anyone have a Gilroy Indian?

[unclebilly]

I am in the proces of buying an 02 Chief. Not much info about these bikes since Indian went tits up a few years ago.

Anyone here have one? What do you think of it?

[LakeCleElum]

I sold an '01 model for an elderly friend last year, so I had it for a month or two to get it cleaned up and sold.

Has an S&S engine, which is good; but there were problems on certain years, so you need to research that. The main things that stuck out in my mind were:

1) The Indian mufflers were insanely loud (This was a Scout, not a Chief)

2) I had a great carb with an accelerator pump.....The thing started right up and idled right away - No problems like the Carbed Harleys....

3) This bike had sat in a carport and been subjected to moisture....The chrome was really cheap....All sorts of issues with the engine covers, wheels, spokes, etc....

4) Brakes were single disk up front - kinda weak...

Other than that it was just kinda like riding a Harley, which is not my cup of tea, but if it's your's, you can find good deals.....

[Steve Carlton]

I believe Indian is in the process of being resurrected again. I don't know if they'll support the previous iteration, though. That company was on the brink of turning the corner when they went out last time, which was a shame. I wish it wasn't so hard for Indian and Norton to stay afloat.

[varmint]

hat company was on the brink of turning the corner when they went out last time,


that power plus engine vomited oil on the reviewer for cycle world. best the company folded before the complaints started coming in. you'd be better off buying an excelsior henderson. stick with the S&S era bikes. there is a strong community of owners supporting each other.

my dream was that polaris would buy the name, and stuff a victory engine into an indian frame. that would have been an interesting bike.

[unclebilly]

So the powerplus engine is not so good? It looks like the new indians ( www.indianmotorcycle.com ) will be using the powerplus engine. I wanted the 02 or 03 chief because it had the powerplus engine as opposed to the S&S - is this a mistake?

[Steve Carlton]

Value-wise, you'd be better off with a proprietary engine. Maybe do some research and see if the powerplus engine is a disaster or if parts will be hard to get. With the S&S, it's going to be considered a clone.

[varmint]

the powerplus bikes were starting to get a bad reputation. but not enough of them made it onto the road. i haven't seen one in years. there are a few spirits, chiefs, and a scout rolling around hollywood. but they all have S&S motors.

i don't know your situation, or what you want in a bike. but look at...


http://www.kiwi-indian.com/


they make springfield indian compatible parts with modern engineering and metals. they'll make you a brand new 49 chief. whoa, nevermind, i just found out they want $30,000 for one.

[Jeff Higgins]

Do some research on the Powerplus. It was a disaster, with known lower end problems that led to big end rod and main bearing failures in less than 10,000 miles. There used to be dozens of web pages put up by disgruntled owners, but I'm not sure they are still up. One even had parts and procedures on how to repair it, and make it into a reliable engine.

Rumor has it the financial backers pulled out when it was becoming obvious there were going to be warranty issues on every Powerplus made. It was a pretty shabby effort, rushed into production a year or two before full development.

A doctor in my wife's practice bought one of the Scouts with the S&S engine. The lower end grenaded on the first one, and it took three months of legal wrestling to get the dealer to fix it. These motors were assembled by Indian from S&S parts; S&S did not assemble them. Rumor had it that S&S was going to quit selling them parts before Indian could completely destroy S&S's reputation.

Every new Indian I ever saw had just a miserable finish on every visible surface. Like Bob said, cheap chrome for one thing. Add some orange peel and dry spots in the paint, then some truly ugly castings and welding, and you really do wind up with one piss poor excuse for a motorcycle.

Indian died half a century ago. I wish they would let it rest in peace. The modern Indian had no connection to the original; a group of investors were simply capitalizing on name recognition. It took them a decade in court to win the right to use the name to begin with, and then they sullied that once proud name with one of the worst pieces of ***** to ever wear the "Indian" name. Stay away from them. There are plenty of decent used Harleys out there.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

What Jeff said. Gilroy may be the garlic capital of the world, but the Indians built there stink even worse.

[varmint]

There are plenty of decent used Harleys out there.



i view it as my mission in life to talk people out of buying harleys.


i have a victory V92C, texas and back, alaska and back. i'm tough on machines, and i can't break that thing.

that new triumph Rocket 3 sure is neat.

nothing to be ashamed of riding japanese.



i don't want to kill your indian dream. i run into a few guys with gilroy indians. they seem happy enough. but it is more of a bike you polish than a bike you ride.

[bigchillcar]

i liked the big 1500 cc valkyrie.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by varmint

There are plenty of decent used Harleys out there.



i view it as my mission in life to talk people out of buying harleys.


i have a victory V92C, texas and back, alaska and back. i'm tough on machines, and i can't break that thing.

that new triumph Rocket 3 sure is neat.

nothing to be ashamed of riding japanese.



i don't want to kill your indian dream. i run into a few guys with gilroy indians. they seem happy enough. but it is more of a bike you polish than a bike you ride.

Interesting. I'm equally tough on my machines; my current 2000 Road King is approaching 90k on the clock. I can't break it, either. No more than routine maintenance the whole time; oil, tires, brake pads. That's it; that's all.

Granted, H-D has not always been that way. I've been riding them since '77 and have rolled up over 300k miles split between various examples. It has been a lot of work at times... The latest generation, however, the Twin Cam 88, is as reliable as any machine on the road.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I had a Victory V92C also...sold it with 2k on the clock. Nice bike.

Week after I sold it the fuel pump died on the new owner. He had it replaced. That one died a month later.

He carries a spare with him now.

[varmint]

my hatred of harley davidson is well earned. i'll stop before i turn this into a twenty page angry rant about my experiences with the motorcompany.

the victory, named loretta, just clicked over 70,000. there was a first year transmission recall. after that, nothing. i shove this bike through L.A. traffic. up dirt fire roads for camping near the sequoias. and along the al can highway summer before last.
it is big and heavy and slow. but i have total confidence that it could be ready to leave for another alaska trip by tomorrow morning. this is hollywood. people shovel $40,000 plus into their harleys. and they just get lost in a sea of $40.000 harleys. i have the only victory.

[Jeff Higgins]

I'm pretty sure I've heard just about everything you could include in your rant. Coming out of my own mouth, at that. Like I said, it's been tough at times. Sometimes I wonder why I stuck with H-D. I wonder why anyone did, really. That's all changed now.

I would leave on that same trip tomorrow, checking no more than air in the tires, remaining tread and brake pads, and the various fluids. It truly is a different company today.

[unclebilly]

Well, by the time that I read much of this, the deal was done. I now own this bike.

Here's how I see it. I value all of this advice but since none of you have ever owned one of these bikes, I'll let you know how the Power Plus engine works out.

I had a similar opinion of Detroit vehicles up until a few years ago. I had owned nothing but imports (especially Toyota trucks and 4 runners for quite a while), I then bought a high miler 2000 GMC Sierra 2500 from work for $3500. I've been driving it ever since, it now has over 450,000 kms on it. In the nearly 3 years I have owned it, I have replaced the brakes (pads and rotors), the exhust manifold on the pass side, done tune ups, and have had no problems until a few weeks ago when the front pinion bearing let go.

This truck is / was an oil patch truck and has had an incredibly hard life (it has been hydrolocked once), it has over 12,000 hours on it (we idle our pickups in the winter), and it keeps on going.

So based on my previous opinions about american vehicles being crappy, I would have classified this truck in this category but it just will not die. I think the arguments about the PowerPlus engine may be the same as the fears of mid year 911's... I guess I'll be the first to find out.

[varmint]

pictures?

[unclebilly]

Not yet - in transit.

[unclebilly]

Well, my 02 chief showed up last weekend. It's a beautiful bike. I already have 200 miles on it and it is excellent. I was out riding with some friends from the BMW motorcycle club yesterday and they were quite amazed that I was able to keep up when things got fast... Actually I still had lots left when they were wound out but it was difficult to hold on.

[varmint]

have to admit it's pretty.