Afternoon, everyone. Forum newbie here, although an old guy in real life.
I'm one of the Iron Indians, or IIRA, a national Indian riders group, one of the larger ones.
We've been following the developments with Indian with a great deal of interest, obviously, and a couple of weeks ago, a small group of us were allowed to tour the factory at King's Mountain, NC (just outside Charlotte).
The revival this time has followed a far different path than that of Gilroy, which is one of the reasons not much has been heard from them. They've shunned the spotlight since buying the brand in 2004, until the product was street-ready.
Let me start at the beginning:
Indian was purchased by Stellican, a company which also owns Chris-Craft Boats, and Riva Yachts, as well as quite a variety of other companies. They are, to say the least, well financed. They have
no plans to sell stock, or take the company public. All their companies are privately held. Translation: these guys are playing with their own money. This alone will make them much more careful financially than the suits at Gilroy were.
The owners are
extremely well-versed in the rich history of Indian motorcycles, and are incredibly paranoid and protective about what they all refer to as their 'stewardship' of the marque...an attitude that I never detected one iota of from Gilroy.
When they purchased the marque, the first thing they did was sit down with their engineers and business analysts, and begin to evaluate exactly what went wrong in Gilroy, from the business model to the bikes themselves.
The result is a totally different Indian, from their business approach, to the bike itself. They looked back at the history of Indian, and took some cues from there, too...both of what to do, and what NOT to do. Remember, this is the third go-around for Indian. These guys have sworn they won't fail. I believe them. They are all deadly serious, from the owners, to the craftsmen building the motorcycles themselves.
The bikes: NOT cheap, in either sense of the word. Yes they are very expensive. Are they worth it? I think so. I was so impressed, I put down my deposit, and have ordered a 2009 Chief.
The engine: based on the Gilroy Powerplus 100, but has been almost totally reworked. It's virtually a new engine, regardless of the external appearance. They kept that because it is, to almost anyone's estimation, a beautiful engine. Internally...major differences. The displacement is now 105", and has EFI. The cylinders are now Mahle Nikasil, and the transmission is now a Baker 6-speed. Engine management is through an OBD-II CPU...and the bike has a catalytic converter...so it meets or exceeds all projected EPA and CARB restrictions and regs. Both horsepower and ft.lbs/ torque are projected to be in excess of 100.
The frame: NOT a softtail. It is a monoshock swingarm suspension, similar to the superbikes, but is much beefier than the one used in the 02-03 Gilroy Chiefs. Just visually, looking at it, it appeared to me to be about 50% larger than the one on my 02 Chief. The frame itself is also much more rugged and robust appearing. The general manager of Indian told me that out of 1300 major parts and assemblies on the Gilroy Chiefs...over 1200 of them are either re-engineered or completely new from the ground up.
The construction: One word: Bentley. Because that's where they got their construction model. No robots here. A team of four craftsmen assemble each motorcycle, moving from one workstation to the next on a construction dolly, 26 stations in all. They check each other's work meticulously, and they are all very, very proud of what they do. They should be...the bikes are amazing.
They will make less than 750 motorcycles a year. Harley makes more than that at one factory, before their 10 a.m. coffee break. Every single one of these is, in a sense a 'limited edition'. Compare that to, say, the 105th Anniversary Ultra Classic Screaming Eagle...which costs in the upper 30's...but there were, what, 1800 of them?
So....
There you have it. The dealerships begin opening in October.
Oh, and also...you can now get the Chiefs with fenders like the ones from the 1938 Chiefs as well. Like this:
Indian website 
Indian?????? 
Linear Mode
