My bud owns one of the first Indian dealers in the PA/NJ/DE area. According to him, one of the main problems with the Iron Redskin is that you can't use HD/HD Clone aftermarket parts, even though the original bikes had 88 cube S&S motors and Andrews tranny's
Stuff like brackets, seats, pegs, floorbards and that stuff was drilled a quarter inch off standard, so you had to go through a Indian dealer to get any kind of stuff like that. That turned a lot of would be buyers off.
The new Chief, with the 100 cube proprietary motor is a piece of junk. The motor itself doesn't have the power of a 88 cube Twinkie motor, and it isn't even as reliable as a well built Shovelhead. I've rode the Chief and it is uncomfortable, handles like crap and sounds like it is going to blow up at any minute, kinda like a Iron Sporty. Your're looking at 25 grand plus for a Chief. 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. He still has a 2001 Chief with 40 miles or so on it and he can't give it away.
Fortunately for him, he is the third largest Big Dog dealer in the US and he can't keep the bikes on the floor.
His shop is the Chrome Palace in Cherry Hill NJ, and his website is The Chrome Palace
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?
