A cracking Rally well supported by members who were elated with the ride to Jindabyne on Saturday. Yes the old rally was back with a bang Gary Hogg a native of the area who knows the Alpine areas like the back of his hand with the weather which  was reasonable except on the way back from Mnt Threadbo it was wet, damn wet for 80 klms, our meal that evening at Riley’s Restaurant in Coroyong that evening was 5 Star we planned the rally dates on a booking at it, so that worked out well. The short Sunday morning ride to Khancoban for coffee had exceptional weather and the misery of the day before was soon forgotten. My Vindian dumped a saddle bag at 100kph and Franco Trento narrowly evaded it on the Indian Velo which went extremely well after a airfilter modification. So to those who missed it and it was planned for over 4 months, STIFF we had a beautiful weekend to remember with mates away and now its another year till this Crazy Horse Rally comes up again it would be advisable to mark the calendar for next year.  Thanks to Indian Motorcycles for the raffle prize drawn on Saturday night and won by member Jon Munn.

After 8 years we have decided to try another venue for our meetings on the last Tuesday of the month its the Cross Keys Hotel 350 Pascoe Vale Essendon 3040, The Pascoe Vale Hotel was to difficult to deal with and members were unanimous about a change to a different place so we will give it a try.

By now you are probably well aware of the new BSA Gold Star that is just being released in UK and hopefully here as well soon. It draws a lot of similarities with our brand Indian with people saying ” But thats not a real BSA Goldstar” or the other old hoary chestnut “why don”t they build them with megaphones, clip-ons and rear sets” Then somebody like me mentions the 1971/72 BSA B50 Goldstar that the original factory built and they conveniently ignore it, hmm I remember these same people in 1999 when Indian came back into production bemoaning that they were not going to reproduce 1953 Blackhawk models with sidevalve engines that sent Springfield broke the also complained about no left hand twistgrips that Indian dumped in 1948 and horror of horrors it had a hand clutch! Conveniently they had also forgotten the 3 speed “crash box” and this was one of many things that Indian decided to import motorcycles from UK and fit them up with Indian decals Indian sales battled on till 1968 then Clymer Indians were made till the mid 70″s. All of the Indian guys out there buying new product and each day more and more are on the road most of these guys would’nt know about a Springfield Indian or more or less about those other museum pieces, its the same with BSA I wish them all the best and hopefully more models will follow. click on the picture below

BSA Gold Star

So a lot of new things happening your New committee has the ever waited for updated website happening very soon by another old friend Richard Monty who created our existing one, we are looking to a new e-magazine for members edited by a current member, the rallies are completely changing and some are being re-introduced again and being rejigged to stop people holding there own rallies within a rally to the detriment of participants, our longer distance Gypsy Tours are also being looked at. An Association 18 month Calendar is being published for financial members only, so pay now. The Christmas in July party that was planned is now cancelled this year, but other types of things like this will be happening keep checking on our website, there are now 3 extra people as Association signatories so it should be easier for our Red Plate members. Finally for now pay your subs as you are all un-financial and for Red Plate owning members you are currently in an illegal position with a potential $800 fine if you continue to ride your machine!

And from member Jeremy Furness a good comment

Another lack of creativity shown by a small Chinese company. I really find it difficult to understand why these brands cannot design a motorcycle without resorting to this type of blatant plagiarism. Look at the logo – it unashamedly uses the Indian font.

Here is an interesting fact – the motorcycle is not actually not too bad in terms of manufacturing quality and there are even features that are not found on the Indian Scout. But Indian Scout it is not, and nobody is going to be fooled outside China.

My big question is – why do this? Has China killed off all their creativity and are their no up an coming automotive designers willing to come up with their own unique creations?