What a success the weather was hot,damn hot, the company was great and in all 18 Indians representing Springfield, Gilroy & Polaris era & even a new Scout! The roads were rough the Motel was fine and Noels BBQ salivating on the Friday evening this combined with a 280 klm ride and no breakdowns meant fun & undoubtably this will all be written up in your next Smoke Signals magazine soon, I cant wait till next year when it will be on again.

The closest Sandy has ever got to a Scout

This is what we all wanted, but in Australia we get no apology or an official letter to know whats happening, and you wonder why we are all upset. Steve Menneto Vice President of Indian obviously feels a little for his customers & it’s appreciated, we need Peter Harvey CEO in Australia to give us similar assurances after 6 months of nothing. Member Sandy Barthelmie pictured above on a Scout in August at Sturgis, she has had a deposit paid over a year now & still waiting patiently as others have received their Scouts here already

Letter from Indian USA NOT  Aussie

Back on track after a delay

The bloke above does, so does Pete Kime, I know one or two others with their Indians that they grew old with, I have my bike (not an Indian) that I bought when I was 21 and I turned 63 yesterday, some of us had family commitments or health issues even kids education, divorce that caused the “old bike” to be sold, but you know everyone that I have ever met that got rid of their original machine have always regretted it.

“Guido”Allen”s excellent report on the supposed launch of the Scout which is becoming a debacle everyday as small handfuls of machines are being delivered to some who payed a deposit but not others. This is becoming even more ridiculous each day as Indian Australia will not release any information on how many or what colour machines are here already, this is important as they deliver bikes not to those who paid early deposits in any sequence but rather to what people ordered a particular colour! Rather than give early deposit owners an option on a colour change they are told they can cancel their existing order to change the colour but must go to the “back of the queue” what makes this even more ridiculous is they will not say what colour machines are in Australia already. Back in the old days I worked at the Triumph importer as the machines were delivered they were inspected before going into the warehouse on the end of the crates was a VIN number and the colour of each machine so you know at any time your inventory, the same thing happens today so tell us whats happening time to “Man up”

Motorcycle Trader link

Real men, know the firing order on four, six and V8 engines and time a magneto with a old spoke and a cigarette paper, these individuals can measure in thous’s, inches, feet, yards, furlongs and acres, these he-men know imperial gallons are different to “Yank” gallons they also refer to MPG not litres per hundred Yak, put PSI in their tyres and also can use a micrometer with one hand and shun digital verniers. These warriors are bemused by the body waxing and half shaved morons the X & Y generation with no shed or backyard to rebuild everything from a a dishwasher to a 351 Clevland, real men have hobbies that involve years of good accumulated hand tools (sometimes passed down) and strive to ultimately posess a lathe and a mill or more, these objects are revered and conversations range from cutting speeds to ceramic tip tools, Qualos,Churchill, Moore and Wright etc, the difference between CEI and BSF and what BA threads & are, of course these such people are attracted to each other for exchange of knowledge in the hope to hand down to a younger generation that don’t care! So what have these dinosaurs got left except to wait for the next meteorite to wipe them out, not much except watch old John Wayne movies and to restore that old bike in the shed, fix the oil leaks and rewire the beast and paint, clean and spend thousands of dollars on it & cold nights in winter waiting for the first warm breeze of summer to try to feel young again and remember when the good old days when “Men were Men”