The Bendigo Club have acknowledged our donation and its good to see they have spent our money wisely, I”m looking forward to using it at the TeePee rally on 25th next month, meanwhile the weather forecast for this weekend’s Crazy Horse Rally is shaping up fine, roll-on this Saturday
This picture was on the Triumph Classics Facebook page and it is quite good at summing up what wrong in the Classic restoring industry as it stands. Everyone knows a “Gunner” ” One day I”m gunner restore that there motorsickle in the shed” said the 82-year-old, and I havent had a motorcycle licence since 1962. I had one today that rang with a 1949 Triumph Tiger 100 he was slightly quite when I gave him a price of 300+ hours at $100 an hour plus parts, paint, chrome etc which would it hovering around $20,000+ especially when I told him finished it was worth $15,000 if he was lucky. So some of us have all these odd bits lying around the shed, if you fully intend to build another bike and your seriously collecting bits for it regularly then great, if not sell them to some poor bugger that’s desperately assembling bits to complete a bike and it will be another on the road, also if you don’t ride the bike you own regularly sell it, not to a collector but to someone who will ride it hopefully this will get another generation interested and it will benefit all of us in the long run and who cares if that person has the wrong reflector on his machine as long as he’s enjoying it thats all that counts
Member Jon Munn has for years advised to invest in Classic bikes & John Gee from Antique Motorcycles repeats the same thing so do I, the beauty of all this is that you can still enjoy riding your investment unlike your share profile when things taper off. Lee Carnihan sent this much appreciated article below in investments and please click on highlighted link below
I thought you might be interested in sharing this article about classic motorcycles with your members of the Iron Indian Riders. It mentions the Indian Chief Steve McQueen owned which was sold for 108,000 AUD last year. If any of your members have one of these beautiful machines tucked away at the back of their garage then they might be sitting on a goldmine. Mind you, I’m sure they know that already and like Indian Chiefs regardless of how much they’re sold for at auction, but I thought they might be interested in hearing about Steve McQueen anyway. It also features some advice from Sybil de Bidaph, member of the Indian Riders Motorcycle Club.
Lee Carnihan
The guy getting shaved with a axe, and my wife telling me I’m not as young as I used to be reminded me when men were men. After the last IIRA run and my body being pounded by my 344 Chief over rough roads, and feeling like I had just gone three rounds with Mohamed Ali made me wonder how GI’s rode the bastards over bomb cratered Europe in WW11 then got off dug foxholes, shot Germans and were cold and hungry as well everyday, reality hit when my wife said GI’s weren’t 63 but strapping twenty year olds, maybe I’m being to hard on myself! Still I’m reassessing taking it to the International Gypsy Tour 2016 and also participating in the Great Race in Tasmania, this weekend is the Rod Leamon run to Donnybrook cheese Farm not far but it will check the gearing as I upped it from 22t to 24t after I pulled the sidecar off in anticipation for the Crazy Horse Rally in Coroyong in a fortnight. At least that will help the 4 speed overdrive box and the fuel consumption might improve to boot, Indians never were frugal and it’s nice to know the new models Polaris makes have followed faithfully in that area. Owen Jones rang me today about a group ride together up the Hume anybody riding up needs to contact Richard Onyon 0414 466966 he will have a meeting point to leave from for a group ride
The latest unsubstantiated report is Polaris Industries are flat out buying Harley-Ferguson shares hmmm could this mean a corporate takeover coming up? It would be nice to think so but much and all as I hate the Tractor Co it wouldn’t be good for either brand as without opposition for either company the same old same old every year would happen which has been effectively the story of Harley since 1953, remember this is a company that kept rigid frames and tin chaincases and hand change still alive into the very late fifties because they had no opposition. The lack of development caused them to sell out to AMF in the sixties they were broke, and if it wasn’t for a cheap sale back to the Davidson family in the seventies and Ronald Regan bailing them out they would have gone the way of Indian,Thor,Pope, and numerous other American brands.
We would like to extend an invite to the Iron Indian Riders to be part of the Melbourne IMRG ride on Sunday 27th September.The ride will depart from our Melbourne store at 10am and head towards Ferntree Gully, through the stunning Yarra Ranges to Beaconsfield, before arriving at Antique Motorcycles in Cheltenham where attendees will be treated to an afternoon of live music, lunch and great company. We ask that all attendees RSVP via the link below if they wish to join the ride:Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is any further info you need on the ride and hope that you can join us on the day!
Kind Regards Sophia Nolan
Early brakes 1923 -1928
In 1923 Indian released the new Chief (1000cc) and the Big Chief (1200cc) a completely new design which became the starting point for one of its most successful models. The 1923 and 1924 had a rear only expanding shoe and band brake of 6.5 inches O.D. There were no front brakes fitted to the Chief or Big Chief travelling mostly on dirt roads it seems brakes were not a big priority then. For 1925 the external band brake of 7.0′ O.D was fitted and the internal expanding shoe was removed. This continued for 1926 and 1927. 1928. The authorities in Australia refused import to these machines until 2 brakes were fitted so an export auxillary secondary brake was fitted. (I believe only on Australian bikes but maybe other countries) the auxillary secondary brake consisted of a single sided shoe brake operated from the front handlebars operating inside of the standard rear external band brake. It seems this brake shoe is common also to the 1927-1928 Early Scouts and the 101s of this time as it was a 7.0′ outside diameter. On investigation it appears the basic shoes are all from the same casting albeit machined slightly differently. Finally in 1928 the 101 scout was launched with drum brakes at the front and the rear similarly in late 1928 a conventional front and rear expanding drum brake was finally fitted to the Chief as well. Its a well known fact the Indian Motorcycle did tend to use up remaining sub assemblies so characteristically we can use these dates loosely. There were also a large number of interchangeable parts in the wheel area so over the years many of these parts, particularly brakes have been swapped over to keep the bikes running so don’t be alarmed if your own bike is different to the above. Sadly these parts are becoming all but impossible to locate however with some help from friends within the industry i located one of the brake shoes complete and we have now managed to make the shoe casting. This is already available for sale and hopefully it will help Australian Scout and Chief owners to keep their brakes working as its a relatively simple matter to machine and friction line these brake shoes. I would like to thank Chris Knoop for his valuable insight to these rapidly changing specifications on the old model Indians.
Zorro’s
PO Box 5118
Mordialloc VIC 3195
Zorro’s is pleased to announce its appointment as distributor for a range of replica Splitdorf generator. These generators were fitted to a lot of early US made machines Indian,Cleveland, Ace, Reading Standard and others in the 1920’s and 1930’s. These generators are becoming increasingly difficult to find and as the age approaches nearly 100 years old they are becoming more difficult to repair. The new replicas are made in Europe using modern materials and have been available for over 5 years performing well.
Zorro’s will take a representation of these units into stock but essentially the DU5 model and DU7 models were the common ones. These generators are available in both long shaft and short shaft versions in either clockwise or counter clockwise specification. For availability contact Mark on 0433 106669 or go to the Zorro’s website www.zorros.net.au prices start around $1500.00 dependant on specifications.
Pictured 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. The late version is $1,500 or and the new billet CNC 1939/45 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
How much do we have to do for our members and what can they do to help us? This question has come up recently from a member and is easy to answer basically we owe you a motorcycle orientated club that provides camaraderie, information, club runs and rallies that I believe you receive in spades and chuck in things like free calendars, and cheap raffles your on a winner.Now what do we expect from you the member, not much actually first to enjoy and take advantage of the things we provide, the Smoke Signals magazine, the Smouldering Embers e-mag, your phone texts reminding you of your responsibilities such as runs and rallies, annual subs being due, and your Red Plate responsibility, we are not here to hand feed you and hear complaints about not receiving the magazine or your subs renewal. This is your responsibility to chase it up and don’t winge to a committee member that you didn’t know you are unfinancial we don”t care or should we, be responsible for yourself we are not a child care centre “Man up Princess”.