Indian motorcycle fan attachment??

[mcarver]

Happy New Year everyone! Has anyone ever seen, heard of or seen pictures of a factory fan attachment for early Indians? In the very back of the 1910 #8B Indian parts list book (very nice reprint by Don Emde) pp 95 and 96 part #14000 "Fan complete with attachment for twin cylinder machine . . $20.00"
What did it look like? What was it used for? Does anyone have one?
Thanks!
Mike Carver

[AdminGuy]

Hey Mike, Happy New Year. You old CUSS!

I'll take a wild guess here. I'm thinking it may have been
some sort of wind screen that unfolded like a fan.

Other than that - I'm real curious also now. Joe Koller?

Whoops maybe not-- $20 would have been a small fortune.

[mcarver]

Hey Paul,
Are you getting any snow? We have about 10" here in town in Spokane. Not the best riding conditions! Did you make it to the Cycle World Seattle show in December? I couldn't make it, maybe next year.

No, really they are describing an actual fan. Here are some of the parts listed:

14005... Fan only...$3.00
14010... Fan guard complete... $3.00
14040... Fan shaft and explosion head connecting brace...$1.00
14060... Fan upper pulley...$1.00
14115...Motor base pinion gear...$2.00
14120...Motor base pinion gear shaft...$0.50


This is only a partial list and all are listed under the fan assembly ... there are 33 part numbers! Let's think here, why would anyone need to have a motorcycle powered wind machine?????

[AdminGuy]

Hey Mike, Yup we our into our annual two weeks of snow now.

I'm now thinking that possibly the accessory is an engine driven cooling fan for parades or something. May have been for agricultural use? Quite the mystery you have here.

[Kojack]

I saw a 40s Indian sidecar rig at a show several years ago with an electric fan on it. There was a sign on it stating that the owner had set it up for extra cooling in traffic and for parade use. It wasn't a factory accessory though. It appeared to be one of the dash mounted fans offered as an accessory for cars in the 50s.

[AdminGuy]

Ya, thats gotta be it..... parade use.

c. 1910 - I'm selling 15 twins to the local big city police department. They single one out as parade use only, and I up-sell with the factory fan attachment, side car canopy and low gearing.