Indian Motorcycle data

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Fire-medic

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I was shopping at IKEA yesterday and was wearing an Indian t-shirt. An older gentleman (older than me, as I am 'old') stopped me, and asked about my t-shirt. Turns-out he was the receiver who dealt with Indian Motorcycles in the courts, and who saw the assets eventually sold to Polaris.

He referred me to his website http://sterlingcorp.com/ where you can spend hours investigating the saga of Indian ownership and court proceedings. reading the list of creditors/investors, you will recognize many names if you ever followed this over the years.

I haven't spent a lot of time reading this, but what I saw encouraged me to look further. Be aware you have to click on link after link to unearth the data, there is a lot of it. The receiver said that if I was a person interested in the Indian Motorcycle Company, I would find this a very interesting place to spend time, and he was right.

I suggest you look for yourself, and research the financial crisis of Indian, and how it came back-into the marketplace.
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I suspect that with Polaris owning the Indian name now, they will do just fine.
There is a guy here in Waterville who recently bought a brand spankin new Indian Chief Vinyage just like this one.
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SWEET LOOKIN BIKE!

And a friend of mine went to pick one up yesterday. I have not yet seen which model he got, but I hope to see him riding it around today when I head out for my ride. I wonder if he'll let me take it for a spin?
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I have one on a pre-order list up here in Alaska, so far no dealership sells them here yet but I have seen one, eye candy indeed. And they say its engineered pretty good with some occasional complaints of it being too small.
 
THanks for the link. I'll definitely check it out.
 
I might be alone in thinking this but I wish the market could support Indian returning to its lineage and building a purpose build American sport bike.
 
Got a family friend (on the wifes side) that has a 42 he may want me to help get restored. Keeps talking to me about it but he just needs to get it to me. The bike has been in the barn for the last 50+ years (his dad bought it sometime in the 60's and took it apart and never got back to it).
 
Seems like the trend in vintage/antique operational motorcycles is to maintain the original paint & finishes, whatever the condition happens to be, especially for the desirable models from popular manufacturers. The H-D Museum in Milwaukee has many examples of this, including non-operable models not much-older than that 1942 which are being kept in 'as-discovered' time capsules of their condition when found. The auction results also seem to reflect this infatuation w/the OEM finishes, as totally-restored bikes sell for less than ones preserving their patina of age/use. This last factor may also be a function of provenance, as-in 'who owned this, and what use did it get,' such-as competition models.
I have seen this at the Daytona Bike Week Auction results, where I have watched the bikes cross the block in-person.
 

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I rode a couple of the new models a few weeks back. I liked them for what they are. I, too, thought the fit & finish was excellent.
 
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