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

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.

They were all once Associate or new Indian Owners that embraced our policy of  “you don’t have to have one to be one” Richard Onyon owned  Gilroy Chief , then a new Scout and recently bought the Fawn 1946 that Phil Nuskie is looking at his front guard, Phil’s got a Gilroy and a Scout as well and I bet now he’s saving for a Springfield. It makes me proud that members like our President Daryl Colt a Honda rider and Guy Allen our editor and a SR500 Yamaha owner among many makes have fallen in love with the marque and now have at least a couple of Indians in their stable. I find most of our new Indian owners and all of our non-Indian owning associate members are either thinking about or saving for a Springfield version, after 5 years since our Association started I now know the decision for associate membership and Indians of any era was a positive step.

The Indian Prince as Daryl Colt says about his bike pictured above” For people who can’t afford a Scout” Daryl is the bloke that started with a Prince oil stain then built a bike around it fabricating things like the seat cover and fuel tank, chaincases etc. So whats it like in the 21st Century, slow & more reliable than it was probably when it was new as they were aimed at women riders and the opposition was the Harley Peashooter, a far superior product they never achieved the numbers Indian wanted. I know of a rare O.H.V model here and it would have been more expensive to produce although undoubtably faster, Daryl’s is”nt faster but it gives many people much pleasure when its on the road and you cant get the smile off his face.

I have a library of many photos, some are modern Indians others are really old pictures that the machine or pictured participant are long gone I think both are well departed in this shot. What is interesting is that this may have been a treasured family photo of a near new machine, and now all details have disappeared, but never mind I still like it