[azicat]

Yay first post



Badge engineering is not unique to motorbikes - it's everywhere. The first one that comes to mind is the photographic industry - how many cheap crappy throwaway cameras nowadays have Carl Zeiss, Schneider and Leica names on their lense?

 

[pplassm]

Sorry, Mike, you got it wrong. Aermachhi won LOTS of races, including 250 world championships under the HD banner in 1974, 5, and 6! (Walter Villa was the rider). Aermachhi's racing success was one of the reasons that HD was attracted in the first place.



I guess that doesn't count though, cause it wasn't built on this side of the pond, eh?

 

[Rsduce]

I was going to start on a rant about how if they wanted to be innovative, Indian should build a world class sport/naked bike....but that will never happen!

 

[35244]

Dang: pplassm beat me to it. Good catch, P...



nomad outta do some fact checking re racing heritage....





"The Great Depression all but destroyed the American motorcycle industry." This has been addressed more than a few times. Actually rising income, falling auto prices (in real dollars) and improving roads during the decade of the 1920's had as much if not more to do with the loss of American mc mfgs than the depression. The great financial deflation (government caused by the way) was the last straw, not the whole load of straw.



Nice try. Next time call Steve Roper and do some fact checking.

 

[40625]

What could a "New" Indian Motocycle company build. What engine config is left.



V-Twins- Moto Guzzi and Harley, Ducati, plus Metrics

Singles- All Thumpers and would there be a market

Parallel Twins- Copy of Triumph, New little Ninja

Opposed twins- BMW's

V-3's- That could be new, has there been a V-3

I-3's- Triumph

I- 4's- Japanese and Euro bikes

V-4's- Honda Interceptors, ST1300's, V-Max

4-5's- Honda GP bikes

Straight 3's or 4's-ala old Indians and Rocket 3

Straight 6- CBX and maybe new Stratosphere

V-6 ?

V-8- Morbidelli (sp) Boss Hoss



It seems whatever they do they'll be a copy of someone. So what was there original strength. When I think of Indian I see the Indian 4. Maybe a John Bloor type that could bankroll this, but I would be hard pressed to invest anything much less actually buy a bike.

 

[50595]

They could actually design their OWN V-twin instead of building a copy of the Harley Evo.

 

[50595]

Not only was the Aermacchi not built on this side of the pond, it wasn't designed or built by Harley-Davidson.

 

[Buzglyd]

Maybe because they want to build something that will sell.

 

[Buzglyd]

Let's just hope we don't see the Indian name revived again. If I hear one more clone manufacturer talking about their "proprietary motor" I'm gonna puke. An Evo clone is an Evo clone is an Evo clone.



Oh, and I wear a 1958 Rolex that was my grandfather's. He says he wants it back.

 

[47867]

...and Rolex could start building clock-radios.

 

[21684]

How about an

Indian Motorcycle powered by a kinetically powered Rolex watch. As you jiggle down the road you build up more miles. Indian could claim to be America's second favorite pass time.

 

[seruzawa]

Quite true. Ford's assembly line system brought car prices down to parity with motorcycles. Motorcycle companies began failing well before the Great Depression.

 

[seruzawa]

Due to the curved nature of the space-time continuum any motorcycle any imaginary future Indian company builds would be a unique event in history. Considering that the shortest estimate of the duration of the universe is 20 billion years (if we are in a Steady State universe the age could be trillions or any number) then any engine used by any new Indian startup will be an existentially unique event.

Even if it is another freakin' HD copy.

Or in simpler terms... in another million years, who's gonna care?

 

[jandj_davis]

"It would be different if the new owners of the Indian name genuinely started from scratch, building a state-of-the art machine that by virtue of its engineering, performance, or charisma provided the kind of magic that warms the hearts of motorcyclists. Then there would be at least a philosophical connection."



That would be nice, but it really isn't possible in todays world. If it were, would Kenny Dreer be bankrupt? Would Keny Roberts be racing with a Honda motor? The problem with a start from scratch design is that it costs MONEY, and lots of it. Money comes from selling things, not from promising great things. Its just the way things work.

 

[33129]

Damn right Sprint buyers weren't getting a real Harley, they got a real Aermacchi. As I recall, there was a buzz a few weeks back about counter rotating brake rotors and I believe that innovation was from Aermacchi. They company makes nice planes too. I have a '72 Sprint 350ss in the garage and I would rather have it than any other '72 Harley. That bike is built like a Rolex (except for that under water stuff), thank god and not like the Harleys of the day.

 

[23063]

As did the Mini in Britain in the '50s.

 

[23063]

Does this story have a point? Is there some news about Indian?



Well if not...Triumph is the oddball. No reason for them to have carried on after '83 - except an evolution of the TSS would have been worth a look. But, I guess a man with a lot of money and a builing manufacturing firm decided Britain could support home grown motorcycle manufacturing.



However..."It would have been easy to build a clone of a Japanese inline four"... that's exactly what they did for the TT600 and it's derivatives. Also, Bloor spent a significant amount of time in Japan in the '80s learning how to build a modern motorcycle manufacturing plant.

 

[30968]

One thing's for sure: Stellican Group didn't buy the name just to get rid of those pesky piles of accumulating cash. They bought it to revive it, or resell it to someone else.

 

[fxrt]

Back in the 60s and 70s that was probably a good thing. To bad the Italian makers had lousy quality control.

 

[fxrt]

I posted this in the wrong place it was ment to be a coment on the old Harley Davies old tech nonengineering. Too bad they didn't learn anything from the Italians about design and are still rehashing designs from there past. With maybe the exception of the V-Rod.