I just saw the new Indians in Reno last friday. They're using the engine they developed just before they went under for the 2nd time. It's 105' and has big round cylinders, heads and rocker boxes. the rocker box has about an 1 1/4" hole in the middle of it. I couldn't get close enough to see what that was all about! They wanted too much money ($32,000) and I didn't want to touch it!

 

Hope they make it this time but I feel their timing couldnt be worse! Dealer ownership would be a big gamble.Prices seem on the high side but at least the lwr end seems solid.I think Indian is missing the separation it needs by not doing the inline 4 engine,maybe it will come some day.

 

Went to the Indian Motorcycle Company assembly plant open house and grand opening celebration of the retail store in Charlotte (Lowell), NC today. There was a huge number of bikers at each location. My first impression is that Indian is building a high end, high quality product. The new bikes feature top drawer products used in the assembly. I was very impressed. They had a few bikes on display at the plant in various stages of assembly. One of the employees told me that the size of the crowd was three times what they had expected. Company personnel were pleasantly surpised at the turnout.
The crowd was even larger at the grand opening celebration at the new Indian Motorcycle dealership in Charlotte (Lowell), NC. The event had the feel of a mini-rally. This company is obviously targeting the group that would buy a CVO bike. Everything about the dealership speaks of quality in a opulent setting. There were about two dozen new bikes on display in the showroom and in my opinion, they were simply gorgeous, elegant machines. The dealership was packed with people spending money on apparel. There were two stations with two people at each station taking your money with 12 to 24 customers deep in each line. Cha-ching!!! No recession evident today. Bikes go on sale later.
I hope that the new Indian Motorcycle Company is successful with this venture. It would be nice to see another quality made in the USA product. Best of luck to them.

 

From the web page:


Q4. What kind of powertrain will the new Indians use? Will you build it yourself or buy it off the shelf?
Answer: The 2009 Chief features a state-of-the-art, Indian engineered and developed, electronically fuel-injected 105 ci PowerPlus v-twin motor that fully upholds Indian's legendary reputation for power and durability. Powertrain components are constructed in-house by skilled engine-builders at our Kings Mountain facility.

 

I got to the Indian factory Saturday about 10:45am. The tour was scheduled to start at 11:00am and the line was already 50 yards long. In less than half an our, it looked twice as long. I spent about 2 hours walking through the parking lot talking with people and taking pictures. I decided not to stick around for the tour since I have a friend who works there and I can go back at another time.

I left the factory and rode about 20 miles back up I-85 north to the new flagship store. There was a very large crowd there and the scheduled group ride from the factory had not arrived yet. I got a BBQ sandwich and walked around the parking lot and inside the store looking at all the motorcycles. About 2:00pm Stephen Jullius, the owner of Indian, spoke. He was very gracious and welcomed all the H-D riders to their opening. In his words, they are planning on growing slowly. They expect to make some mistakes but they also plan to correct them and move forward. They will have their own version of a Fly & Ride program. New Indian buyers will make their purchase at their local dealer. Then, if they choose, they can fly into Charlotte to meet the two guys who assembled their motorcycle, shake their hands and then either ride their new motorcycle home or have it shipped to their dealer.

Here's what I saw today. All Indian motorcycles come with many features standard that are options on other competitors models. All Indian Chiefs come with-
Chrome front end assembly
Brembo calipers with floating rotors ( dual disc up front )
Stainless steel 2 into 1 exhaust
S/S braided control cables
S/S braided brake lines front & rear ( not just front like the H-D CVO models )
Adjustable clutch and brake levers
Hydraulic clutch
2 12volt power outlets
Chrome rear pulley
All chrome foot controls
105 CI engine with fuel injection and 6 speed transmission
I saw 4 different color options for the seat and also what looked to be one done in suede. Paint, chrome fit & finish was very impressive.

With all the features and considering the fact that these will be low production models I don't think you can compare them to a H-D Softtail. I think they fall more into the factory custom category, similar to the H-D CVO line or maybe a Big Dog or American Iron Horse. There is a small team who will do all assembly at the factory and like H-D's CVO program, 2 assemblers will stay with one motorcycle from start to finish.

I took over 70 pictures today and I'm not going to post them all. Actually I took less than a dozen of the new models. The rest are of the older bikes the people had ridden in for the open house. But I'll add a few pics in a post below.

 

Here's the line for the factory tour. Go forward and turn left.



Then go forward some more and turn left to go into the factory at the door under the awning.

 

Here's the new store.



Stephen Julius, owner of the company.

 

Here's a few pictures from inside the store of the new models.

 

Here's one where the heat shields had been removed.

 

In the pic it said Grand Opening Special 25% off. So $24K ?
I used to own one, 2000 model. I bought it cause the HD dealer p.o.ed the heck out of me. I drove it to the HD dealer that same day

It was very dependable, no leaks, no issues. Of course it had an S&S motor.