Someone once thought that the American motorcycle brands Harley and Indian together would be invincible on the motorcycle market. Then Indian would have to provide the technology and Harley would have had to do the marketing.
At Indian people were busy making motorcycles instead of making a profit. Mismanagement is therefore not only of this time. Harley also knew his turbulent times, but he was overcome again and again by his street fighting mentality.
After the Indian brand collapsed, the rights - legal or otherwise - passed over time after time to businessmen who thought they would do something with the 'brand'. Some of those things were embarrassing.
Don't think that that involved millions. The sales amounts for the trademark rights were between $ 1 and 10.000.
Meanwhile, Indian has risen under the wings of Polaris and the brand is again in competition with the old earth enemy Harley. Because from Polaris they have the capital and the marketing tigers to put a brand on the market again.
But because all that news is not that interesting for us, we started with an endurance test of an Indian Scout that, according to his papers, comes from 1946. An 500 cc Vtwin who walked up the third stairs after twenty years of sleeping.
With an 70 year old, however, starting is only the first phase. In order to get the case running smoothly, it is necessary to look for the right combination of gas, choke (5 positions) and ignition. You start feeling old, really old, motorbikes and cars, not the regulations. That game wakes the operator in every man.
More about this Indian in soon AutoMotorKlassiek
(Jan Eggink photos)