Always seems to me a good point campaigning about top speed and horsepower figures, Mike Hailwood MBE  winner of all those Isle of Man TT’s in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 15 world championships quoted you only needed 75 horsepower to achieve victory! These days manufacturer’s quote torque figures which are irrelevant unless you have something to compare them to, eg: is Indians figure of  119 ft lbs of torque seems impressive  but how much is that compared to say a Hybusa or Dodge Viper. Undoubtedly it is miles ahead of my Vindian, and for that matter my 2002 Gilroy, but what about a old fashioned quarter mile figure this gets things into prospective along with fuel consumption figures which are important on a touring bike, weight is a necessary factor these figures are generally always on the spec sheet 835 lbs wet weight with 4.5 gallons of fuel in the new Indian’s case. Capacity figure on the new model at 1811cc is huge so is the “stroker” engine at Bore of 3.96 inch and stroke of a massive 4.449 inch, still in all a top speed figure although generally never quoted or obtained by more mortals like myself certainly help in ascertaining  a purchase. In some areas road tests from a nearby dealer are not possible as literally the closest dealer is thousands of miles away.

Unfortunately not those types of bikes “Sweat Wheels” or bicycles in Amsterdam, they have bike paths for the 900,000 bikes here and now scooters use them as well. If you step off the footpath they do a” Horner” on you as our latest Clubman Chris Horner knows  all about after being hit by a cyclist over 3 years ago, and to add insult to injury, he was “hit & run” so the bugger did not even leave his details. I gave up cycling the day I got a motorcycle licence at 17 years and 9 months and do you know what,I have never ever missed it, you never see a cyclist smiling they  always have a look on their  face as if they have just inserted a suppository.

Chris Horner is our new Clubman of the Year, this is the only award we give out so it is as special as the people that receive it. Chris has done more than most for the Association, he is a personal friend and I expect to most in our Association, he never hesitates with his time or generosity with any thing to help others and has often sacrificed a rally to give others his own Indian for their enjoyment, well done Chris

We have all seen the Vindian photos, the ones that were made in UK by the Vincent works in Stevenage, the story about how the machine was dismantled and sent back to the USA has been extensively retold in Indian History in our website. But a new twist what happened to this machine, well it exists in America in the DuPont museum after Indian Sales fitted another powerplant this wasn’t the end of the story Indian Sales built a second version, much different to the Stevenage variant the machine still exists in USA, note the 1949 Scout oil tank also the Vincent type gear change also the standard generator not the remote Indian Autolite generator, also the Vincent front wheel, this machine is more Vincent than the one that Vincent made, still even after all this it never happened as it like the others were still born

 

Imagine my shock recently visiting my mate Guido (Guy Allen) when he admitted to me about buying a H-D, well I nearly had a stroke, Guy our esteemed editor on a tractor? Well kind of, a 350 H-D Sprint I felt myself nearly saying out loud ” Thats not a real H-D” but this is where it “cuts the mustard”  it is a real Harley as much as any other Boat Anchor in their range, so I will not the getting a T-shirt made “H-D 1903-1968 to 1978-2013 end of story” A.M.F was another part of Harley’s History, the same as Clymer,Indian Motorcycle Co (Gilroy), Stellican (Kings Mountain) or presently Polaris-Indian are all part of Indian’s history, time to accept it chaps. I have a interesting article below on the head honcho at Indian thanks to Cycle News for this, it’s by Alan Cathcart who seems to ask all the right questions

Interview with Steve Menneto CEO of Indian ( Thanks Cycle News)