Indian motorcycles again ends production

Las Vegas Sun ^ | 23Sep03 | Edward Wong

[hdrider]

I see...so you don't ride much.

[JoeSixPack1]

Nah.

When ya got a chameleon for a ride, there's just too many decisions about what to wear! So I walk around in my underwear all day sayin'..

Vrooom.... Vrooomm...

And by the end of the day, somehow, my bike is hot, needs gas, is all dirty and stuff, and it thinks it went somewhere.

Works for both of us!

<|:-)~~

[JoeSixPack1]

My friend JUST (I mean in the last three weeks) opened three Indian dealerships...

OUCH!! That's gonna leave a scar!

[Hildy]

It's a catastrophe.

[JoeSixPack1]

Well, thinking beyond rent or mortgage deposits, utilities deposits, license fees, showroom merchandise, counters & shelving, clothing stock, aftermarket stock, signage, business contacts, advertising, employees, bikes for the showroom, shop equipment (lifts, tire stuff, compressor, oil & filter & battery disposal, special tooling, etc. etc.), probably a grand opening party and new customer give-away doodads,

for 3 stores !!!!!

Has he called suicide prevention hotline yet?

[HamiltonJay]

Frankly anyone starting up a manufacturing facility in one of the highest priced labor and housing markets in the country has to have not done their homework... plus I think they may have financed themselves out of business. They'd finance ya for 7-8 years on a motorcycle!!! What's up with that... wouldn't suprise me in the least to find they were repoing a lot of those financed a year or two after they were bought.

[Hank Rearden]

Yeah, too bad. As a Harley owner, I like to see competition for them.

Their "new direction" will no doubt be T-shirt and fake-biker leather jacket catalogs.

[archy]

Free motor with purchase of Slushee and on your next visit a six hour tumbled hot dog with your choice of chutney, curry paste or pomodroms.

Ooops, wrong continent.

FTW

Not really. In the late 1940s-1950s, Indian picked up the owner of the British Royal Enfield marque as an investor, who rebadged some of the Britbikes as Indians and flogged them in the USA as *starter bikes* to less financially endowed purchasers, particularly first-bike buyers who might have found an eighty-inch Indian Chief a bit much for their first time out. Most observers feel the British financial interest did the Indian cause no good, and may have actually contributed to the demise of the American firm, though the combination had certain possibilities.

But the Royal Enfield marque lived on in production of the old design, more or less unchanged in India, and those bikes are now doing rather well in the retro-bike niche market. And that earlier Indian-Enfield connection has not gone unnoticed, either....

[archy]

Frankly anyone starting up a manufacturing facility in one of the highest priced labor and housing markets in the country has to have not done their homework...

And competing with Harley in their particularly desirable centennial model anniversary year, with no model comprable to Harley's entry-level 883 *Hugger* Sportster, nor without a model in the size/price range of Japanese and returned-from-the-dead Triumph sportbikes.

The just-in-time engineering feat of the ho-hum *coinhead* engine for the big Indian was a good start, but a day-plus late. But it might have been, and there are at least some interesting individual examples left as desirable clay for some individual sculpturing in metal to be done.

-archy-/-

[archy]

Don't know anything about motorcycles, but I really like Del McCoury's version of that Richard Thompson song.

Check out the link to Richard Thompson's original version on my FReeper profile page. And note the lyrics with the added two extra verses the McCoury's didn't cover.

-archy-/-

[jonefab]

WHY would anyone open an operation in Klifornia when soooo many are hussling to leave that great social bastion. Its no wonder they are going under, thay should have at least opened a factory in the heart land.

[archy]

"...if anyone could have competed with H-D it would have been..."

The Vincent

Patrick Godet is doing just fine with his, thanks.

[jonefab]

Native American, I mean Indian

[archy]

If you really wanted one, for that kind of money, you could get a real Indian, one with a flathead, 3 speed, left hand throttle and right hand spark advance. Matter of fact, my bud has a 47 Chief in the showroom, semi-restored and running. The owner will take 20 grand for it.

You can do a little better than that for a powerplant, whether trying to find one for one of the pre-'53 Chiefs or looking for something more reliable and more interesting to drop in one of the *New Indians*.

As for the handling, I know of at least one of the new bikes that's had an original Indian '47 spring fork fit on it, kinda like the *Heritage* Harley's with the repop springers.

Hey, lookit the pushrods on the Indian...flathead?

[biblewonk]

It's the name, it's too un-american. And there is no way to take share away from Harley unless you offer a really nice v twin for half the money.

[chemicalman]

Shame they going out of business. Really liked the T3 Specil Edition they have. Too much money for something I'd like to ride everyday.

[stop_fascism]

Thanks! Rollie Free must of had cojones of solid stone. Do you know what became of him?