Charon wrote on 08/04/13 at 10:39:07:WD wrote on 08/04/13 at 07:57:11:Looks like this incarnation got smart and bought the tooling for a 1500 Drifter front fender from Kawasaki... it's mounted wrong, but the red one screams "I came off of a Drifter"...
The hard bag version is hideous. The black one with the tan bags looks great. Definitely needs the bags to help hide the ugly rear fender step...
Valiant effort, very close to right this time, much better than the Gilroy version and other pretenders. A little clean up where the side panels meet the fenders, and get rid of the 48-53 Dodge truck door seam in the fender valances, and it would be right.
Now, if that engine was stuffed into an 800 Drifter chassis and bodywork... it would be what Indian should have become.
What? You didn't complain because it has a hydraulic front fork instead of a springer? And that it isn't a hardtail? And that it doesn't have a kick starter? Not to mention overhead valves, electronic ignition and fuel injection? How can it be an Indian?
Simple evolutionary process, if done right, is inoffensive. Indian's last models had glide front ends, almost no street bike these days has a kicker because a kicker paired with an electronic ignition is hard to set up properly, Indian had overhead valves a century ago...
I'm just glad it isn't liquid cooled, although, it would be useful for more of the year if it was. When my bikes run, the air cooled ones are parked for late spring through mid fall down here, too hot/humid.
I tried to refrain earlier, but, it does look like a Yamaha with Kawasaki fenders...
If I want a modern Chief, I'll buy a Kiwi. Much more convincing, it is still a real side valve engine. And the ,mid 1930s Chief replica looks like the 1936 and 1938 models I used to own...
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