How's this for a project bike

[She'llbe]

Built by Peter Dent of Vancouver. Royal Enfield frame with a Hillman Imp motor.

I'm impressed!

What the hell is that big chrome handle looking thing going from under the seat to perhaps the rear peg brace? Is that a pannier frame? Seems like an awfully inelegant solution for a custom.

Aren't those crash bars for the passenger like they used to have on the old harleys?

[Ken in Oklahoma]

Curiously I actually own an Indian Enfield, though not an Enfield made in India. It is an Indian branded Enfield-made in England.

Back in the day, in the mid-fifties, Royal Enfield wasn't doing very well. Neither was Indian, the last ones having been made in 1953. But Indian manufacturing and Indian distributing were two discrete entities, and it was Indian manufacturing that went tits up. Sooo, somebody got the idea of re-badging Royal Enfields as Indians and selling them through the Indian distribution network.

There was the Royal Enfield 700cc Interceptor which was then naturally dubbed the Chief. The 500cc thumpers were called Woodsman and Tomahawk (I think) the former being the scrambler version and the latter being the road bike. I think there might have even been a 250cc bike called the Brave, or something like that.

Of course the Indian name bounced around from one owner to another and quite a few different import bikes were called Indians. Floyd Clymer, the publisher of Cycle magazine, a reportedly shady businessman, sold the magazine and then bought the Indian name.

And as we all know (well maybe not all of us) the Indian name survives today apparently doing well selling Harley knock offs.

But back to my Indian. It currently resides back in the dank recesses at the end of my shop covered with cobwebs and dust. It is in sad shape, apparently at one point having been converted to a sidecar for desert sidecar racing. It was given to me by a friend for whom I had done a significant favor. I wanted it because it reminded me of my first Indian Woodsman that I bought just out of High School. That bike had been raced I think in nearly every Hare and Hound race in the western states. It was hell keeping it running. I figured at least two hours wrenching for every hour riding. But when it was running--aaaaah! 36HP (advertised) on a 325lb stripped to the limit bike was a lot of fun!

Oh, and the friend who gave me the bike I now have, said that it was reportedly once owned by Steve McQueen (probably one of about a few hundred motorcycles reportedly owned by him).

OK, I'm done now with the sloppy nostalgia--sloppy even for me.

Editing: Oh, and not a single part on the above pictured bike looks like any part on my Indian.

Ken

[Major Softie]

Aren't those crash bars for the passenger like they used to have on the old harleys?

With no passenger seating????

[Garnet]

Curiously I actually own an Indian Enfield, though not an Enfield made in India. It is an Indian branded Enfield-made in England.

Ken

OK then......... without a pic it isn't true, cobwebs and all.

I love those last chance at survival Brit bikes.

[Ken in Oklahoma]

OK then......... without a pic it isn't true, cobwebs and all.

I love those last chance at survival Brit bikes.

Garnet, go here http://www.pbase.com/dwerbil/rallymay2013 and scroll about halfway down and all will be revealed.

These are the pics Randy (Dwerbil) took at the Boxerworks rally at my place in Oklahoma this spring. What that section of pics is about is me asking for help (translation: I'm looking on) in getting a couple motorcycles extracted for me to take to my place in Idaho. The two bikes I took were the '57 Triumph Thunderbird and the '78 R100S Touring (meaning Butler and Smith fitted that Luftmeister fairing on it new).

When I return to Idaho next year I plan to take a '78 Triumph T140E Bonneville and the Clews CCM Motocrosser behind it with me. Also I'll be taking a R80 parts bike from which I'll extract the entire engine and transmission and put it on display in the "cave" part of my new shop in Idaho. I already have a BSA Gold Star DBD 34 engine and transmission on display there and will soon have my brother's hotted up Harley Evo engine displayed.

I know, without pics of the cave it doesn't exist. This coming summer I'll be taking them.

Ken

[Garnet]

Very nice Ken,



I'm jealous.

Ever heard of a Vindian?



Indian shipped a 1948 Chief rolling chassis over to England and Phil Irving stuffed a Series B engine into it. Here he is on it:



The blue one is a replica built by a crazy Aussie, the original vanished after testing. Everyone wonders if that bike could have kept Indian and Vincent alive a few more years.

[Ken in Oklahoma]

Very nice Ken,
I'm jealous.

Ever heard of a Vindian?





Indian shipped a 1948 Chief rolling chassis over to England and Phil Irving stuffed a Series B engine into it.

The blue one is a replica built by a crazy Aussie, the original vanished after testing. Everyone wonders if that bike could have kept Indian and Vincent alive a few more years.

No, Garnet. That's a new one to me. At first blush it sounds like an un-holy marriage. I have to admit after giving the notion a fair chance, and after imagining what each partner to the marriage might contribute to the union--I had to go with my initial impression.

Of course if I had a Vindian back in the dank recesses of my shop--I'm probably be singing a much different tune.


As you saw from Dwerbil's pics Duane Ausherman was there as I was extracting my old bikes to get at the two I wanted to take with me. We sat together a bit and he challenged me to tell him what was so good about British bikes. They were inferior in every way to the BMWs he sold and rode back then. (S'cuse me Duane if I'm not getting your part of the conversation right.)

We were sitting alongside my Triumph Thunderbird.

I said (as I recall) there were two big reasons for enjoying Brit bikes, or at least Triumphs. One was that the Triumph was just right. It looked right, it felt right, it sounded right. It was, in the day, the quintessential motorcycle. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, the cool factor was about as high as it could get. (At my age, back when I was first riding the Triumph, cool was what it was all about. With enough cool life would be so very much better.)

And by degrees it worked, though I was totally unaware of it at the time. (Warning: reminiscence dead ahead!)

My sister and her husband were having a get together at her place. Her good friend, Joyce, with whom she has been friends all these years was there, along with her younger brother (whose name I can't quite recall). Us guys were gathered in the garage and he approached me and said that he thought I was the coolest kid in high school.

I said huh?

He said yeah, he would see me riding in to school on the old Triumph and I looked like the coolest guy in high school to him.

Well, I was a lucky kid for sure. I was able to ride my Dad's Triumph Thunderbird whenever I wanted. And if the mood took me I could ride his '52 Harley FLH, and if I was in a different mood entirely I could ride the bobbed '42 WLA ex Army bike that I had half interest in and which we had bobbed together (with him supplying all the ideas). What I did know at the time was that I was the luckiest kid in school. The only other guys riding bikes at all were two underclassmen friends and each were riding 250cc two stroke Maico road bikes.

That was the cool factor I couldn't get across to Duane. If he thought anything I'm sure he thought the same vintage BMWs would have been a lot cooler.

Sigh!



Ken

[bbelk]

Back in 1973 I rode/pushed a Triumph 500 across Kansas. I was just leaving Arkansas headed west on my near new Honda 500 four and I met this guy on the Triumph. It looked great, was older and shifted on the wrong side. Other than that, it did most everything else wrong also. It was rough, extremely hard to start and leaked gas and oil in massive quantities. I just could not belive how cool my flawless, smooth, easy to start, fast, drip free Honda was.

I was pretty cool too. Check out that sissybar.

[Ken in Oklahoma]

I was pretty cool too. Check out that sissybar.

Hey, check out the chick! Does your wife know about her?


Ken

[bbelk]

Does your wife know about her?
Ken

Fraid so......