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Some old Indian history
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April 20, 2010 at 1:13 am #3889Jeff in KentuckyParticipant
Some Indian history 1901 to 1953
from a longer article 2000- 2010 by Randal (Randy) Montgomery.
The original Indian Motocycle Company was founded in 1901 in Springfield Massachusetts, by bicycle racer George Hendee and Swedish immigrant Oscar Hedstrom. Some people wonder why it was called the Indian Motocycle Company instead of Indian Motorcycle Company. In Italy, all motorcycles have names beginning with “moto” e.g. Moto-Guzzi, Moto-Ducati, Moto-Laverda, so perhaps Hedstrom was familiar with that. The earliest models looked like mopeds (bicycles with small single cylinder engines) and only 3 were made in 1901. Interestingly, Triumph began production the next year (1902) and Harley-Davidson the year after (1903). So the order was Indian, Triumph, Harley. Indian made 143 motorcycles in 1902.
In 1914 Indian had been the first with both electric lighting and an electric starter.
In 1918 the company offered for sale to the public its own new factory racer featuring not only overhead valves (OHV) but 4 valves per cylinder (VPC). Considering that 3 or 4 VPC only began to show up on a few street V twins bikes in the late 1980’s and mid 1990’s, and Harleys are still built with only 2 VPC, it can be said that this V twin was 70 years ahead of its time. Top speed was 120 mph, but the racers were very light and had no brakes, lights, fenders, suspension etc. The high price of this racer resulted in very few sales and it did not last long.Charles Franklin, who had ridden for Indian’s winning 1911 Isle of Man team, emigrated from Ireland to join Indian’s engineering department in Massachusetts. Franklin developed the Scout. The early Chiefs had aluminium primary casings. (English and Harley motorcycles were still using leaky pressed steel primary cases decades later.) The 1928 Scout 101 (750 cc.) is regarded as Indian’s best handling if not best-ever motorcycle. It won many races. Soichiro Honda rode a 101 Scout for a number of years and it inspired him to build motorcycles.
In 1927 Indian purchased the Ace Four, the brainchild of W.G. Henderson, which became the Indian Four with 4 cylinders.
Mr. E. Paul Du Pont of paint company fame became President of Indian in 1929 and this was the beginning of a period of good management, profits and the beginning of multi-tone paint jobs of high quality on Indians. Meanwhile Indian and Harley riders continued to compete on the race tracks.
In 1940 Indian came out with its plunger rear frame and the famous skirted or valanced fenders. The price of well restored Fours has become amazing; over US $50,000!
On the Henderson Fours, Aces and Indians, it is rumored that the rear cylinders overheat and that crankcase oil dispersion is inadequate. Tests using modern instruments on a 1940 Indian Four have proven this to be not the case. The late Fours (1938-42) actually run quite cool. Every year at the Paris Ontario rally I meet Tom Wilcocks who rides his ’41 Four all over North American every year for thousands of reliable miles, and he has not resorted to drilling extra oilways in the crank. This is not to say that the drilling of extra oilways is of no use. It can only help, and it is highly recommended on the earlier Fours. All the Fours suffered from clutch drag and gearbox wear. The only modifications on Tom’s bike are a modified clutch and a modern oil filter in front of the engine. He has put 35,000 miles on this bike since 1980 with only spark plug and tire changes.
During WWII Indian made about 33,000 military cycles compared to about 50,000 or 90,000 by Harley (depending on who you read). Harley not only sold more but their contract provided that they earned more per unit. Instead of profiting by the war like so many big manufacturing companies in the US, Indian lost money!
The US President gave a large number of Indian Chiefs to the Shah of Iran in 1951, and most of these seem to have been recently bought and brought to North West Europe.
No Indian history is complete without mention of the advanced military 841 model. Sadly only 1000 were made before the US Army decided to order huge numbers of Jeeps instead. The 841 (and similar Harley XLA which suffered the same fate) copied the successful German BMW army motorcycles including shaft drive and 4 speed hand clutch/foot shift. (Actually the 841 looks more like a Moto-Guzzi because it was a 90 degree V instead of a 180 degree flat or “boxer” engine layout. The Guzzi actually copied the Indian because the Guzzi V twin did not come about until the late 1960’s.)
Indian could not afford to revive the 1942 Four after the war. It was an old design by then, and the market for a big, deluxe Four may not have existed in 1945.
After WW II Paul DuPont sold Indian to a manufacturing group headed by Ralph Rogers. Rogers was so dedicated he put a lot of his own money (millions) into Indian. He had the right ideas – fresh modern designs for the whole family (just like the “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” ad campaign of the 1960’s and ’70’s). This resulted in the “Torque series” inspired by English designs similar to Edward Turner’s vertical twin Triumph. But the resultant 213 cc single Arrow and 426 cc twin Scout were rushed into production without proper testing and assembly and were junk. (Wheels collapsed, main bearings failed, magnetos failed, gears would not shift, the valve gears failed.) Also they were too small to compete with Triumph, BSA, Norton, Matchless and Royal Enfield (500 to 750 c.c. singles and twins). Then the British government devalued the pound sterling making the English imports a lot cheaper than the Indians.
Many Indian riders were irate that there was no V-twin flathead Scout for sale after the war, and privately owned Scouts continued to win races for many years after the war. In 1948 Indian produced 25 – 50 racing Scouts stamped FDH, but commonly known as the “big base Scout” or the “648 Daytona” as Daytona was where most were raced. They performed extremely well in their class (Class C) and continued to win races for the next six years! In fact at various other types of races across the USA, racing Scouts continued to do well and even win up to the 1970s!
Unfortunately during its last four years (1950-53) the only bikes Indian had for sale were the Warrior, the flathead 250 Brave, and the flathead Chief with its 1920’s 3 speed “crashbox” transmission. These were no match for the competition.
Indian had a very inexpensive solution to the big V-twin problem literally in their hands in 1949 but with their usual management incompetence and tendency to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory they failed to follow though with it. In 1948 they had sent a stock Chief to the Vincent company in England to see if the super powerful (for its day) ultra-modern (for 1948) Vincent V twin engine and gearbox would fit in the Chief rolling chassis. The Vincent engineers under Phil Vincent got to work and accomplished the task in very short order. The OHV engine and its 4 speed footshift gearbox barely fit, but they did fit with no major frame changes. Although the fastest Vincent engines – the Black Shadow and the rare Black Lightning racer – were not reliable for ordinary use and American mileages, the Rapide version was. Although mild compared to a Black Shadow it was peppier than a Chief mill. Both the English and US companies tested the prototype and found it satisfactory, but nothing more was followed through with on either side of the Atlantic. This was a huge mistake for Indian, with the poor sales for the old fashioned 1950-53 Chief, and also a huge mistake for the Vincent company which also died not long after. If the Vindian had gone into production both companies might have done well for many years thereafter. There would not have been a lot of extra cost involved in producing the Vindian since everything except engine mounts and exhausts and brackets were already being produced by either company. Another golden opportunity being lost with tragic results for both parties!
Although the Warrior was a flop, it did have one moment of shining glory. It won the 1962 Greenhorn Enduro – a 500 mile desert race. The bike was at least 20 years old by 1962, and the race was so tough that of 170 entrants only 23 finished. A large part of this success was the rider: Max Bubeck. Max still rides his 1939 Indian Four hundreds of miles per week, and offers a video on how to rebuild and improve a Four. Amazingly, he won the 1947 Greenhorn on his then eight year old Indian Four – the last bike in the world anyone would choose to ride in a 500 mile enduro over desert and mountain.
Unlike Harley foot clutch pedals which will stay in any position you leave them in, the Indian clutch pedal is just like that of a car, and it will fully engage instantly if you lift your foot off. This can cause you to suddenly jolt ahead into a car or other obstruction. (I know from experience.) Thus the expression “suicide clutch” only applies to Indians and not old Harleys. Another thing that made old Indian Chiefs and Fours and Scouts harder to ride than Harleys was that there was no gate or detent for the hand shift lever. You had to feel your way into the middle gear (second gear), which made for slower shifting until you got used to it. Also hard to get used to was the throttle on the left grip instead of the right. Many people who can ride an ordinary motorcycle simply cannot ride an Indian.
The 1950-53 Chiefs are the most desired Indians by collectors, although some prefer the Indian four cylinder (which ceased production in 1942) or the flathead V-twin Scout (750 c.c.) production of which ended when the war ended in 1945.
Engineering-wise, however, the very rare model 841 (made for the Army in 1944) must take the cake. It had foot shift, shaft drive, equal cooling to both cylinders, longer rear plungers, and an under-seat oil tank. They were very low powered, to make them more reliable and to use less fuel.
After the factory closed in 1953 it briefly re-opened a few months later to assemble 50 Chiefs ordered by the New York City police department, which favored Indians over Harleys.
I had a ’47 Indian Chief and a 1941 H-D U, and I say the Chief is the smoother, lighter, better bike. The Indian had a plunger rear frame while Harleys were rigid up until 1958. Acceleration on both was so-so. You might think that Harley’s having a 4th gear would give every Hog an edge over every Indian with 3 gears, but in my experience the Hog’s 4th gear was no advantage over the Chief’s 3 speed because the 4th gear was only a tiny bit higher than 3rd. Also it took longer to change gears on the Hog. Brakes on both bikes were equally pathetic, and going around tight corners at any speed was equally a challenge on both. The old sidevalved Harleys were a lot easier to work on.
With the laws of physics setting a stop to flathead development by the 1950’s and sixties, in US flat-track racing British 500cc single cylinder OHVs made the same power as Harley 750 cc twin cylinder flatheads. In other words it took a 50 percent engine size and an extra cylinder to match the power of the English 500 singles. Subjectively it’s a toss up which sound you prefer: The sound of a hopped up big single or a hopped up V-twin flathead. I love ’em both and cannot choose. One thing about a flattie though, you can redline it all day and never crash a piston into a valve. There is so little power relative to the engine size that strain on the bottom end is minimal – bottom end failures are unknown. (Also with lower compression they are smooth, while Brit bikes tend to vibrate a lot.)
So now that we have an understanding of the American engine mentality of that era, that sort of explains why Harley would introduce a flathead sportbike in 1952 (and not convert it to OHV and give it the requisite power to compete with the British twins for five full years). Still seems bizarre though given that Harley itself came out with the OHV Knucklehead in 1936 and it was not a sportbike.
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