The ‘Indian Motorcycle‘ is America’s oldest motorcycle and at one time, the Indian Motorcycle Co. was the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world.  The company was founded by George M. Hendee and Carl Oscar Hedstrom and the first prototype, sporting a single cylinder 1.75 hp engine, was launched in 1901 and from that prototype came the first two production bikes revealed in 1902.

By 1904 production was up to over 500 motorcycles annually and reaching numbers of 32,000 in 1913.  In 1907, Indian built its first V-twin engine and was used to set the distance record across America in 11 days, 12 hours and 10 minutes traveling from San Diego to New York.  In 1916 a bigger 61ci (1000cc) V-twin named the “Powerplus”, was introduced and was capable of reaching speeds of 60 mph (100 km/h).

The Scout and Chief, both V-twins and both introduced in the early 1920s, became the firm’s most successful models.  In 1930 the Indian Motorcycle Co. merged with duPont Motors and by 1940 was selling as many motorcycles as rival Harley-Davidson.

However, by 1945 controlling interest was handed over to Ralph B. Rogers who, as a result of post-war (WWII) decline, discontinued the Scout and started to produce lighter weight and smaller cc motorcycles. These bikes suffered from poor quality and a lack of development. Production of the lightweight Scout was extremely limited by 1949 and no Chiefs where known to exist in that year. As a consequence, manufacturing of all products was halted in 1953.  In fact, Royal Enfield bikes where imported from England, re-branded and sold as Indians throughout the remainder of the 1950s.

In 2006, a newly formed Indian Motorcycle Company announced its new home in Kings Mountain, North Carolina where new life is being brought back into the Indian Motorcycle Brand and new (and limited) production models have been introduced this 2009 season such as the redesigned 105 cubic inch (ci) Powerplus V-twin.

Just look at these bikes … sweeeet!

The company’s plan is to have 50 dealerships established by the end of 2011 with the flagship store, already established, located in Gastonia, North Carolina … What a come back!

I wish you well Indian!

Tags: Indian Motorcycle

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 19th, 2009 at 11:13 pm and is filed under Just Talk'n. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.