| Author | Message | ||
     Buellblastrider |
I'm not an Indian fan atleast not anyting but the originals. Anyway they are hand built in NC and want 30,000 for the base model only making 1500 a year. I saw it in a video on jaylenosgarage.com | ||
| Ulynut |
I know quite a few guys who ride Indians. Mostly Gilroys, but also a few Springfields mixed in there. Honestly, I have mixed emotions about the Gilroys. They're good-looking bikes, but are really prone to problems, some are huge problems, like 90% of them blew their motors @ 10,000 miles or less. However, after a really expensive rebuild they run strong. Strong enough, in fact, to rattle the whole rest of the bike loose. One guy has a 40's Chief that has less problems than a 2001 model. You can't go for a ride without a complete tool kit. I think thats why they all have those big old saddle bags. They should just tow a Snap-on roll away with them. But then again, they would have to put fringe on that too. I hope the new company made some improvements. | ||
| Teddagreek |
A tuber guy I've ridden with has a hopped up 43... The old 43 passed me doing 90ish after I backed off... Beautiful bikes.... Is the Indian name still broke up? There is a UK company building INDIAN DAKOTA... Gorgeous..  | ||
| Buellblastrider |
no the name isnt broken up <object><param><param><param><param></object> also available at indianmotorcycle.com | ||
| Buellblastrider |
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/video_player.s html?vid=788541 | ||
| Tramp |
When I left the last BMW distributorship I'd worked for in California ('98 or '99), I started getting calls from other shops (friends putting the word out), including one from the Gilroy firm, who was seeking a technical services manager (evidently an associate of mine worked in service at CMC, and sang my heartfelt, if not accurate, praises). I hopped on my S2T and buzzed down 101 to Gilroy (I'd spent childhood Summers down that way) and met the president of the company, "Rey" something or other, and some B-rate, allegedly Amerind actor from some long-forgotten crime series, who was acting as a spokes-injun for the company. Very polished, scary, ostentatiously-decorated offices, with frightfully little of substance in their machining and assembly areas. I was struck by the multitude of (honest injun) scantily-clad "administrative assistants" in pumps and miniskirts, with scarily over-friendly deportment and an undeniably preternatural tendency to bend over and pick invisible things up, on cue. Their dress style was vaguely reservation-bordello, their busts surgically resistant to gravity, if not silicone. The "HR Director" offered a vaguely-quantifiable compensation package, the details of which I was having trouble understanding, expecting Ron Jeremy and Amber Lynn to amble in through the door behind me at any moment. I high-tailed it outta there past the perennially bending-over admin.s with the low cut tops, back to my scoot. It was one weird experience, and I high-tailed it back up 101 vowing to "find the happy place" as I prayed for the end of the smell of hot garlic curing in the fields, a "happy place" which did not, quite clearly, present itself in the Garlic Capitol of the world. | ||
| Tramp |
The name Indian seems to carry a smallpox like curse with it. | ||
| Court |
I had several good friends who tool that bent over bait . . . they were on a flight and when they landed found there was no company left. They paled in comparison to the Hanlions. | ||
| Tramp |
Sounds about right. That was honestly a really, REALLY wierd experience. I was expecting a handjob and coffee cake by "interview"'s end. It honestly skeeves me out to remember it. Did CMC ever rise back up, from the Innjun's ashes, to its original stature of mediocrity? | ||
| Tramp |
http://www.indiancmc.com/ ...found this with a an '05 copyright, not sure if its a current dealer or not, or whether or not they offer happy endings | ||
| Buellblastrider |
if you go to the video link i posted of jaylenosgarage.com he talks to the CEO which gives you the other link i posted. bikes are now made in NC by hand by a team of 3. not that i'm defending them because i dont think anything since the original was worthy of the name. I think the ones that came back out in the lates 90s was nothing more than a colomeration of vendors. s&S motor corbin seats. it wasnt its own motorcycle anymore. I understand that Harley or any other company uses vendors but with Indian of the 90s it was like you was paying for an already assembled kit bike. | ||
| Oddball |
The Acter/Spokesman was Branscombe Richmond. He's hawaiian according to one link just plays indians often. Now he and the former CEO of Indian have started a new company, American Motorcycle 1902. Looks like they found another old name to take over & try to claim a long heritage. Yet another parts bin kit bike. http://www.bikernet.com/roadtests/PageViewer.asp?P ageID=590 | ||
| Leftcoastal |
The Indian name seems to be cursed! At the very least, "Indian" motocycles (that's how they used to spell it) sure attracts it's share of bumblers in it's management strata! I had a '48 chief for many years and it was a great bike for starting conversations and wowing the populace. Fun to ride, not all that fast (I don't know...maybe 30 or 35 HP?) and had only slightly more moving parts than a screwdriver. People would climb over $60,000 customs to view my less-than-elegant mostly stock post-war Chief. I never saw that happen with the Garlic Capital units. Inept management shut them down in '53. What Tramp was 'splaining earlier today shut them down in the last go-round in Gilroy. (just when they were starting to get the bike sorted out from the rattly, ungainly, big-fendered H-D clone claptraps into less rattly and ungainly big-fendered H-D clone claptraps, too!) Yup - inept management. We'll see how the new guys do. Fortunately, H-D still has a busy R & D dept. so Indian can have something to copy and slap those huge fenders on. I'm thinking it will be an up-hill battle for them, viewing the current state of the after-market industry and our countrys' economic woes. I suppose there's still a market for them. Can't say who, though. Would any of you guys recommend one to a friend? All that said, I'd still like to get another late 40's, or early 50's chief! AL | ||
| Oddball |
Looking at the Indian 4 they need to team with Motoczysz and make the latest New Indian something different. If they can all make that machine a success, building a good rep and solid sales in the sportbike world, they might then have the skills and money to design and produce a unique vtwin.Instead of more HD guts in a new suit. Hell, use forced induction and a flathead design. That would be different. Although the Motoczysz engine in a new Indian4 would be a player in the power cruiser market. | ||
| Firstbuell |
Tramp your story-telling is the BEST !! I regret not knowing you while you lived out here.... | ||
| Jaimec |
"Hand jobs and coffee cake." I definitely go on the WRONG interviews... | ||
| Tramp |
"Tramp your story-telling is the BEST !! I regret not knowing you while you lived out here...." Thanks, Firstbuell. That's damned nice of you to say. Maybe when I move back out there we'll catch up. | ||
| Ulynut |
Buellblastrider, you are right about the kit bike thing(S&S motor, Paucho frame), but later on they did build the Powerplus motor. And I wasn't kidding when I said that after a rebuild they are really strong. I think they put out around 110 hp.(I could be wrong, but they rock) If I was to build a bobber, I would consider using a Powerplus or a Thunderstorm. | ||
| Road_thing |
Coffee cake?? | ||
| Bigdaddy |
The "new" Indian is located right off of I-85 in Gastonia NC -- the location may actually be Mt. Holly and I don't really care enough to look it up. Big, nice, new, consumer facing front-end FWIW. I thought about stopping by there last week, but the wife talked me in to a Zaxby's chicken sandwich -- I went with the chicken  Tramp -- it's very close to you NC connections. | ||
| Tramp |
Roger that, BD- I'll have to stop by and prank em next time I visit the Huangster (Brother who Buelled from NC to the Hudson Valley for HH3)... When I head down that way, I'll ping you. |
