old photos

[Sargehere]

You nailed it!!!

For a Harley guy you do know somethin' about *****s don'tcha?

Prolly has something to do with hanging around this club for most of forty years, while keeping eyes and ears open, don'cha know? Indian is the textbook model of how not to conduct the management of a motorcycle company, anyway, and even for a pioneer in the industry, the stumbles, fits and starts are utterly amazing! How the marque survived the over-fifty years that it did is simply staggering!

That the Founders over-built that humungous brick tomb in Springfield just so they could advertise it as "The Largest Motorcycle Factory in the World" in 1914 and suck in a clueless cabal of investors at just the right time is classic! Their timing was perfect! Hedstrom and Hendee bailed with their "golden parachutes" just as the high-flying manufactory they'd assembled was about to fall out of the sky at the onset of WWI, cut off from their critical European markets, and suppliers like Bosch.

The Wigwam was mostly an empty echo chamber for the entire time it existed, good only for many very impressive aerial photographs. Then there was the romance of the DuPont connection, the racing successes and the tragedy of the Torque fiasco. YUP! Quite a story!

[exeric]

This is a Hendee Special. Note the large tool box.

[exeric]

This is the Indian I believe is pictured in the middle in Cory's photo. I desperately tried to raise the money to buy one of these back in the mid 80's. It would have been my favorite Indian of all time had I been able to make that deal happen.

[duffeycycles]

whowhatwhenwhere

[IMG][/IMG]

[c.o.]

Prolly has something to do with hanging around this club for most of forty years, while keeping eyes and ears open, don'cha know?

Yup, that could qualify for being around long enough to pick up a thing or two...

[c.o.]

I must admit that I've been the creator of the confusion regarding the Hendee Special. The back of the above photo had "Electric Start Indian" written on it. I've seen one electric start model in the flesh and I guess I should have paid better attention to it. If I had I wouldn't have popped the farcical question!!!!

Sorry to hear you couldn't close the deal on the '14 two-speed Eric.

Here's a single speed model....



Here are couple of my favorite Indians....



Let's see if folks can hazard a guess on this one...

[exeric]

I didn't mean to belabor the '14 Indian picture. It's just that it brought back that unrequited love for that 1914 Indian twin that shall never be mine. Not to start a war; but how is it that a 1914 Harley is more valuable than a 1914 Indian. It certainly doesn't take a Miss Universe judge to say which is the better looking motorcycle.

[c.o.]

I hear you on the one that got away story. I have a few of those too. As far as the Harley vs. Indian debate (at least on '14 models) well... I'm surprised you haven't got a retort yet!!!

[Rubone]

It certainly doesn't take a Miss Universe judge to say which is the better looking motorcycle.

I guess you haven't figured out yet that Miss Universe isn't the real world!
Robbie

[Sargehere]

I didn't mean to belabor the '14 Indian picture. It's just that it brought back that unrequited love for that 1914 Indian twin that shall never be mine. Not to start a war; but how is it that a 1914 Harley is more valuable than a 1914 Indian(?) It certainly doesn't take a Miss Universe judge to say which is the better looking motorcycle.

Obviously. The integral, unified designs consistently displayed by products from the far-superior Harley-Davidson Motor Company during that period have it all over examples from brand "I," which look like more like barnyard collections of cast-off parts of unrelated pieces of agricultural equipment, cobbled together by mentally-challenged, cloven-footed bovines! (Not to start a war, or anything. )

(Hand me that other Mason jar of gasoline to throw and put out this little fire over here, will ya?)

[Tom Lovejoy]

I was at Johnny Eagles house several years ago when he was restoring a Hendee special. Got to watch him start it up a couple times - it was very cool !

[Sargehere]

29 JD Margarets folks.jpg
IS THIS 1) a '29? 2) a pre-28, having no front brake, or 3) painted up as a latest-model in 1934? All I know is that it depicts "Margaret's Folks" after racing the horse.

[exeric]

That is an interesting photo Gerry. With the "I" beam fork, and twin lights, it makes me think it's a '29 whose owner didn't like those new fangled front brakes. I had a '28 JD and I can't understand why someone would go to the trouble of replacing a front brake wheel with an earlier wheel. . . . . . I can verify that the front brake didn't work on a '28 JD.

[WebKahuna]

I notice a 5-letter word censored out. You din't type I-N-J-U-N, instead of "Indian," did you? That might be on the "Politically Correct" banned list.

I guess I ought to go ahead and plead guilty.....

Here's to the first of the day, fellas. To ol' D. H. Lawrence. Nik-nik-nik-f-f-f-Injuns

Test, One more cleared with a little poetic license.

[IRON]

Indian front mounted step starter...