Motorcycles in WWI

[panhead_jim]

Back in 1917 it was Indian, not Harley-Davidson, that built the military's preferred motorcycle. Unfortunately they sold 50,000 motorcycles to the military at cost and didn't produce a single civilian bike from 1917 - 1919. Still, a unit of Indian motorcycles with sidecar mounted machine guns must have been quite a sight when soldiers were still fighting on horseback.

War Machines - American Motorcycles in WWI

[Slojo]

Notice the !914 H-D with late luggage rack
joe

[LouieMCman]

You would have thought that Indian would have learned their lesson from not making any civilian bikes during WW1, but they again did not make any during WW2 and it contributed to them losing a lot of dealers to that OTHER brand and finally going out of business. And later if they only made an over head valve motor with a four speed...we may all be riding late model INDIANS now (not the $34,000. ones) and that OTHER brand may have gone out of business in the 50's.....

[marsh1915hd]

Joe, you see that nice 1915 HD in the window behind the 14?
I have seen two 1914 HD's with a rack on them that was early. These had tube and bars to make up the rack. They did look like the later ones but where made diffrent. The early 1915's ones didn't have the inside braces. I have seen a few of these and own one.

[exeric]

I don't want to be contrary, but Indian did sell civilian motorcycles during the '17-'19 period, and they made a good profit in that era. Check out the books by Hatfield, and Sucher. Indian's strategy for WW1 was a short term success, but gave H-D the post war advantage.

[c.o.]

I'm leaning toward Eric's comment. Indian definitely produced bikes during the WWI period. Period photos alone provide evidence of that.

[panhead_jim]

Like everything related to vintage motorcycles, it seems that there is some debate on what actually happened with Indian during WWI. I edited the article to include the possibility that Indian produced some civilian models during WWI.

[Tommo]

There's quite a few 1916,1917 and 1918 Powerplus twins here in NZ. 18's are quite common in fact
I know of at least 5 of the 1917 Model O flat twins.
Indian was definately alive and well in NZ during the First World War and you'll see by the attachment that they were still mentioning Germany in their 1917 Sales Brochure.

[Slojo]

Terry

It would appear by the photo the !914 rack is the same as the 1915 in the window" without braces", must be a late !914 ?

Tommo

It was a pleasure to meet you and your Mates this year on your U.S. trip. Conversations were fun and interesting, the gift of a Burt Munro T shirt was so cool (even though he was an Indian guy). I hope all went well on your adventure and look forward to meeting with you again in the future.

joe