’s but I doubt it. I noticed recently a firm after the war recommissioned Sherman tanks into farm equipment or crude bulldozers, it was cheaper to buy and convert, a neighbour of mine bought a DC-3  and chopped its wings off with an axe and towed it behind his Mk5 Jaguar to Ivanhoe to wreck down in his front yard for cheap bolts, aluminium and other parts & over five years it was quite a hit with us kids and undoubtably at 25 quid, a bargain can you imagine this happening today well no you could”nt or even tow it for that matter, people no longer have large front or backyards and Metro-sexuals and Hipsters have trouble growing beards more or less wielding spanners.

Has it a matching engine number, who gives a rats

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Just noticed a Triumph bobber advertised on Evil Bay it’s listed as a matching frame/engine bike, thats ridiculous as it has a late front end and a hard tail frame bolted on, what does that mean more or less on the value? Irrelevant I would think, I remember going through the Triumph works in 1979 and there were two assembly lines, one with engines the other with frames, the Brits never stamped the frame number on till the engine went in as purchase tax had to be paid on a complete machine. Anyway where to two lines met a huge Brummie ( that’s a Birmingham native) physically lifted the engine into a random frame! These days folklore has it that each engine was hand made for each bike and they were all hand lapped to fit, “bollocks” 75% of bikes made before the seventies Indians included have had the engine or frame changed, how do you think motorcycle wreckers survived, people had no qualms swapping a engine over if it was worn or blown-up and if it was a later version more the better. It wasn’t till the late seventies that owners and buyers became anal and that’s not for the better I hope one day people will realize the stupidity of this fad and people buy bikes on their merit.