Goodbye old friend
In 2003 I bought my 1944 Army Chief from Adelaide it cost $25K and had lots of chrome with a Dusting Sidecar body on a Indian Chassis, my first job was finding a Indian sidecar body that took a fair time but eventually I got one in a nearly matching colour. Then I stripped all the chrome and spent years tracking down all the original air cleaner, blackout lights, bash plates, radio suppression equipment, exhaust system, windscreen etc. I then put 80 cu flywheels in with Bonnieville cams and followers while I was at it a 4 speed overdrive gearbox it literally went like the clappers and was doggedly reliable eventually I created the TLS front brake conversion and this was the bike it was tested on to go on to sell around 30 of these leaf spring brake conversions. The reality of my ownership is I’m 71 now and after riding this bike to Sydney fully loaded with my 10 year old daughter in the sidecar and back in 2009 and many other long distance rides unfortunately its time to sell my old mate. The divorce of the sidecar being with the bike was hard as they spent 78 years together I had one mate that wanted the sidecar and another that wanted the bike so I parted them! A fortnight ago I rode it as an outfit for the final time and on Saturday I rode it as a solo, a stark difference I was sad to see it leave my possession last night, farewell old friend.