Conrad

The new Indians will get attention. But attention really doesn’t sell bikes. While someone will go out of their way to look at a custom, bobber, vintage Norton, Drifter or Indian – they end up riding something entirely different.

Big fenders always attracted my attention, but for most of my motorcycling life I preferred the skinny fenders of my harleys. Only until I saw the Drifter in 2002 did I decide to give it a chance. And, the pricing allowed me to try it out for a while without losing my shirt. I have grown to love the big fenders, but it has been a process.

I have come to realize the market for the “big fenders” is limited from the outset. Add to that pricing which makes this bike truly a “luxury” item and the market gets much smaller much quicker.

While I truly hope they do well, I have to believe the price tag will dissuade many from moving away from their current rides, or adding to them.

It’s a private company. They will do things the way they want. If a few old farts get their feelings hurt in the name of progress, oh well. I think they are on the right track to erase the travesty that was the Gilroy-era Indian. The new Chief actually looks like a well-designed production motorcycle, rather than the pieced-together kit-like garbage we saw from 1999 to 2003.

As far as the dealership in NC opening this summer?
Didn’t Indian themselves set an opening date of April?

Why would it be too bad to see peoples questions answered honestly and directly.
Believe it or not–there are a lot of people out there who are beginning to question KMs direction–some are my friends–some I’ve never met or talked to.

KM seems to want to hide behind the group of supporters they have built up on the Public Forum..
You and I both know reps of KM read this blog–why won’t they step up and answer honest questions.
It seems to me Cyril is well respected, and this blog has a very large following in the motorcycle community.
Why would Indian hesitate to come on here and answer direct questions?

Hey–send me your email address, and I’ll shoot you some pics of the Cheefs new skins.

i’ll post the latest pics of the new dealership progress on my site by the weekend maybe..the chief’s club pic of the left side of the bike is also on my site….the dealership–it’s being built, i guess that’s all the progress there is to report.

can’t answer about the legal stuff…i don’t know any of that, except that IMI bought the IP only..not sure how much baggage (legal liability) came with that, and not sure when the statutes of limitatins would cease on anything they did acquire..i’d imagine the lawyers are abreast. As the owner of 2 gilroys, i however, don’t think i am owed anything…
hanging out with 2 of your lw’s this weekend…tell the mrs hi, and i haven’t forgot about that tank bib..although, word is indian’s leather guy is pretty good, and there may be some offered by indian..

One more question.
Is the Moet Champagne Chief REALLY going to be built?

It was introduced a while back at a Concours Event in California.

DAMN–as far as I can remember–the Moet Champagne Chief was Stellicans first stab at publicly promoting the new Indian Motorcycle, and associating themselves with “The Good Life”.
It would sure be interesting to be updated on that Champagne Chief.

I’m going to make a prediction here–and I could be WAY WRONG.

No Indian Motorcycles by Christmas.
No Way–No How!!!

As for the Orders/Deposits?
They have been accepting them for the past couple of years.
General buzz is 100 plus or minus a few takers on that.

The assembly line?
By started do you mean actual motorcycle assembly or do you mean they have started putting the assembly line together?

Did you manage to get a tour of the new Showroom/Dealership?
We were told Grand Opening in April, and it seems REALLY hard to find any info that fills us in on the progress.

I think a lot of people looking at buying a KM were kind of counting on that dealership as a source for parts–apparel–and MOTORCYCLES!
And we can’t even find a progress report on its construction.

As far as addressing questions directly to Indian?
They seem kind of shy about answering questions.
If they do happen to answer–and we all know they are reading this–I have a few friends who would also be interested in asking a few questions of them

Seems funny that the ICONIC BRAND would be shy about promoting–and marketing the product publicly–so far the best source of info comes from a Gilroy related Public Forum – we seem to get more information from that site than we get from the official riders group site of Indian (IRG)

1- I don’t know about anything that has been officially released by Indian Motorcycle before my visit. See article “Breaking The Silence” from chairman Stephen Julius in my Blog, just after my visit, by going to: :
http://www.cyrilhuzeblog.com/2008/04/14/exclusive-indian-motorcycle-company-chairman-stephen-julius-breaks-the-silence/

2- They accept order deposits (see their website).

3- They started their assembly line.

4- There are about 30 people working on the pre-launch.

5- My “tough” questions were about products/reliability/marketing/strategy/financing/profitability/dealers, etc

Other questions should be addressed to Indian directly, although they may decide to answer here.

As for the tough questions?
Can you expound on the tough questions you asked?

One question that has been raised on a number of forums–by a number of people concerns the Safety Recall Issues, and whether The Stellican Group (Indian) has any responsibilities to the riders of the Gilroy bikes.
Has Stellican addressed these issues–and if so how have they addressed them.
Still some talk out in the Riders world of a few NDA settlements that Stellican has agreed to settle silently with Riders who have been affected by these issues.

I’m still going to have to agree with some of what I have read on other blogs, and say that I saw nothing more in your assessment than what has been released in the past.
Information that has been released by Stellican themselves, and information that has been “leaked” by another SUPPOSEDLY unbiased Indian Motorcycle Public Forum.

Another thing that interests me is.
KM Indian has always stated that they would not rush their bikes to production.
Now we see them hinting that they are close to accepting orders, and are close to production–yet we also hear that the assembly line is not complete, and there are approximately 30 employees in the plant.

All very confusing to the general public who tries to keep track of the promises–and press releases.

Thank you once again for your response–and understand–questions asked honestly are not antagonistic.

Seems to me you have for the most part just condensed what we have been hearing from Stellican for the last couple of years.

One question I would have for you.

Were you compensated for your visit and observations of the new KM attempt?

That is a question that interests me–but it is also a comment that I have seen posted on numerous other forums and blogs.

Did your friendships with members of the KM staff influence your opinions of what you were shown?

Yep I’ll agree with Pop.
Indians Forever!! (The Gilroy Version!!!!)

No matter what roads we have found ourselves on, it’s good to see the name Indian alive and being spoken of as something coming. It’s been too many years talking about something that was.

Indian never died. Not in ‘53 or ‘03. It was always alive in the guts of most of these people and Stellican is just carrying on what has been kept going by these people and others like them.

Those of you I have the privilege to have shared the road with, I’m proud to have gotten the opportunity.

Indian forever.

I know most of Cyril’s readers are dedicated to the cruiser/chopper market, but there are also riders from the whole spectrum. These riders are also willing to support an American bike that is not a cruiser. Hundreds of thousands of us domestically have been ignored, not to mention the international riders that will support the unique styling and performance coming from America.

HD has been missing/ignoring the sport tourer market entirely. (only recently has HD spent money on the sportbike market via the new Buell, using an Austrian-built engine.)

How many American 20 – 30 year olds are riding sportbikes now? Huge numbers.

What will those riders want after their kids have grown in 15 – 20 years? Some will migrate to a cruiser, but many others will want something that harkens back to the handling & performance prowess of their first bikes – the current sportbike capabilities.

For example, HD realized a resurgence of sales in the early 1990’s when the baby boomer crowd became empty nesters with their kids gone. The boomers wanted something they started out on back in the 60s and 70s and Harley benefitted. I believe the same will be true in 15 – 20 years, but many of those 45- 50 yr olds will want something more than a cruiser.

I like the Chief angle…it makes sense because there still is a market for that genre. However, I hope Indian taps into its performance heritage as well. Eller Industries (remember them?) had the right idea….they had planned to come out with the Chief, a power cruiser, and a sportbike.

The sport tourer market has been painfully bland until recently. It also has a gaping hole, waiting for an American entry. An Indian sport tourer roaming the back roads and open roads has a nice sound & look to it in my mind…hopefully in Kings Mountain, too.

Will I filp my Indian patch? No.

Neither of the modern Indian motorcycle manufacturers have or had me as their target market, so I feel no anamosity towards them.

But you knew that already, right?

You know as well as I do that my bar and shield is flipped because of what H-D did to it’s core riders in the ’80s.

The motor company was kept alive by the common blue collar man in it’s darkest hours, and even in the best of times in it’s early days was viewed with a suspicious eye by all but the common blue collar man.

When fortunes began to change for the company, myself and many others like me were no longer welcome, the motor company also came extremely close to saying they had no intention of selling us motorcycles, as more money could be made in other markets besides the U.S and frankly they crapped on the american market until they saw it would be to their benefit monitarily, until then it was all about geegaws and trinkets.

IMC and IMI have never pretended to produce for the masses or the common man, they didn’t have BS slogans like “Motorcycles for the people by the people”

I could not afford a new Powerplus Chief from Gilroy much as I can not afford a Powerplus Chief from Kings Mountain, but since I loved the scoot so much I eventually found the means to purchase a used one AFTER Gilroy was already gone.

Will I flip my