Introducing myself
- Thread starter canadabike
- Start date
They're not built for the UK. Left foot clutch and hand change. You stop at a tee junction to turn left onto a narrow road - you have to support the bike with your right leg, with the clutch disengaged, when you start off you've got to suddenly lean it left while it isn't going fast enough to help you. Think about it, it's interesting. I rode one for quite a few miles, trying to only turn right. It's not the same as wide roads and riding on the right.
It's a nice bike though.
H
ps the owner of the one I rode put a sidecar on it.
I well remember learning to ride earley harleys, same clutch + hand shift, took about 3 weeks to pull away + turn left simultaneous! If you can master it you can ride anything. It gets worse, some indians have a left-hand throttle too- that gets really interesting-pass the brown trousers!
You guys have figured out why the Indian is a display item and I have no plans to ride it. It has right hand shift, left foot clutch, left hand throttle and the right hand is spark advance/retard. That is a bunch of new tricks that I am not about to try and learn in downtown Toronto traffic!!
I think I'll stick to the british bikes as riders!!
Rick
I think I'll stick to the british bikes as riders!!
Rick
..John
You've got me thinking now. A friend rebuilt an Indian Brave (250 single) from a basket. We had a helluva time getting it started until we discovered the twistgrip worked back to front. We put this down to an American anomily........could this have been a left hand throttle on the wrong bar end?
H
"You guys have figured out why the Indian is a display item and I have no plans to ride it. It has right hand shift, left foot clutch, left hand throttle and the right hand is spark advance/retard. That is a bunch of new tricks that I am not about to try and learn in downtown Toronto traffic!!"
An Indian club from Australia went to the UK, Ireland and Europe last year, about thirty of us, the oldest bike was 1920's the youngest 1950's, had a ball.....ride the Indian....great fun when mastered. There is also a commercial link between Vincents and Indian motorcycles. Many people that own Vincents own Indians....
Chris
An Indian club from Australia went to the UK, Ireland and Europe last year, about thirty of us, the oldest bike was 1920's the youngest 1950's, had a ball.....ride the Indian....great fun when mastered. There is also a commercial link between Vincents and Indian motorcycles. Many people that own Vincents own Indians....
Chris
Howdy Rick,
If you're the owner of Precision Collision on that sign behind I could see where your perspective on riding Indians in dense urban traffic might go beyond imagination - accompanied by goose bumps on the forearms - but they are a delight in traffic when properly set up and far more relaxing than riding a Vin, actually. At either end of my street are fast moving 4 lanes and I'm located in mid town of a large city. Though a bit diminutive at 45CI, one could scamper about quite pleasantly on that machine in city traffic and the biggest liability I see at the moment would be attempting to run those spotlights and that sealed beam off that charging system. It was originally fitted with a rather feeble bulb-type Motolamp.
Alot of Indians issues - particularly as the regard Chiefs which are more similar to Scouts than Fours - are addressed at my Indian websites which can be found at the site in my sig below by scanning down to ...a mechanical journey. My aim was to make them useable enough to be practical thus inspiring others to do same and ride them more often, they can be made to be and in 20 years of regular use, none of mine have failed to get me home.
As it regards handlebar layout (left throttle/right ignition), easily changed to bring some element of intuiteveness to this equation. The reason for this layout dates to the dawn of motorcycling. Early carburetion was so primitive as to be ineffectively modulated while underway, magnetos at the time more responsive, so Indian assuming the vast majority of the riding public right handed so chose to place the ignition advance on the right. With the ascendance of HD in the market place as Indian declined in technological advances to keep pace, they settled upon odd (inexpensive) elements to differentiate themselves, fasteners with unmarked grade on their heads with built in washer lands and this control layout.
Starting with the Depression, in the 30's only governments/municipalities had money (sound familiar) to buy what had now become a luxury - and better yet in volume - and this continued through the mid 40's with "essential use only" sales where civilians could not buy American made m/c's without great difficulty. Indian advertising catered heavily to law enforcement as the hastily mocked 440 below made to appear as a new 441 demonstrates. Any macho association between their machines and meating out John Wayne style justice was likely not discouraged.
If you're the owner of Precision Collision on that sign behind I could see where your perspective on riding Indians in dense urban traffic might go beyond imagination - accompanied by goose bumps on the forearms - but they are a delight in traffic when properly set up and far more relaxing than riding a Vin, actually. At either end of my street are fast moving 4 lanes and I'm located in mid town of a large city. Though a bit diminutive at 45CI, one could scamper about quite pleasantly on that machine in city traffic and the biggest liability I see at the moment would be attempting to run those spotlights and that sealed beam off that charging system. It was originally fitted with a rather feeble bulb-type Motolamp.
Alot of Indians issues - particularly as the regard Chiefs which are more similar to Scouts than Fours - are addressed at my Indian websites which can be found at the site in my sig below by scanning down to ...a mechanical journey. My aim was to make them useable enough to be practical thus inspiring others to do same and ride them more often, they can be made to be and in 20 years of regular use, none of mine have failed to get me home.
As it regards handlebar layout (left throttle/right ignition), easily changed to bring some element of intuiteveness to this equation. The reason for this layout dates to the dawn of motorcycling. Early carburetion was so primitive as to be ineffectively modulated while underway, magnetos at the time more responsive, so Indian assuming the vast majority of the riding public right handed so chose to place the ignition advance on the right. With the ascendance of HD in the market place as Indian declined in technological advances to keep pace, they settled upon odd (inexpensive) elements to differentiate themselves, fasteners with unmarked grade on their heads with built in washer lands and this control layout.
Starting with the Depression, in the 30's only governments/municipalities had money (sound familiar) to buy what had now become a luxury - and better yet in volume - and this continued through the mid 40's with "essential use only" sales where civilians could not buy American made m/c's without great difficulty. Indian advertising catered heavily to law enforcement as the hastily mocked 440 below made to appear as a new 441 demonstrates. Any macho association between their machines and meating out John Wayne style justice was likely not discouraged.
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