Beside inventing the modern twist grip, electric start in 1916-17 is really forward thinking & one that many Springfield owners wish that the Company had developed into the 50’s. I think that this was another lost cause with accumulators (Batteries) in their infancy Indian was years ahead of technology with such a sound idea, alas this was another good idea at the wrong time
Chris Knoop (pictured centre) rode the Cannonball Run in America last year & had made a short film on his adventure, with the Invincible JAP. The St Kilda Film festival is doing a public showing of this soon so Chris is famous (click on the link below)
Indian nuts of various sorts managed to cause more than their fair share of confusion at the recent and flourishing All British Rally, in Newstead, Victoria, run by the BSA Owners Club.
Top picture is of Phil Pilgrim’s Vindian, which caused all sorts of discussion when he rolled up at the gate. The tradition is that only British bikes are allowed into the rally site, so where does a Vindian sit? After some debate, he was allowed in.
The other pic is of IIRA member Chris Horner (left), wisely avoiding physical contact with the rest of the group. Next (from left to right) is Graham Nelson, the importer of Indian-built Royal Enfields, Grant Roff (aka Spannerman) who is Editor of Motorcycle Trader magazine and IIRA webmaster Phil Pilgrim.
Guy ‘Guido’ Allen
This week-end you can ride your Indian into the BSA owners 33rd All British Rally at Newstead Victoria, usually there are over 1000-1400 attending those on non-British Machines can park their motorcycle outside the entrance as they will not be accepted into the rally area. So all the British engined Indians either Springfield or Clymer versions are welcome, the BSA Club use the engine as a criteria so a Springfield Chief will be fine if it has Triumph, BSA, Vincent, or Norton engine fitted ,all the above Indians pictured for example are acceptable (not the Gilroy in the background ), & those people in our Association with these variants are welcome into the site for any judging etc , good thing we cover all the models “End Of Story”
This was a question asked by a old mate & new member Dave Kimpton,I get alot of people saying they can’t ride a right hand gearchange Triumph (pre-1976) this seems insignificant compared to a Indian. Guy Allan in a past blog (Hand me that Shifta) was worried at that time riding “The Back Bastard” my old 1948 Chief, hard to believe he now is a hard riding 1947 Roadmaster owner now, so how do you teach a modern bike rider to get on your favourite Indian, point out the foot clutch, kickstart, and the hand shift, then if you want to make it hard explain advance & retard methods or even on some bikes the twistgrip on the opposite side! The pictures above prove even Indian had thoughts on the subject this 1948 brochure helped, the 1944 Army Manual obviously did’nt if you look at the 841 rider learning in the desert!
Two photos for the “Don’t touch & leave it as found brigade”, because the “patina” cant be reproduced so they say, well here are a couple of Indians that may fall into that category, I would agree that some bikes should be left in peace (the two on the top are a example), the difference between a “as found” & restored machine is huge, restore because they can deteriorate quickly, remember they looked new when they were in the showroom, otherwise people would have never bought them.
Hmm, makes you think about this firm Indian that made Bicycles, pocket watches, cigar cutters, outboard motors, oil, children’s pedal cars & toys, Snow sleds, Street sweepers, Fire trucks, suspension units for cars & Roadsters. Surely with the MotoCycles as well they had so much diversification they should have survived, after all the Milwaukee Tractor Co was only making caravans & golf buggies & air-conditioners, life is strange and management even more so, which after bad decisions had the Springfield firm floundering. As you know I like “weird” Indians the 1928 model built in the beginning of the Great Depression was going to be a “dead duck” other companies BMW,DKW(Audi) Triumph,Rover, Suzuki, Honda, Jaguar, all have & some still produce motorcycles, Indian again hit the market at the wrong time.
But probably a bit closer for some countries now, than only U.S.A. It’s hard to believe that you have been able to buy a new Indian pretty well for over 14 years now. There will be the T-shirt wearing “End of story 1953” group but most of these people are worried about theIr investment being sullied by “cheaper later versions”, sounds like bigotry to me. The next 12 months will soon see a line drawn or bulldozed in the sand, some will buy new Indian’s & bite their tongue about previous declarations or statements they made in the past, but the fact is brand loyalty this sells nearly all products today, Ford-Holden,Coke-Pepsi,Hungry Jack’s-McDonalds etc if you were looking at a new cruiser Indian would be on the shopping list.New Indian Owners will be people that enjoy riding & socialising also not spending hours in the garage restoring or tuning their bike they won’t give a “Rats” about when Indian last raced, what year the Four’s finished, what a 101 is, or that a starter was fitted in 1917, that does’nt make them bad people one might be your son or grandson we are in the 21st Century now “End of Story”
As you know your new mag is out & congratulations to Guido for another excellent read, he tells me that the hard copy will be posted after Easter. This made me think do I want the hard copy, well no, the Association has spoke about a possible reduction in annual subscriptions each year if you had the magazine electronically, worth considering. We have all seen what is happening to print media in Australia the costs are considerable & people these days have embraced tablets with a fervour, personally I read my newspaper on my IPad daily (the best 60th birthday present ever). More information on the Indian Reveal, click on the link below
Indian Reveal at Daytona
