So beside Smoke Signals being a “Bumper Xmas Edition” and being out today Mark at Zorro’s has a couple of things out for the new Scout, the rack is familiar to all Springfield owners but the war bonnet isn’t, they were on Springfield Chiefs from post 1953. For those of you who didn’t realize the factory stopped in 1969 not 1953 as many believe and more bikes were sold in this period than all of post war 1945/53 models, the thing is this war bonnet looks very much at home on the new naked 2015 Scout, it will have a rubber backing and no they don’t and never did have a light on this version of war bonnet, Mark’s taking orders now

A 100 years ago Indian was “flat-out” trying to keep up with orders, today I have read Indian have sold out world-wide production of the Scout admittedly last century there was a war going on, now its less pressing as its only H-D. There are more 2014 model H-D’s left in the showrooms this year since the late seventies, seems “Hoggley’s” have crested the hill. Next year expect to see reductions on their models across the price range to be more competitive with Indian, also they are pinning their hopes on an entry-level 500cc as the current range is hopelessly outdated and the new “shower-head” models are not over popular, the Sportster is expensive needing all the “Screaming Chicken” mods out of the catalogue to keep within sight of a Scout! There was a time when Triumph sold all that they could produce, they never updated because they thought customers would keep taking the same old stuff so development stagnated, eventually the customers abandoned them as it happened after WWII when H-D & Indian failed  most returning serviceman had “tasted” what the Europeans were making, sales faded and Indian died. So Triumph-BSA Norton couldn’t do a thing wrong till the late sixties, after Honda brought out the CB 750 the customers faded away and the British Industry died. Only now Triumph have made a comeback and they started promising never to make old Bonneville’s, today they are a competitive brand with a huge range to even worry the Japanese. Henry Ford nearly sent Ford broke with the most successful design and loyal customer base for automobiles in history, production ceased months till the new Model A arrived and Ford even today have never got back the market share G-M dominates it still. H-D needs a complete rethink or go broke, Henry Ford was a man that didnt listen to the market neither are Harley

We could go on and on but well yes they all are real, because someone bought the name & heritage others are the original manufacturers (BSA & Morgan), others regret not buying, bit like Harley not buying the Indian name and boy, I bet there feeling that now. But the thing is they are all great attempts and some have been more luckier than most like Indian. These are all current models available and in limited production as we speak, other such as Francis Barnett, Zenith, Henderson, Excelsior are coming soon

Not many it seems, is it because they are an investment, to expensive to wear out, hard to get bits for, to difficult to ride or just not as good as a Chief, thinking about it probably a bit of all of the above. The 4 was always an expensive machine with only a few sold out to civilians most were sold to Police Forces, they were meticulously maintained but eventually in civilian use most fall into disrepair parts becoming hard to get and expensive, the post-war Torque 4 pictured was built but never made it into production in 1948 its got shaft drive but still plunger rear suspension so its dated for a luxury machine. I like looking and hearing 4’s but I once considered one even, looking back I’m happy with Chiefs and rarely see a Four at a rally or on the road so if they are so great where are they?

It was tested recently 128 MPH on the “baby” Scout & 129 MPH on the standard Chief  that’s over 205 KPH! These machines are both very stock so although its much faster than we need to lose our licences its nice to know they aren’t slugs. The other photo is of Floyd Clymers wife on a new $250 Scout when things were much cheaper Floyd Clymer was the manufacturer of Indian from 1968-71