I used to have a sportster, and now getting back into bikes. I have been following the resurgence of Indian and it seems that HD is answering especially with the new M8. I have tried both, and as a former (and maybe future) HD owner, I am torn. The feel of the saddle in the roadmaster is very comfortable and the ride command really blows the HD boom out of the water. However, HD has better overall finish especially paint quality. Ride wise I have been more impressed with the TS111 than the M8 but these are both stock so I assume that most will mod the M8?? tough choice but glad there is good competition making better and better bikes. anybody here have both, or go back and forth?? thx

 

Aftermarket if you like to mod......Harley
Many have come, gone, and came again....Harley always been Harley. Pick anyone from 8 to 80. Tell them you have a victory or Indian or tell them you have a Harley. See which one they recognize. If you want power and perfection, probably shouldn't buy American.

 

The big problem with the Indian is that it is literally the ugliest bike in production right now. Probably the result of people designing the bike while smoking meth. Either that or they wanted to give employment opportunities to the blind. I’ve also heard a rumor that if you ride an Indian it makes your pecker shrink at least 2”. I cant verify it because I can’t look at one of those Things without throwing up a little in my mouth.

 

If you don`t like them, you should say so!!

 

Personally I am waiting to see what HD announces in a few weeks. I plan to go ride a Chieftain Limited soon; the weather is not cooperating on my days off at all. The new open wheel look with the 19" improves the bikes immensely in my book.

my concerns while doing research on Indian have been isolated to protection on the freeway, as in is the buffeting managed well, and heat off the engine while tooling around town.

now one area I was shocked was pricing of accessories. I used to think HD's backrests were over priced but Indian is just plain silly. Doubly so if you plan to add lowers; you need to change out the stock bars to do it and it could get well over 1k to do it all but of all things you can use HD lowers on stock bars and they look better.

So I priced a Chieftain Dark Horse, which other than the new blue, are the only two colors I prefer. Base was 23,999 but to black out the exhaust was another $1100, adding a passenger seat and backrest for it as almost $1000, and the rider backrest another $500, so a total of 27,729. Now if an Indian dealer even thought of asking MSRP for that I would just laugh my *** off.

Seriously they are proud of their bikes based on the prices. As for appearance, I like their fairing far more than the bat wing and the bat wing sucks for protection.

 

I don't understand the point of these soporific exercises. Is trolling just that much fun in its own right ? Maybe someday someone will explain it.

 

I won't bother going into how one bike looks compared to the other since looks are completely subjective. I was in this boat two years ago when I got my 15 roadglide. I seriously looked at both brands and here is why I made my decision. Engine, both bikes have similar engines performance wise and both are capable bikes. The indian however seemed to throw out a lot of heat. Way more than the Harley did for that model. The M8 throws out significantly less heat than my 15 did. Based on that alone I would go with the m8 engine strictly based on heat.


I was cramped on the indian (and the roadglide too for that mater), but at the time I looked at the two bikes, there was no option to move the seat back on the indian at that time. There are tons of things you can do to the Harley to improve the rider comfort. And I used Harley parts (tallboy seat) to get my bike to where I wanted it.


The sound system on the indian and GPS destroys the current gen of Harley boom entertainment. I figure that Harley may do something with this on the 2018 model, but who knows. I was not a fan of the 6.5 boom audio on the Harley so I went with the 4.5 standard system. But putting it in real world terms, I did not make my decision based on the audio system because I know you can upgrade it if you want to.


my 2 cents

 

thanks for your thoughts. I know it is subjective and 10 people will give 20 answers. I think I'm going to watch to see what the MoCo does for 2018 and just do some test riding. Appreciate the 2cents!

 

I have a buddy that just bought a Chieftain Limited. It's a nice looking bike with a plush ride. The number 1 negative is the heat that it gives off is almost unbearable. That plush ride gives up some handling in the corners, I felt like you bounce a little. The 111 power is way behind the 107. It has decent low end tq but runs out of legs pretty quick.

 

Look what 37K gets you!