It’s the time when your subscriptions are due and you look to see the value your subscription to the IIRA and any  clubs motorcycle or not have given you, I do this with the three other clubs I am in currently and the IIRA is still the best value. Well just to round-up what you would have got last year when joined us. And remember to renew soon, if you have a Red Plate Machine with us otherwise your motorcycle is unregistered till your subs are currently up to date

1, 16 month Indian Calendar, 2 Ten monthly General Meetings, 3 Ten monthly Sunday rides, 4 No Joining Fee, 5  Christmas Party, 6 cheap rider break-down cover available, 7 A sew on patch & an enamel IIRA badge (if an Indian Owner) and vehicle decals, 8 twelve Smouldering Embers e-newsletters, 9 Access to workshop manuals and upgrades in the Members Only Area of the website, 10 a regular updated and popular website with 500,000 hits in 4 years & with a selection spare parts & Indian’s for sale , 11 without doubt a professional Indian magazine Smoke Signals edited by one of Australia’s leading motorcycle journalists Guido (Guy Allan), 12 Access to our affiliate Indian Club of W.Aust & there newsletter and events,13  Four seasonal Rallies in the year, 14 the bi-annual Gypsy Tour that rode along the Murray River, 15 text messaging to your phone on instant notifications or changes and alerts, 16 Discount vouchers from Zorro’s, 17 free Red Plate machine examinations for your Club Permit Machine,18 a “rounded” group that enjoys all Indian motorcycles from all era’s,19 a national club with representation in all states if you travel on your machine, 20 a free for Indian owners membership concession under special conditions, 21  Associate Member group for non-Indian owners that wish to participate and are saving to purchase an Indian, 22 A laminated Membership Card to prove to legal authorities you are a current financial member and trust me I have been asked for this twice now!  Not to mention a great bunch of enthusiasts willing to help & give decades of experience to you for the asking all of this for $40-$60 depending on how you want your magazine!

 

The Monthly Indian News of W.Aust is in, I always look forward to what our sister affiliate club is doing over in the West, just click on the picture and you will read all the news as this is their 30th copy I think the cover is appropriate.

 

Years ago your webmaster worked at the Jawa-CZ agency Frank Musset & Co in the 70″s at that time we stopped selling Velocette and we were the state agents for Triumph. Jawa at the time made Speedway 500 bikes and rugged reliable & cheap two-stroke road bikes & the CZ arm was the sister company that sold the world storming MX bikes that were unbeatable, all at the time were rather uninteresting (the road models) to me as I was into Vincents, Velocettes & Triumph’s. Surprisingly now I see CZ in a different light it seems Indian did also at the time years earlier, they obviously saw potential in an entry level machine they could re-badge & market with a profit, Vincent did the same with NSU around the same time in 1948. Vincent failed their NSU-Vincents were expensive but the Indian-CZ would have had fierce resistance from their dealer network, the mechanics at the time would have hated them with a passion. In 2014 things are different a Indian-CZ is desirable and cheap anybody got one here?

 

The last month’s meeting someone mentioned to me about being in the Harley Appreciation Club, well not quite although the banter between Hog & Indian guys has been going on now for over a century now. I get a lot of photos sent to me many are unsuitable, the ones I reproduce no one was killed but many owners would have the adrenalin going, for instance how do you end up on a roof? The problem with the poster at the end is it was another two years before Harley was smoked as they did not exist till 1903.

Electric start Indians the option they should have stuck with above all the others, then we would have no need for either the Timmerman(German) or the Leenes (Dutch) Kiwi (Yank) kits that are on the market. The best of the lot are the Dutch versions as the Leenes version retains a working standard kickstart which the Kiwi one doesn’t have and the Timmerman version is severly modified to the point of weakening the lever, the reason this is so bad is all the versions use a sprag clutch, which when running in the inside of a modern motorcycle engine thats fully lubricated is great, unfortunately in your old Chief they don’t, after awhile they do collapse or as I found rust out, and the sprag is over $200 not at all cheap. This was all fixed by 1999 as the first S&S engined Gilroy Indian hit the market, hard to believe Indians have been going 15 years already and 45 years (1969) since Indian Sales closed the doors and stopped selling Indian motorcycles, thats right Clive not 1953!